You got to love Rafa! Only yesterday he confirmed that Alonso was leaving for Real Madrid and he has straight away lined up Roma’s Aquilani to replace Alonso. I am sure the Aquilani deal was in place some time ago and it is only being made public now. Rafa must have known that Alonso is going and he was only going to let Alonso leave once the Aquilani deal was tied up. Now that is how you work the transfer market. No wonder Rafa wanted full control of the transfers, he seems to know what is going on. I am so glad Rick Parry has left as we still would be trying to tie up the Aquilani deal at this stage.
The official Liverpool website tells us that we have agreed a fee with Roma for Aquilani and all that is left is for a medical to take place some time this week. I am sure it is going to be an intense medical as Aquilani has only just recovered from ankle surgery so we have to make sure he is fit to play. There is no indication on how much we are going to pay for him with some thinking its anything between £17 and £20 million. Either way we should still have change left over from the Alonso £30 million.
We should not expect Aquilani to come in a be the pass master that Alonso was. I do not think there are many players in the game today who can pass the ball as well as Alonso but Aquilani will offer us something a bit different in the middle of the field. What I like about Aquilani is that he has an eye for goal and hopefully he will chip in with a few more goals than Alonso did.
I recall when we signed Dossena last summer and I said that he could become a great player for us as Italy is well known for producing find left backs, but then I ate humble pie as he did not live up to my expectations. So I am not going to gamble and say that Italy have produced great midfielders therefore Aquilani is going to be a star for us. But deep down I really hope he does well.
