Topic: Aquilani return to Liverpool?

[Alex7]

Don't care for him. Doubt he wants to be here, didn't really perform too well when he was here (although clearly not 100% fit at any point in competitive matches).

I think it says it all that nobody in the past 2 years has put any money down for him.

[Dick Emery]

I can't see how he'll come back. We don't want him. We will end up giving him away and funding part of his salary, is my guess. There's no point having a player earning a huge wage who isn't in the team or playing regularly. He's going to be a give away.

[sattapaal]

with 5 games to go? and 4 required to activate the clause?

he'll be back here before you know it. i knew it from the outset. he's over rated on these boards and neither juventus or ac milan saw him good enough to sign permanently. even at knock down prices.....something has to be wrong eh?

[shelovesyou]

It's not positive. But it's not the worst thing in the world to have a player who wants to leave either. Some people make it out like it's simply impossible for us not to give in to a player's will.

Yeh I agree to an extent about that, we need to put our foot down at times, but its quite apparent he has a preference away from the club, yet no fucker wants to buy him.
There must be a reason for that, and quite frankly its very concerning.

[shelovesyou]

with 5 games to go? and 4 required to activate the clause?

he'll be back here before you know it. i knew it from the outset. he's over rated on these boards and neither juventus or ac milan saw him good enough to sign permanently. even at knock down prices.....something has to be wrong eh?

But, Portsmouth away ? ? ?

[Clonsilla Red]

with 5 games to go? and 4 required to activate the clause?

he'll be back here before you know it. i knew it from the outset. he's over rated on these boards and neither juventus or ac milan saw him good enough to sign permanently. even at knock down prices.....something has to be wrong eh?

exactly especially the part with being over rated on here. He has improved with every game he hasn't played for us.

[chuckberry]

Don't care for him. Doubt he wants to be here, didn't really perform too well when he was here (although clearly not 100% fit at any point in competitive matches).

I think it says it all that nobody in the past 2 years has put any money down for him.

I don't agree with that - they are italians - guess what? They just let him play with one team every year passing him around between them and giving LFC nothing. Makes more sense IMO given he has played well.

[shelovesyou]

Perhaps its time for a fresh start, whatever the issues with the lad, past or present, bring him back, tell him to fucking get on with it and he aint leaving unless we get a very decent offer.

[Joe_Singh]

He went to Milan with the motivation of getting into the italian squad for the Euro's. Whether that happens or not is not important for next season.

Bring him back and tell him to knuckle down get on with it. If he plays well then other teams will come in for him in January. None of this pussy footing around with bullshit deals.

[Didi_ram]

It's not positive. But it's not the worst thing in the world to have a player who wants to leave either. Some people make it out like it's simply impossible for us not to give in to a player's will.

Infact I'd say that's the reason we have been shafted in the last 2-3 seasons.Giving in to players' demands.
Other clubs that have stood by their words have gone up.

[Didi_ram]

He went to Milan with the motivation of getting into the italian squad for the Euro's. Whether that happens or not is not important for next season.

Bring him back and tell him to knuckle down get on with it. If he plays well then other teams will come in for him in January. None of this pussy footing around with bullshit deals.

Pretty sure it is Comolli who said he wasnt wanted as we had Gerrard for that position.And the brawl.
Has Aquilani ever said he doesnt want to play for us?

[shelovesyou]

Pretty sure it is Comolli who said he wasnt wanted as we had Gerrard for that position.And the brawl.
Has Aquilani ever said he doesnt want to play for us?

The Brawl ?
You a journo mate

[Prelude no.5]

Wherever you stand on the "I rate Aquilani" spectrum you have to feel sorry for the lad.

I think there doesn't go a day without him ruing leaving Roma even if they have their own troubles, at least that way he'll be wanted by a party.

[Dick Emery]

Doesn't work that way. He only has the value someone is willing to pay for him. Anyone who thinks we will be paid much money for him is slightly deluded. He's not worth 6 million euros at the mo. We can't flog him so do we bring him back to sit around burning our cash via his salary? This won't happen. We're better off giving him away and funding part of his salary. It's loses us less money this way.

[Matt8Pie]

I'm more worried about other areas of selling and buying this summer than what we do with Aquilani. Like, genuinely worried with what's going on with our scouting and our strategy. If Aquilani comes back, he'll be off again at the first opportunity and we should've resigned to that fact long ago, if some of us haven't already.

