Would Xabi Alonso return to Liverpool if Dalglish secures fourth spot?
If there was ever one player that Steven Gerrard really appreciated at Anfield it was the former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso. The Spaniard made things possible for Gerrard on the football pitch. His “hanging back” meant Stevie G was able to push forward almost at will knowing there was someone to cover should his forward runs not produce anything.
Sadly for Liverpool fans, Alonso was sold on to Real Madrid in 2009 for a rumoured amount of around £25m-£30m. Having won the Champions League in his first season for Liverpool in 2005 and then subsequently the FA Cup the year after, one could suggest that this was quite an era for the Anfield side but would he ever return to the club that he helped bring so much success to?
Should Liverpool reach a fourth place to have a chance of Champions League qualification then the short answer would be yes, a player of his calibre would always be wishing to play at the highest level, whether Liverpool can muster up enough points to make this a reality is a totally different story altogether.
Alonso’s “love” for the club can probably not be questioned. When Kenny Dalglish was brought in as temporary replacement for Roy Hodgson, he was one of the first to wish the team and King Kenny luck on, yes, you guessed it, his twitter page.
Liverpool have been much more impressive since Dalglish’s appointment and although it was obvious that there would be a turn around in fortunes, I doubt not one Liverpool fan would believe that they would have a fighting chance of a Champions League spot. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of points to make up but mathematically it is still very possible.
With Real Madrid swapping players and management round faster that the shelves at Oddbins one could be forgiven for believing that Alonso would be on the move again next season and Liverpool would surely be the one club to which a return would almost be hailed as big a return as Dalglish himself.
For a player who is now 29, he certainly would not be as expensive as when they first sold him, but should the Liverpool management staff want him back, it would cost NESV significantly less that what they sold him for two years ago, in fact you would say that they will have made a tidy little profit.
Liverpool are beginning to build up steam and their opponents, no matter how arrogant they may be, will start to take notice, should Alonso return to the Kop then even the Jedi force will seem of little resemblance to what could be a mighty Liverpool team once again.
