Hodgson should’ve never allowed Aquilani to go out on loan

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by http://liverpoolfootballblog.com

Imagine how different this season could have been. Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Alberto Aquilani lining up in one of the strongest and certainly one of the most creative midfield’s in the premier league, all the while allowed to strut their stuff as Lucas patrolled behind them, just in front of the back four. With Fernando Torres leading the line, many Liverpool supporters thought this was a side good enough to finish in the top two before the change in managers brought about a down-turn in Liverpool’s fortunes.

For reasons known only to himself Hodgson decided it was a good idea to loan out our most creative player to Juventus. In Hodgson eyes, Aquilani was deemed not good enough to don the Liverpool shirt and Christian Poulsen was brought in as his replacement.

In August last year Hodgson said,
“For Aquilani this year it’s very important that he plays regular football, every week as the number one man on the team sheet. I can’t promise him that here so if a loan move to Italy could help him in that respect it might be good for all parties.

It would certainly be what he needs, it would certainly protect the value of the player and when he does return to Liverpool no doubt we will see the Aquilani that we signed before he came here injured last year.”

I, like many of you was hugely disappointed upon hearing this news. Aquilani was one of the few positives for me in an otherwise dissapointing 2009-2010 season. He has great vision and creativity and he plays excellent one touch football. The fact that Hodgson thought he wasn’t good enough to make the team really was baffling. I knew, even then that he wasn’t likely to come back.

Unfortunately, he was loaned out to Juventus for a year with an option to buy for around £10m, Liverpool originally paid £17m plus add ons to acquire his services from Roma and for those of us who’ve been watching him at Juventus, we’ve seen him become the player we all knew he could be.

Now that his loan is coming to end, there are reports swirling that Juventus are reportedly only willing to pay as low as £5m due to financial troubles. However, I believe Juventus value him too highly to let him return back to Merseyside and the boss Guiseppe Marotta has publicly stated his desire to keep him.

“Aquilani is a player of value and is doing very well, we’re happy. In due time we’ll meet with Liverpool and we will do everything to keep him with us.”

Aquilani too has said,
“I like the team, I like Turin. I have found a house. I am happy.”

So it appears that if a deal can be reached between the two clubs, Liverpool will lose a huge talent and Juventus will gain one. Alternatively, if by some miracle these reports claiming Juventus aren’t willing to meet the buy out clause turn out to be true, I’d be willing to take ‘Aquaman’ back in a heartbeat.

Aquilani would fit perfectly into Kenny Dalglish’s pass and move style of play. Imagine the prospect of Meireles, Gerrard, Aquilani and Suarez linking up in attack. That surely, is a combination for attractive football if I’ve ever seen one. We already saw the partnership he was beginning to build with Steven Gerrard before he was prematurely removed from the side, and I can only imagine the things we could see if he were to come back.

A lot of fans were angry that he was constantly injured, but towards the end of the 2009-2010 season he played a lot more games and he’s currently played almost an entire season for Juventus. So I think now that he seems to have recovered it would be great to have him back.

Kenny Dalglish is a good enough manager to see Aquilani’s talent and I’m sure that it would be a selection headache the Scot would gladly welcome should negotiations break down.

The buy out clause is quite low for such a talented player and if the deal does go through it will be a substantial loss to Liverpool both financially and in terms of the quality we’re losing. It would also be an addition to a long list of players who have been sold by Liverpool for less than they were bought for: Cisse, Kewell, Pennant, Keane and Babel to name a few.

I would love to see him back and I’m still holding out for a miracle, but he’s done well for himself at Juventus and doesn’t seem to fancy a return to the Premier League, so it doesn’t seem fair to keep him against his will.

All that’s really left to do is wish him well and hope that the money received for his transfer will be wisely reinvested in younger, talented players. Liverpool will be fine without him, but it’s sad to see him go.

Thanks,

from: http://liverpoolfootballblog.com/

More Stories Aquilani Meireles

36 Comments

  1. Would love to see Aqua back. Much better having his quality in the squad, rather than £5m in the bank.

    One thing that does not seem to be widely noted is that Purslow prevented Rafa from playing Aqua more at the end of last season, due to wanting to avoid paying add-on clauses that would kick in.