[LFC_4_life]

with 5 games to go? and 4 required to activate the clause?

he'll be back here before you know it. i knew it from the outset. he's over rated on these boards and neither juventus or ac milan saw him good enough to sign permanently. even at knock down prices.....something has to be wrong eh?

Even if he is not good enough for Juve and Milan, he is still good enough for a mid table team like ourselves.

[J-Mc-]

IF he is here next season and we keep him, wouldn't mind seeing this at all for a first team.

Reina

Johnson           Skrtel            Agger          Enrique

Lucas

Aquilani              Gerrard

Bellamy                                                     Suarez
Carroll

[Didi_ram]

The Brawl ?
You a journo mate

I obviously meant the altercation in the hotel lounge.

[Joe_Singh]

Pretty sure it is Comolli who said he wasnt wanted as we had Gerrard for that position.And the brawl.
Has Aquilani ever said he doesnt want to play for us?

Well Kenny indicated that he wanted to go to Italy but that could be him just towing the Comolli party line. Kenny also did say that he is thoroughly professional and keeps his head down which for me is a great quality. I never wanted to indicate that Aquilani is a diva of some sort.

[Sharado]

Pretty sure it is Comolli who said he wasnt wanted as we had Gerrard for that position.And the brawl.Has Aquilani ever said he doesnt want to play for us?

That's a phenomenal piece of poetic licence - even by a thread about Aquilani on RAWK's standards.

[Didi_ram]

IF he is here next season and we keep him, wouldn't mind seeing this at all for a first team.

Reina

Johnson           Skrtel            Agger          Enrique

Lucas

Aquilani              Gerrard

Bellamy   New top 25m player                                                  Suarez
Carroll

Feel we'll get atleast 1 very good player 

[J-Mc-]

Feel we'll get atleast 1 very good player 

I tried to keep it current!

[Joe_Singh]

Doesn't work that way. He only has the value someone is willing to pay for him. Anyone who thinks we will be paid much money for him is slightly deluded. He's not worth 6 million euros at the mo. We can't flog him so do we bring him back to sit around burning our cash via his salary? This won't happen. We're better off giving him away and funding part of his salary. It's loses us less money this way.

Do we know how much he is on? It is at ridiculous Joe Cole and Jovanavic proportions? I wouldn't have thought so considered we paid 17m for him

[shelovesyou]

I obviously meant the altercation in the hotel lounge.

[penga]

YES COME BACK!!!

Only to leave in the Summer for even less...as we deem him surplus to requirements due to Charlie Adam being the MAN.

[Didi_ram]

Well Kenny indicated that he wanted to go to Italy but that could be him just towing the Comolli party line. Kenny also did say that he is thoroughly professional and keeps his head down which for me is a great quality. I never wanted to indicate that Aquilani is a diva of some sort.

I think by now we'd have realized that the Italian clubs will again agree to take him on loan for next season with an option to buy,and again tear us a new one.And considering the lack of goals from our midfield and the desperate lack of creativity and end product,I cant see why we wont decide to keep him this time if we are a little sensible.Getting shafted every season for this,and now no big International tournament till 2014,after the Euros,Aquilani might just be professional enough to put in some quality effort.That way we'd have a Gerrard backup atleast for next season,considering his injuries.With Lucas as DM,there wouldnt be an issue even,if a non-tackling,forward minded Aquilani is played in CM.And his injury prone days seem to be over.

[Didi_ram]

Do we know how much he is on? It is at ridiculous Joe Cole and Jovanavic proportions? I wouldn't have thought so considered we paid 17m for him

Remember hearing long back that he was on 70k.Not quite sure there.

[Didi_ram]

And anyway,looking at the passing and movement from Suarez,Johnson the other day,makes one wonder what'd happen if a central midfielder also joins in.Henderson is too defensive minded and conservative to do that(He is as we'd say,a different type of player).Aquilani is the adventurous type.

[Fromola]

Well Kenny indicated that he wanted to go to Italy but that could be him just towing the Comolli party line. Kenny also did say that he is thoroughly professional and keeps his head down which for me is a great quality. I never wanted to indicate that Aquilani is a diva of some sort.

