If there ever has to be award for the biggest transfer flop in Liverpool’s history, Alberto Aquilani has to be ranked up there with being one of the worst pieces of transfer business done by the club.
In the summer of 2009, we signed Aquilani from Roma for a staggering £18million in a bid to replace Xabi Alonso who had been sold to Real Madrid. This transfer never got off to a good start as Aquilani was injured when he was signed but Rafa Benitez believed he had bought in the right player to replace Alonso.
As we all know, Aquilani’s time at Liverpool was never that great as he never reached his full potential and was subsequently shipped out on loan to Juventus in 2010. Now he is currently on loan at AC Milan and his stay there is set to be permanent following him playing 25 matches for the Serie A team.
According to Aquilani’s agent, Franco Zavaglia, the midfielder will seal a permanent deal to AC Milan when he plays 25 matches and that is going to be very soon and he will join the Italian giants for £6million as agreed in the contract between the two clubs.
Now having paid £18million for Aquilani in 2009 we are set to let him go for £6million, what a waste! And we have nothing to show for it in terms of Aquilani having been a contributing success to the club.
What irks me even more is that we are going to lose more money when we try offload our other big name flops such as Henderson and Carroll. We really need to look into our transfer policy as a matter of urgency!
Aquilani cost £17m, 2 seasons on loan has saved Liverpool £4m + £6m from Milan, £10m in total……………..losing £7m.
When did Kenny and Commoli tell you we’re selling Hendo & Carroll exactly? It seems you’re more in the know than anyone. As the comment above also states, Aquaman on loan saved us on wage bills for two years as well, Rafa gave him a decent contract too…
And taking that into account, you can include Carroll & Hendo in that sense, they are on a lot less than other palyers that would cost that, and they are young enough that if (big if, yes) they come good, they will still be worth something in a good few years too.
Aquaman was (and is not a flop) but Hodgson decided that he was too creative for Liverpool last season and shipped him out on loan, which effectively lead Aqua to look elsewhere to play football. Where does a flop then go hmmm – to the current leaders of the Serie A, who just dispatched Arsenal in the CL – Clearly he can’t play footie for the life of him.
Who knows how things may have turned out for Aquilani if Rafa had still been boss? Also football transfers are not an exact science.
Under the rules of the loan contract he has only played 22.5 games for Milan. So at the moment he’s still a LFC player.
I wouldn’t put it past Milan to do exactly what Juva did last season and not play him for the full 25 games in an effort to get him at a reduced price.
Just as long, whatever happens, his agent is not in every journo ear talking complete bull this summer.
I don’t buy the earlier comment about 10 million saved in wages meant we only lost 7 million. Wages are on top of the transfer fee, and in the 2 seasons we didn’t pay them, we didn’t get his services either. We paid 17 million for him and just got about half a season and maybe 5 million from Milan in return.
That said, I don’t think buying him was a mistake. In most games he played for us, be it in the league or most recently in pre-season he has shown his quality. He was one of our best players towards the end of the 09/10 season. Try looking up the MOTM voting for that season on the official site and see what fans thought of him at the time.
It was farming him out 2 seasons in a row while our team was crying out for someone with his creativity that to me borders on criminal negligence.
“If there ever has to be award for the biggest transfer flop in Liverpool’s history, Alberto Aquilani has to be ranked up there with being one of the worst pieces of transfer business done by the club.” After Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam’s transfer it doesn’t seem that bad. Alberto Aquilani is a class player and did well whenever he played for Liverpool.
Loaning Aquilani out is the main reason for the failure of Hodgson and Dalglish along with selling off of Meireles by Dalglish.
do u watch football who r sayin aquilani is a flop?I have never seen a player in trequartista role playin like aquilani.he is one of the best in hole postition.First of all,any manager will buy a CDM when hes got 3CAMs(aqua,meireles,gerrard),but our masterminded kenny bought 2 average CAMs(adam,henderson) to get rid of Aquilani& Meireles.Actually i find it surprising because why would someone buy average MFs when he’s got MFmaestros?I bet no manager will do such ugly,ridiculous transfers unless he is a racist.unless kenny is sacked,we wont get aqua,pacheco etc back