  2. The level of noise over Aquilani’s business is so bizarre.
    I’m watching Aquilani’s performances here in Italy: He’s an anominous player with no character and passion, so overrated.
    Meireles perfectly filling the gap in the role, and He’s by far better than Aquilani.
    Aquilani is only a pumped primadonna, and Kenny will do the best business for the clkub selling him to Juventus for the right price.
    Aquilani is not required.

  3. Good post. I think it was clear to all aside from Hodgson and Purslow that Aquilani had an important role to play at Liverpool once he was over his ankle injury. I guess we can only hope that Juve fail to take up their option to buy the player, it would be great to have him back at Anfield for the next season.

  4. What a load of garbage. He was a mistake. Rafa realised it. Amazingly so did Woy. He would not get on our bench. Move on!

  5. was silly to loan him out but he was as good as dog shit… the cunt did not impress me at all at liverpool and the fact that rafa bought him in the first place to replace xabi alonso is retarded (not surprising seeing as rafa didn’t have the best record in the transfer market) but seriously he couldn’t hack it in the premier league was too fast for him.. in fact i cannot think of one player in recent history who’s come from serie a to premier league and actually done WELL its too fast for them not used to it and they can’t handle it

  6. Same senario as Torres if the player doesn’t want to be at the club and give his all then sell him. There’s been a load of rumours that Juve only want to pay around 5 mil for him and they can go and jump if they think they will get him on the cheap. If they don’t want to pay the agreed price then he will be sold to a club that will pay what we value him at.

  7. WTF ??? ….is this a joke ?

    I have never met anyone who was annoyed by him being sent on loan…let alone anyone who thought he was worthy of a LFC team place. He was terrible…. get shot of him, get as much money back as possible

  8. I’ve seen quite a lot of Serie A this season, particularly the first couple of months when I was in Italy. The one thing I’ve noticed is that he hasn’t been injured quite as much this year.

  9. Adam,
    Off the top of my head, Thierry Henry, Edwin Van de Sar, Patrice Evra, Patrick Vieira! all played in Italy before England.
    If someone is talented enough, they can play in any league!

  10. sell him, not good enough, no pace cant beat a man, too light weight, we need wingers only eden hazard is required at all cost on the left and xherdan shaqiri on the right. then get eriksen at left wing back. team carroll, suarez, hazard, left, gerrard ,merelis, middle ,shiqiri right midfield. ericksen agger carrager, kelly pepe. good enough to win the league next season

  11. Thanks to Hopeless Hodgeson we lost BOTH Mascherano and Aquilani. In return we got Poulson and Meireles. And the only reason Meireles turned out good was because Kenny re-employed him in Gerrard’s most effective role.

    As for Aquilani not hacking it…well very few overseas players hack it in their first season…especially one that spent over half the season on the physio’s table trying to recuperate

  12. What a bunch of hypocritical morons!

    Ye all hated him and couldnt wait to see the back of him last season.

    Sometimes its difficult defending liverpool fans when so many of ye are idiots

  13. Aquilani didn’t have the best of starts with us but we did see glimpses of what he was capable of toward the end of the season, so yes we should have kept hold of him. But rightly or wrongly, Hodgson took the decision to get rid and like so much of what Hodgson did we are all having to live with it. Question is what do we do now? He wants to stay in Italy and there is an agreement in place with Juventus to sign him at the end of his season long loan. So as long as they put up the agreed price, he goes, simple as. Likewise if they don’t he comes back and give him a second chance to impress. He is after all still a Liverpool player and only Juventus can change that.

  14. Would love to see him back. I was gutted when he went out on loan as the previous year I saw flashes of brilliant play and some lovely link ups. Hoping Juve find they cant afford him then we can get rid of cole

  15. I am sure King Kenny can make him a better player if the deal breaks down. As we all know, very few overseas players ignite it in their first season especially one that has spent over half the season on the physio’s table trying to recuperate from injury.We have seen the King do wonders with Meireless and its just the begining. Aquiman should have been given time to settle into his game but Hogson being short sighted took the most dandest decision. I blame the former coach.