It was Kenny that wanted Charlie Adam for Aquilani's position (as back up to Gerrard) which basically meant Aquilani was surplus to requirements with Meireles still here as well at the time.

The injuries we've had in midfield - and general lack of guile - means he'd have been more than useful in hindsight at least.

[Joe_Singh]

I think by now we'd have realized that the Italian clubs will again agree to take him on loan for next season with an option to buy,and again tear us a new one.And considering the lack of goals from our midfield and the desperate lack of creativity and end product,I cant see why we wont decide to keep him this time if we are a little sensible.Getting shafted every season for this,and now no big International tournament till 2014,after the Euros,Aquilani might just be professional enough to put in some quality effort.That way we'd have a Gerrard backup atleast for next season,considering his injuries.With Lucas as DM,there wouldnt be an issue even,if a non-tackling,forward minded Aquilani is played in CM.And his injury prone days seem to be over.

I'm in the I want him to stay camp and I think he can have a positive impact. Another plus point in him staying is the fact that Camolli is no longer in the picture.

The italian teams are not only tearing us a new one, they are tearing Aquilani a new one as well because he is not being allowed to settle. So hopefully he'll see sense and stay.

I think the fact that Mereles will still around when he went had something to do with it as well.

We have struggled with midfielders and injuries this year, it would make sense to keep him.

[penga]

Even if he is not good enough for Juve and Milan, he is still good enough for a mid table team like ourselves.

Strange isn't it. Apparently not good enough but started so many games for those 2 teams on loan. Usually players on loan start less because there is no certainty of the transfer unless they are head and shoulders above the rest of the squad or the players in their position. Aqua was first choice at Juve, then the coach got sacked and the new one had a new vision for the team and being able to get Pirlo for free. In Milan Aquilani was part of the regular midfield rotation, they might be able to get Montolivo for free. A victim of circumstance?

[Upinsmoke]

He would improve us whichever way you look at it. Also we are seriously short of intelligent footballers.

Plus it's fairly evident Gerrard can't stay fit for very long.

[sattapaal]

Sale or stay, its really that simple, none of this loan business.

I think Henderson is a similar player to Aquilani if i'm honest, he has two good feet, a good one touch, pass and move player. He may not have Aquilani's attacking eye yet, but I think that would come if he had more seniority and played consistently in CM. We've not struggled for CM's we've struggled for DM's this year. Its never been a case of who was going to play CM, when Lucas and Spearing were out, we were shagged. When Jonjo and Henderson played alongside Spearing we looked okay. You cannot forget Gerrard and Adam too.

I'd say Aquilani coming back would probably be a backwards step. I'd prefer to bring in higher quality wing forwards and sell Aquilani. We need players who can get goals, the creating hasn't been that much of a problem IMO.

All depends on Kenny and how he'd like to play.

[scatman]

Think people are missing the big problem here in the Aquilani deal. The fact that we are mugs in the transfer market when it comes to selling players. (forget the buying part for now)

I keep seeing the 'why does no-one want to buy him for 5m' 'two clubs don't want to sign him'

Football clubs are businesses, not sure how many of you are actually understanding that when it comes to these Aquilani loan deals. Serie A clubs now are reknown for their tightness, in fact to go along with the tight purses they also have a high turnover of players every year.
For example one player can in the span of 5 years play for Milan, Inter, Juventus, Lazio and Roma and not a single fan in Italy would bat an eyelid. It happens often that players constantly move around due to the differing regulations regarding transfers in Italy.

Some differences between the Premier League and Serie A are for example:0
Buy only 1 Non EU player
Buy 50% of a player from another team and then at the end of the players contract an auction is held between the 2 teams with the highest bidder getting said player.
Loan a player who has been loaned (loan within a loan)

Now I'll get to my point, last season we did an unbelievable fuck up in the summer transfer window (under Purslow). Part one of it was paying Juventus £5 million for Christian Poulsen. Now any club in Italy could see that he was not worth £5m, lightbulbs must have been flashing all over the league about Liverpool Football Club's seemingly stupid direction and unbelievable gullibility.

Part two was trying to sell Lucas and Insua, funnily and I don't know how coincidental this is with part one but Fiorentina agreed a low fee for Insua (he declined), Palermo and Napoli offered 3m...fucking 3m for Lucas (even better they laughed at the 5m). Lowballing of unbelievable proportions, 3m for Lucas, why would they bid such a derisory amount for a mainstay of the team the previous season?

