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"Tug of War" at Anfield says Alonso

Bootle Buck

By Bootle Buck
in Liverpool FC

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fred milne

fred milne

Posted
Posted

In the full interview, he talks about his contract situation:

 

"I don't like it when people seem to think contracts count for nothing. I've got three years more with Liverpool and so do most of the key players around me. If you love football, then Liverpool is the club for you. This is football at its absolute, its purest - the people, the club, the stadium, the tradition. I know that when, eventually, I return to Spain it will be with Liverpool in my blood and as an out-and-out Reds fan. But I insist this - I've got three more years here and I expect to fulfil them."

Magic8Ball

Magic8Ball

Posted
Posted
In the full interview, he talks about his contract situation:

 

"I don't like it when people seem to think contracts count for nothing. I've got three years more with Liverpool and so do most of the key players around me. If you love football, then Liverpool is the club for you. This is football at its absolute, its purest - the people, the club, the stadium, the tradition. I know that when, eventually, I return to Spain it will be with Liverpool in my blood and as an out-and-out Reds fan. But I insist this - I've got three more years here and I expect to fulfil them."

awesome, now let's add Barry to the CM list

Kvarme Ate My Food

Kvarme Ate My Food

Posted
Posted
In the full interview, he talks about his contract situation:

 

"I don't like it when people seem to think contracts count for nothing. I've got three years more with Liverpool and so do most of the key players around me. If you love football, then Liverpool is the club for you. This is football at its absolute, its purest - the people, the club, the stadium, the tradition. I know that when, eventually, I return to Spain it will be with Liverpool in my blood and as an out-and-out Reds fan. But I insist this - I've got three more years here and I expect to fulfil them."

 

of course, if you honour your contract we'll give you s*** for leaving on a free

fred milne

fred milne

Posted
Posted

Translation of the interview (courtesy of RAWK):

 

What’s happening in the club between Benitez and the owners?

 

Things are going back and forth, but for now it looks like Rafa will continue at the club.

 

The English press speculated he could go, and you, the Spanish players, would follow. Florentino was said to be interested in you. And Atletico…

 

And contracts mean nothing? I have three more years and the others, more or less. I remember when Rafa arrived and they said that the whole of the Valencia midfield would follow: Ayala, Albelda, Aimar…and not one of them came. Neither did Mourinho bring the Chelsea midifled to Inter. The club just keeps going through this debate; it’s normal that people talk and speculate. The team isn’t affected. These are subjects that Benitez and the owners will resolve for good.

 

Coinciding with the debate, the team stumbled. Everton equalized twice at Anfield, and you tied with Wigan. Coincidence?

 

Clearly we’re not the same team that we were a month ago, when we were fresher and playing with more fluidity. These are the normal ups and downs of every season, we’re no worse than we were. We choked against Everton, nothing more. The 1-1 draw in the FA Cup forces us into a replay at Goodison on Wednesday. If we worry about the teams that we played before, it can cost us in trying to pour it on and unlock the game.

 

How crazy the Cup is, huh?

 

Completely. Liverpool can come up against a team of amateurs and you can play them on a field that’s barely got a fence for separation, what would in Spain be a Second Regional (seventh division of Spanish football).

 

Five years already at Anfield. How does it feel?

 

One more. I’ve seen how the club is consolidating the purpose for which they recruited me. The idea is to build the team from the ground up for the long term. A lot of important history has already been written, but it’s been a long time since the last title. The blow was that we won the Champions League in the first year.

 

Against Milan in Istanbul and counter to predictions.

 

Well, yes. Benitez had arrived, but Liverpool hadn’t reached the level of other big teams. That title reinforced the confidence that the had put in him. From that moment we felt that we would continue progressing. The summary of these years is that Liverpool has returned to where it was: among the best and fighting for everything.

 

The continuity is good.

 

If you give it to the right person, of course. We’ve gone through some rough times, but the club has always reaffirmed itself. Continuous change means that something isn’t right.

 

What aspect of the game is non-negotiable for Benitez? What error should you hope to avoid in the knock-out rounds?

 

It’s very difficult to unsettle us. Rafa wants the team to stay firm and compact in transition. He maintains a basic theory: if you are solid in the back, you are going to win a lot of games.