  16. Just change the headline to Hodgson should never have been allowed to be at Liverpool and you’d get almost universal agreement from Reds. And if anyone mentions Meireles as a great signing by him, grow up he was brutal on the right where woy played him most of the time.

  17. Now use flogging ourselves over it. Now we have to see how we can resolve the issue. Get the agreed money or get the player back.

  18. “What a bunch of hypocritical morons!

    Ye all hated him and couldnt wait to see the back of him last season.”

    How can you put that forward as an argument, who is “all”?
    He spent the balance of last season injured and come the back end of the campaign was playing well. He had a couple of shockers along the way, but we pay him and have hime under contract. Unless Juve or any bunch of WUMs come up with our valuation of the player, they can whistle. Get him back at Anfield and the less said about that piss mop at West Brom the better.

  19. I cant believe the nonsense people speak at times !

    Aquilani was desperate to leave , he hates England Football & loves Italy , not surprising when ya consider he cant speak the lingo & was born & bred in Italy !!!
    Aquilani proved himself to be incapable of heading it , winning it , tackling or leadership in what is the most competitive league in the world .
    So you want to load the midfield with lightweight fancy boys from abroad that havent got the grit to dig in & fight for a result when we are 2 – 0 down without Gerrard on the pitch do ya ?
    Hows about we sign a 22 year old English U21 international who has already played 150 games in the League & since he was 17 has been turning results on their head with his refusal to lay down & accept defeat without giving a blood & guts battle ?
    Lee Cattermole is such a player & when Gerrard isnt on the pitch Cattermolle will at least provide us with drive & ambition from the centre of the park , something a foreigner has never gave us .
    If he plays in the same side as Gerrard he will hold th fort while tha very best midfielder on the planet marauds forward destroying defenses as only he can .
    Even if you dont like Cattermole its a Cattermole style player we need to complement our attacking Central midfielders of which we have at least 3 who are very similar in Gerrard , Meireles & Cole .
    You need to switch off your xbox or whatever console ya play yer management games on , take a step into the real world & give some consideration to the balance of the squad & the balance of the starting 11 before ya type such idiocy in the future .
    We already have Garrard a player proven time & again capable of hitting over 20 goals per season playing a more holding role to accommodate Meireles due to such ignorance in the transfer market in the past .
    Schweinsteiger , Cattermole , Robben , Downing , Baines , Bale , Bardsley are all players who compliment the quality players we already have & its players of their proven consistent quality we need to be crying out for if we want to quit being limp wristed lucky to be in the top 4 Spice Boys & actually win the League & not gutless Italians who have already proven themselves failures!

    Wake up .

  20. I must have watched him about 10 times this season and he’s done nothing to suggest that he’d get a game under Dalglish,he’s got to be for the money the worst signing in the clubs history.Give the likes of Cody and Spearing a chance to establish themselves in the first team squad and get the best price for a player who always looked that he didn’t ‘fancy it’ from the first minute he took to the field in a red shirt

  21. Jeff ,
    We cant afford to GIVE anyone anything let along younsters a chance .
    Much as I’d like to see Spearing progress to be a top player I dont think he is going to do it at our club fast enough for us to keep him , he is a squad space at a club that should be challenging for 4 trophy’s per season & winning at least one of them .
    Cattermole at the same age is Captain of a large Premiership club with a ferocious reputation that demands respect , Lucas cant even compete with him & Spearing isnt even challenging Lucas .
    We are not a feeder club , we are not a selling club , we are Liverpool FC the most successful club in Britain , if we buy we should be buying proven quality & if we bring youngsters through it should be because thay are like Carra , Gerrard & Kelly , in other words up to the job .
    Now ask me in 5 seasons time when under Kenny we have another European cup & 3 Premier Leagues under our belt & I will be more generous , but until such time we have to toughen up , spend big bucks on top class players & go out & challenge for 90 minutes of every game for every season like we are going into war .