Part three was the loan deal of Aquilani to Juventus. Signed for 20m the season before and sent on loan to Juventus with some shitty buyout clause.

Now how does this affect Alberto and his new found nomadic career in Italy?
Alberto played often for Juventus, 34 games, they used him well, he contributed to their league campaign and they made use of a loan player how a club should. When it came to purchasing though, there was no need, Pirlo was available on the market come the end of the season on a 'free'. Fuck it they said, we got Alberto for free for a whole season, he played well, no point paying 13m for him when Pirlo is available on a free. In fact forget Alberto completely as we'll use that 13m to sign Pirlo and buy Lichsteiner for 10m (euros).

So Alberto despite a good season at Juventus came back to Liverpool. Milan got rid of Pirlo and saw an opportunity, fucking mugs that Liverpool Football Club are when it comes to selling players. Got rid of an Argentine international full back because they let his contrract run down, sold Poulsen at a 4 million loss after 1 season, loaned out Joe Cole to Lille whilst paying the majority of his ridiculous wages, let's see if we can Alberto for a cheap deal.

So Alberto has a good pre-season, Milan come in, we don't want to keep him because Steven Gerrard is going to play in the same position (absolutely ridiculous as we just put ourselves in a harder position to sell) and Milan come along saying we'll give you no girls and a cup now and give you the two girls at the end of the season if Alberto plays *this* many games. We agree, he has a good season for Milan, suddenly the business minds in Italy start thinking again, Muntari falls out with Branca, lets also get him in on loan, make sure Aquilani doesnt get to the required number of games so we have to pay Liverpool, instead we have the bargaining power.

Bargaining power

Liverpool - "Unfortunately there is no room for Alberto here because he plays in the same position as Steven Gerrard"
(Other clubs hear Steven Gerrard is a world class player and Liverpool legend, no-one will be replacing him in the lineup.)
Milan - "we don't want Alberto Aquilani" (we'll take him, but not at the 5m as you want to sell him, we know that, so what's the point in us activating that buyout clause when we, and any other club, can absolutely mug you off for him before/after the Euros".

Other things that strengthen buying clubs bargaining power
"he doesnt want to be in Liverpool and wants to go back to Italy" (Italian clubs - Oh, so that's easy for us, he wants to come to Italy, they have to sell him to an italian club, let's see how low we can ball these fuckers)

I've not even gone into the Mascherano sale and how we sold a world class player to a world class team for less than we signed said player..

[LFC_4_life]

Strange isn't it. Apparently not good enough but started so many games for those 2 teams on loan. Usually players on loan start less because there is no certainty of the transfer unless they are head and shoulders above the rest of the squad or the players in their position. Aqua was first choice at Juve, then the coach got sacked and the new one had a new vision for the team and being able to get Pirlo for free. In Milan Aquilani was part of the regular midfield rotation, they might be able to get Montolivo for free. A victim of circumstance?

Reading the Milan forums, many fans want Aqua to stay and think he is a steal for £6m

[penga]

Think people are missing the big problem here in the Aquilani deal. The fact that we are mugs in the transfer market when it comes to selling players. (forget the buying part for now)

Well said.

[IndianaRed]

Somewhere, Xerxes is absolutely ITCHING to get into this topic.

[Red Dane]

Aquilani return? Never he is shite. There is a reason why Juve and Milan wont even pay 1/4 of what we paid for him.

[ArcticRed]

But surely, if he was "all that", he would be a preferred option to an ageing Pirlo or an out of favour Muntari. Especially at a wholesale price of €6m.
Now, if he's no better than, or on par with, those two, I can understand that reasoning.
And I would think there are other clubs than Juve and Milan, both in Italy and the rest of Europe, who couldn't go wrong with at least attempting to offer the same amount as the Milan buyout at this stage. Unless, of course, there are questions regarding either the player or the contractual/financial aspects of his status as a Liverpool player, that we don't know the answers to.
I just find it all a bit strange, really.

[Djibriliant]

At the end of the day, is he better than what we have? Yes. Could we do better? Yes.

I'd give him a season here on the basis that he is better than Henderson and Adam and we need a creative central midfielder.