See, I think he has made mistakes but he had to raise money for Barry after Parry sold him up the river. Who else did he have to sell to fund the move?
If he could have sold Keane back to Tottenham there and then to fund Barry, he would have. He had to wait 6 months to do so. And lo and behold, come this summer, Barry fucked us off.
Agree with this, Rafa's hands were tied and he was doing what he thought was best for the club. I'm sure he'd do things differently if he had hindsight, but that's the trouble with hindsight innit?
But that doesn't stop Alonso suddenly switching his opinion as well- when it came down to it, *he* was the one deemed expendable. Not anyone else, but him. Other players could have been sold to fund Barry, and others could have been forgone in terms of buying them in (no Dossena and Babel sold at that time would probably have funded Barry for example...)
The funny thing is, I'm seeing a lot of people on here who've suddenly switched their opinions. Because many did seem to think Barry in, Alonso out would be a good move.
Also, I disagree with Alonso *and* Barry in the same team. I think Rafa wanted 3 in the middle, Mascherano anchoring CM, Gerrard and Barry either side in a narrow position- supporting Torres, Keane/Babel and Kuyt. There's no place for Alonso in that formation as he's nowhere near mobile enough to make it work, hence why the pretty static 2 man holding midfield suited us better when he was around, and isn't suiting us now that he's gone.
As for Barry fucking us over. I'm not surprised- we made him look like a c*nt; he came out publicly and told everyone he wanted to come to us, and in the end he had to stay as we didn't buy him afterall.
Looking back on it, Rafa could have done things a lot better, and I'm sure he'd think the same. But as I said, hindsight's brilliant. Also, we've ended up with Aquilani and he wants to smash the world, so let's have some of that.
