Alberto Aquilani was brought to Anfield by Rafa Benitez in the summer of 2009 on a five year contract worth Stg 20 million including add ons. The Italian came to Liverpool with an ankle injury and it took him a while longer than expected to heal, train and get back to fitness. Liverpool were not having the best of seasons but when the he did play, especially later on in the season, the fans started to see glimpses of quality, pronouncing him Man of The Match on more than one occasion.
Roy Hodgson parked a Stg 20 million investment like Aquilani at Juve for the 2010/11 season and brought in Raul Meirelles for a further Stg 11.5 million to very much do the same work that the Italian does so naturally. Hodgson claimed that the attacking midfielder needed games to regain his fitness and his confidence (perhaps with this reasoning there might have been at least another two players that could have been loaned out, Torres included!). The Meirelles deal has worked wonderfully for us, but perhaps loaning out the Italian was still a mistake.
The deal with Juve was for a season long loan and an option to buy the player outright for a fee of Euro 16 million. Unsurprisingly, Aquilani was an instant hit at the Turin club and within a few months media rumours started to circulate that both club and player wanted to make the deal permanent. Alas, Juve have come out saying that they will sign the player, but they are will to pay only Euro 5 million!
This declaration and standpoint from Juventus beckons an explanation. Juventus are currently constructing a Euro 110 million stadium, which will incidentally be the first stadium owned by a Serie A club. The Juventus Arena, which will be a 41,000 seater, is being constructed on the ashes of the 69,000 Delle Alpi. Money for the transfer market however has not been free-flowing.
From a first team squad of 27, Juventus have two players on loan from Udinese, two from Napoli, and one each from Lyngby, Arsenal, Cagliari and Liverpool. That’s 8 players on loan! Furthermore, they took on Luca Toni in January from Genoa on a free. Juventus are not the type of club to build success with on-loan players. Times change, and the Turin club is now run on its own steam so at present this is their only alternative to try and compete with the other Serie A top guns.
Unless Juventus are prepared to dig deep into their pockets, Liverpool will have no alternative but to either find another interested party, or better still, bring the talented Italian back to Anfield. The return to the passing game is an ambience Aquilani will thrive in. The lad is a Liverpool asset at present. The season with Juventus would have brought back continuity, confidence and self belief. King Kenny will have the final say, but the offer the bianconeri have made is nothing short of shameful and totally unacceptable, so they must find a way to meet the Stg 11 million being so rightly demanded by the Reds.
Juve was banking on making the champions league next year to buy these players on loan. Now that they’re looking less likely they will have to figure something else out.
another great article by one of my favourite writers.
My opinion is; its either Juventus pay up or shut. Were better of with Aquilani coming back anyway.
I keep hearing the figure of £11m, this is rubbish, the figure is £13.5m for Alberto. I would defo bring him back regardless, along with Meireles, Gerrard, Kuyt, Lucas, Poulsen etc, we would be fine in midfield. The lad is fully fit so give him a proper run in the side next season!!!!
Recall him immediately and get him some game time if he fits in great if not I’m sure someone will meet the asking price, he is a quality player!
Juventus will buy him at 11 million.otherwise Aquilani comes back and he can either be sold to another team or kept and have a midfield trio of Gerrard-Meireles-Aquilani with great depth in that position.Taiwo is free come summer,sign him.Marveaux has obviously already signed a pre-contract agreement and some more are linked with us like A.Young,Lavezzi,N’Zogbia,..etc
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Taiwo
Gerrard Banega Meireles
Hulk Carroll Suarez
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It’s not a shameful offer, it’s an opening gambit, we did the same with Charlie Adam. Juve are just testing our resolve. Unfortunately, they also appear to be doing all they can to turn Aquilani’s head. We may have lost our opportunity and a deal could be brokered, somewhere between the two figures. I would also fear that due to our perceived willingness to pay over the odds, we might now be seen as a soft touch. I would hope this was just down to it being the winter transfer window and that we needed the right players… fast!
If we want to focus on making the champions league or competing in it, we’re gonna need depth. People say we have too many CM’s. Gerrard, Raul, poulsen, Lucas, spearing. I would like to see aqua in that list.
We used to have gerrard, Alonso, masch,
Lucas, and spearing.
my take on this is internet rumours and to my knowledge, there have been no other offers put forward by Juventus, other than the contract they agreed to sign for the loan agreement. the difference in figures (£11-£13.5mil) being quoted may have relevance to the exchange rate between Euro and Sterling.
either way, Aquilani should never have been allowed out on loan. buying any player is a risk, but letting 1 leave on the cheap before being given a chance was an even bigger mistake ! but giving Roy and the other planks on the board a break, perhaps the new medical team from Australia assessed him and deemed that he would never be robust enough to have a lasting effect. but in saying that, Stevie G had lots of injuiries as he hit the scene and has been looked after excellently.
who knows what goes on behind the scenes. but i trust Kennys decision making a heck of a lot more than Roys. If juve dont stump up the cash, we sell to another club or keep him. we sold Mascherano for too little and im sure the new owners will not sell for too little (ps Aquaman on a reported £80k a week, thats £4.16million a season for next 3-4 years – potential £16mil outlay – getting a reasonable transfer fee and saving his wages may be the ultimate deciding factor)
He should never have gone out on loan, I thought the end of last season he was really showing us what he could do and there have been a few games this season where he would have really benefited us
Bring him back to show what he can do, I heard a rumour that he is supposed to be voted Italian player of the season