 

You (Liverpool) just had a huge game; they’re much faster and more direct here in England.

 

Yes. A team manages itself according to the players, and we have speed in all the lines. Speed is key in this game, yes?

 

To play well means winning nine times out of ten.

 

Normally, yes. To play well brings you closer to success. Take Barca. Today they’re the favorites for everything.

 

As soon as you adapt, you’re at the end of the road.

 

Yes, and the truth is that it doesn’t cost me. I left Donostia (San Sebastian) intending to learn about the whole country to which I was transferring. I had the advantage that this club gives you everything you need and also that I could handle myself in English. Language is fundamental and it’s also important that you don’t just keep to people who speak Spanish.

 

But those Japanese dinners at Pepe Reina’s house don’t count.

 

No, ha ha, they’re a delight. I’ve adapted to a lot of English customs, but not to the food. I can’t do it. And I can’t do the schedules either, this business of dinner at six o’clock. I miss pinchos (a Basque food, bread and meat, held together with a stick, or pincho – Spanish ‘thorn) and fish! But I can deal with it. The family come and go and my pantry is always full.

 

With Reina it’s impossible to be bored, of course.

 

He’s hyperactive, too much! All of Spain knows it after the Euros. It’s tremendous the number of friends that visit him and bring him food. Pepe is in a class by himself.

 

And among the group of you, who is the serious one?

 

Fernando Torres. When he has to smile, he smiles, but he’s one of those people who listens and takes in everything around him. Riera is another special case: he suffered some problems adjusting. Ha ha, After a couple days he was talking with the whole world. And Arbeloa is friendly.

 

How is a typical day for you?

 

Very quiet. Training, lunch with the team, and back home. And now, ten months with my first son, Jon. In the afternoon, a walk with my girlfriend and son, a cup of coffee. Nothing like what we used to do in Donostia: start do one thing, and then another thing and another. When you’re outside, you relax less.

 

Jon is left-handed?

 

I believe he’s going to be right-handed. Like most.

 

And the grandfather, Periko, what does he say?

 

It’s his first grandson, so the dribble falls on him. My mother says that she does things with him that she did with us, her children.

 

There was a time that you were very close to doing to Madrid. Why didn’t the transfer go through?

They talked with Madrid, but there was no agreement between the clubs. Then Liverpool came and after a short time, we reached an agreement. I understood their seriousness and discovered they are a fantastic club. They have everything that a player could wish for and a lot of enchantment in their surroundings.

 

For example?

 

Their history, their fans, the same stadium. If you love football, Liverpool is pure football, a friendly club. Anyone will tell you about the past: anecdotes, victories, defeats. The way people talk about the club is very emotional. Kenny Dalglish is god here. When he appears in the stadium, the respect and admiration that he receives makes your hair stand on end. I’m sure that when I return to Spain after some years, I will always feel that intimate feeling of the “Reds.” I will be here at least three more years.

 

The Champions League is said and done. But now in Liverpool the craziness is all about thinking of winning the league after 19 years.

 

Since I’ve been here, this is one of the biggest moments. We have great players, and a good feeling. We have key points and defeated rivals in United and Chelsea, with whom we will play this afternoon in Anfield. We hope to play well and to win, because these are three very important points.

 

What advantage does the Premier League have over La Liga?

 

Organization, and how they sell the game to the world. The mess that the television companies make (of coverage) in Spain is unthinkable here: games live and without a problem! They care a lot about it, starting with the schedules. The Premier League can be seen in all of Asia without a problem but you won’t see a game here at ten at night. English football really functions well.

 

What player has surprised you?

 

When he arrived, Patrick Vieira imposed himself well with Arsenal. His presence and his ability to take responsibility for the center of the field really impressed me. And Paul Scholes always. You don’t see him giving interviews, he doesn’t appear on TV and this leaves him rather unnoticed by the larger public, but he does everything well.

 

And Xabi Alonso?

 

Ha ha! Each of us has our own way of playing; mine is to bring stability to the team, so the others have me next to them and so I can control the pace.

 

How will the game against Madrid be?