  22. There was never anything wrong with Aqui apart from the injury which we managed to fix properly via our incomparable medical expertise! He was always class and should not have been sent on loan. Nonethelesshe was and now Juve are going to try and bully us into parting with him for a couple of quid at most! He should be brought back and put in the team where he belongs – of course he likes Italy he’s Italian for crying out loud…If he can play for Juve he can play for anyone and they are looking to get him practically on a freeby!
    To reiterate; he should be showing his class in midfield for LFC next season…

  23. Yabba,
    I see no other big team sniffing around Cattermole never mind trying to buy him.
    No England manager has seen sufficient potential in him either, despite bringing the likes of 30+ Scott Parker back into the squad.

    Now if you were talking about Jordan Henderson then I may see your argument!
    You’re not a relation to Mr Cattermole are you?

  24. Only one big team wins the league & only one big team matters & that big team is LFC so unlike you I’m not particularly interested in following or copying other so called big teams , I’m interested in Liverpool winning the Premier League next season so do excuse my selfish ambition if you must .

    What other clubs do or do not do is of little or no concern to me & should be of little or no concern to you , if indeed you are a genuine LFC supporter .

    Why they arent snifing around Cattermole is for them to answer but if I was to hazzard a guess it would be because their management feel he wouldnt compliment the squad already in place or that he wouldn’t sell as many shirts in 3’rd world nations or American Slums as certain other options would .

    As for why I think he would compliment our squad is in black & white in my previous comments , please forgive me for having an opinion independent of the so called bit teams you so clearly take instruction from religiously .

  25. I find it really weird how many of you in the comments are calling Aquilani crap, clearly you haven’t watched him play. If you did, you’d see how much he oozes class. Don’t listen to the bollocks that the media are saying about him, watch him yourself. You’d see he is quality and Hodgson made a massive massive mistake.

  26. Dave ,
    Its easy to ooze class when you have time & space to pick & choose your passes like they do on the continent where they practice every day in sunny weather .

    But here training everyday in the biting wind & whipping rain we like to get a move on & play at a higher tempo with more wallop , thats how life is .

    Stand yer dear old gran in the centre of midfield for 90 minutes on a nice summers day & surround her with decent players & even she will pick out a pass & if it was replayed to death on youtube you would think she was great too .

    I acknowledge Aquilani isnt or wasnt without his moments but moments don’t make ya good enough to move Steven Gerrard out of position to accommodate you .

    Facts prove he wasn’t up to the competitive physical nature of the Premier League & the only time he showed any kind of consistency were in games that were of no importance & there’s players in The Championship & League Two that could give us that on less than a quarter of his Wages .

    He had his chance , couldn’t take it & asked to be moved out .

    You are flogging a dead horse .

  27. Thanks for the comments everyone, positive and negative, I’ll take them. Maybe I didn’t make it clear in the post but where I stand on this issue is:

    Aquilani is class and I’d love to have him back but,

    I would just as easily allow him to go to Juventus if they’re willing to pay the necessary funds.

    He’s clearly happy there and there’s no point keeping a player against his will, it would however be a huge loss of talent.

    YNWA

  28. It would appear that you dont know the difference between “Flair” & “Talent” .

    For example , Ibrahimovic is flair while Carroll is Talent .

    Or

    Aqualani is flair while Gerrard is talent .

    Flair players are a luxury that need to be carried on a bed rock of talent much like Icing needs a Cake to sit on top of .

    Without that bedrock you are simply carrying a passenger who doesn’t want to be there & seeing as Aquilani wasnt good enough for us to build a team around ?

    He asked to leave .

    If you look at the club our championship winning sides never contained ANY flair players .

    Yes we had some amazingly talented players with the ability to use flair but we were never a fancy pants outfit , our strength was always in the team unit a team unit that couldn’t be out played out worked or out fought .

    Of course we didnt win em all , as Bob Paisley pointed out we had bad times too , once or twice we finished second .

  29. “in fact i cannot think of one player in recent history who’s come from serie a to premier league and actually done WELL its too fast for them not used to it and they can’t handle it”

    CRAP talk Adam… You forgot Thierry henry and even patrick veira on his last legs is scoring goals for citeh !! Obina is also the saving grace for west ham..

  30. aquilani is more like shadow player where not much opponent aware of his presence while he ran to those empty space and makes passes. he does not show any threat in the eyes of opponent but that is why he is so dangerous. he create his space himself and on occasion able make long shots. he is not energetic but he is effective like lampard.

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