 

Very attractive. There will of course be a great atmosphere in the Bernabeu and in Anfield. And Madrid will be very good, without a doubt. There isn’t a favorite, but there are keys, such as us being able to score there. We eliminated Barca two years ago by hanging on 1-2 at the Camp Nou. And this match also has the additional attraction of being the first ever first-round knockout between the two teams. Our fans are very happy and I’m sure that the Madrid fans are as well.

 

What player from Madrid would you take?

 

I really like Sergio Ramos. He has great potential and qualities that very few players possess.

 

Casillas versus Reina. Are we at a meeting of keepers?

They’re the two keepers for the national team, that just about says it all. Iker is Iker and to have Pepe is a luxury. He’s so strong and reads the games so well that a lot of times he doesn’t take part. He’s gotten better at Liverpool (or “He’s made Liverpool better”, not sure which one is right), there’s no doubt about that. And, just like the rest of us, he’s thrilled to be able to play against Madrid. Look: the year after we won the Champions League, we got knocked out by Benfica in the last eight; no Inter, no Arsenal. Best to make a great game and to go all out.

 

To you, the Bernabeu doesn’t intimidate you, above all?

 

One time, with Real Sociedad, we won 1-4. See if they can get up after that! I hope that they are able to get close to promotion. For Real and for Guipuzcoa it’s massively important that the team returns to the Primera.

ali

ali

Posted
Posted

TONY BARRETT: Family at war - Liverpool FC deserves so much better

 

Feb 7 2009 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

 

 

WHEN Robbie Keane signed for Liverpool last summer one of the first things he told the ECHO was how delighted he was to be joining the club he supported as a boy.

 

He couldn't have been any more wrong.

 

The Liverpool Keane followed as a youngster growing up in Dublin was a club where unity was a watchword and where boardroom politics never had a negative effect on what was happening on the pitch.

 

The Anfield Keane walked into last July was – and still is – a place torn apart by civil war and internal strife where only the bravest souls dare to tread.

 

The Liverpool family has become so dysfunctional that it should be the adoption agency not the Premier League which rules on whether or not they can add to their number. But Keane was blissfully ignorant of such issues when he completed his "dream move".

 

A brief conversation at the Malmaison Hotel which was his temporary home after moving north was the first indication the Irishman had that Liverpool FC was not what it once was.

 

Advised by one associate not to get involved in the internecine politics which has plagued the club for far too long, Keane asked exactly what such comments meant.

 

Another associate was less cryptic, telling him that Liverpool "is not one club, it is actually two or three in one".

 

Keane soon came to know what that meant as he became an unwitting pawn in the ongoing power struggle between Rafa Benitez and Rick Parry.

 

It has been inaccurately suggested in some places that the Liverpool manager never wanted Keane and that he was in fact signed by the club's chief executive.

 

This is not the case as not only had Benitez confirmed his interest in Keane long before he actually signed, he had also consulted with several figures at Melwood about him.

 

But – and this is a big but – by the time Keane came to sign on the dotted line to seal a four year contract at Anfield, the Reds boss had already tried unsuccessfully to halt the £20.3m deal.

 

Gareth Barry was Benitez's number one target and it was the Englishman and not the Irishman whom he wanted capturing first.

 

Benitez's fear was that if Keane signed before Barry it would diminish his chances of bringing in the Villa star.

 

Parry's argument was that Villa were not budging on their prohibitive value of Barry and that the proposed Keane deal was so far down the road that there could be no turning back.

 

To paraphrase a Benitez-ism from his Valencia days, he asked for a table and a lampshade but in that order. When the lampshade was unloaded at the Shankly gates with no sign of the table the Spaniard was far from impressed.

 

Wholly innocently, Keane had become Benitez's lampshade and he had also unwittingly got himself caught in the crossfire between Anfield and Melwood.

 

To this day, Benitez believes his chief executive worked harder to sign Keane than he did on the Barry deal in keeping with his own personal football judgement, an accusation Parry emphatically denies.

 

Only those involved know the truth of the matter but what is not in any question is that the saga shows no-one involved in a favourable light.

 

Keane may claim he was never given a fair crack of the whip but equally he never looked like setting the world alight during his short spell at Anfield.

 

Statistics do not always give the complete picture where humans are involved but the fact that the partnership between Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres produces a goal every 74 minutes - while with Torres and Keane it was every 245 minutes and Gerrard and Keane every 231 minutes- tells its own story.

 

It is hard to recall a game where Keane did not look like a big fish in need of a much smaller pond, one which only the likes of Spurs can provide.

 

Similarly, Benitez should not take any pride at identifying a target, failing to get anything like the best out of him and then returning him to whence he came without having a replacement lined up.

 

Parry should also be asking himself whether he could have done more to deliver Benitez's transfer targets in the order he had requested them because in not doing so he helped create a situation which resulted in the manager demanding total control of the buying and selling of players because he feels he cannot trust his chief executive.

 

And yet more accusing glances will be cast in the direction of Tom Hicks and George Gillett for sanctioning a £20.3m deal for a 28-year-old, a fee which most observers thought was grossly exaggerated, at a time when they would not back their manager's judgement that £18m was a price worth paying for Barry.

 

Liverpool's co-owners have been guilty of the most alarming dereliction of duty and have quite literally fiddled while Rome burns. They have had it in their gift to impose a chain of command in which each link is connected by trust but have singularly failed to do so.

 

What's more, the Americans have actually made things worse by playing Benitez and Parry off against one another in their quest to rid the club of one another when they should have been looking for ways to make the relationship between manager and chief executive work better.

 

The whole situation stinks to high heaven and it is Liverpool's reputation which has taken the biggest battering.

 

Robbie Keane's dream move was doomed to fail from the very start, now Liverpool must return to the values which made them the team to support when the Irishman was a boy or else the newly installed Spurs skipper won't be the last victim of this ongoing civil war.

 

In fact, there is already another one waiting in line because unless the impasse over Daniel Agger's contract is resolved – he has been waiting for the club to speak to him about his future since November – the Danecould be next through the exit door as his sense of utter bemusement is growing with every passing day.

 

The same could be said of Liverpool's fans who deserve better.

 

So much better.

 

 

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-f...00252-22873192/

muleskinner

muleskinner

Posted
Posted (edited)
christ that's a cheerful read isn't it?

 

Needs saying, all of it. The club is a shambles and unrecognisable from what it once was. I don't think we have seen the worst of it yet either.

Edited by muleskinner
Stevie H

Stevie H

Posted
Posted
Needs saying, all of it. The club is a shambles and unrecognisable from what it once was. I don't think we have seen the worst of it yet either.

oh i agree. i think it just underlines what a job the manager has to do when he's got all that s**** to think about as well as the on-pitch matters. it's an embarrassment. if rick parry had any honour or shame he'd do the decent thing and walk, as would the two f*****s who nominally own the club. but i can yet see the manager walking before they do.

 

and yeah, can see it getting worse before it gets better. we could be in f***ing administration in the summer even as league champions.

Stevie H

Stevie H

Posted
Posted
I'm 50/50 on whether he will, I want him to stay but it will come a time when he thinks what's the point of being f***ed around by idiots at every turn.

it's what happened to him at valencia all over again.

anny road

anny road

Posted
Posted

the difference is i think he realised he had gone as far as he could at Valencia, winning la liga

 

he has unfinished business here, and he is as stubborn as an old mule....

 

however, i think the crux of this will be what happens with the owner sin June..if it looks like they are going to stick around and we are going to go on like this< i think he will go.....

Jarg Armani

Jarg Armani

Posted
Posted
it's what happened to him at valencia all over again.

 

weird one isn't it. he's almost definitely a bit of a b*****d to have working for you, but the lack of trust shown in him by successive boards is bizarre. he'll prove how good he is one day, but it might not be with us.

Stevie H

Stevie H

Posted
Posted
the difference is i think he realised he had gone as far as he could at Valencia, winning la liga

 

he has unfinished business here, and he is as stubborn as an old mule....

 

however, i think the crux of this will be what happens with the owner sin June..if it looks like they are going to stick around and we are going to go on like this< i think he will go.....

that's a fair point. he had nothing left to prove to the valencia fans did he?

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