Topic: Aquilani passes medical and signs 5 yr deal - official

[farawayred]

I wonder if he requested that the medical was performed by the same guy that did Kewell and Degens?

Listen, it called "job security"...

[Passmaster Molby]

4-8 weeks out is a blow, but on the positive side it gives him and the Mrs a chance to get over to Liverpool, find a nice house and settle down without the hassles of preparing for matches etc. Also gives him a chance to hammer the Rossetta Stone CD's and get his english improved if needs be.

Looks a Rolls Royce of a player.

[Tomrock]

Liverpool sign Aquilani from Roma 
 
Aquilani has played 11 times for Italy
Liverpool have signed Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani on a five-year contract after the Italian international passed a medical.

The 25-year-old has joined the Reds in a deal reportedly worth £20m.

Aquilani has not played since March due to an ankle injury and is only expected to be fully fit in around four to eight weeks time.

Liverpool said in a statement: "He will continue his rehabilitation under the guidance of our medical team."

Aquilani is Liverpool's second major summer signing after England right-back Glen Johnson joined from Portsmouth.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez targeted the Italian on Wednesday just hours after the Reds sold Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid for £30m.

"Alberto has a winning mentality and great experience in both Serie A and the Champions League," said Benitez.

Aquilani, has played 11 times for Italy and has been with Roma, the club he supported as a child, since he was 16, making his debut as an 18-year-old under now England boss Fabio Capello.

"Aquilani has long been recognised as a top class talent in Italy, captaining his country at both Under 19 and Under 21 levels before establishing himself in the senior national side," said Benitez.

The Italian had an operation on his ankle injury in May after struggling with injury problems which restricted him to just 14 appearances for Roma last season.

The Reds had also been linked with Wigan's Lee Catermole and Valencia's David Silva.

Last summer a move for then Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry - now at Manchester City following a £12m summer transfer - fell through after Benitez was unable to sell Alonso to raise the sufficient funds for the deal.

 

[mayday]

^^^^ bit late no?

[fowlerisgod96]

Its still not official.

[Gigantic Lamb]

Its still not official.

Yep it is...

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N165347090807-1933.htm

[Ron]

I understand he's more of an attacking midfielder than Xabi was.
What will this mean for the way we play ?
Will Gerrard play further back than he did last season ?
Of course we can't say anything for sure, but I'm curious what you think about this transfer and the way it affects the team.

[MBL?]

I understand he's more of an attacking midfielder than Xabi was.
What will this mean for the way we play ?
Will Gerrard play further back than he did last season ?
Of course we can't say anything for sure, but I'm curious what you think about this transfer and the way it affects the team.

He will play ahead of Mascherano but behind Gerrard. We will still line up with him as one of the holding two  though.

[MBL?]

Same position as Lucas plays.

[fowlerisgod96]

Yep it is...

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N165347090807-1933.htm

I dunno, I'd have thought they'd have said that he's signed for Liverpool rather than he's agreed a contract. I'm sure its all sorted but the wording makes it sound like its not quite signed and sealed.

[PassAndMove]

He could turn out great for us in the long term but if he is out until October we will have Lucas and Mascherano in CM and that could mean we out of the title race by then!

[pelevin]

Rather we take the full 8 weeks to get him fully fit and in the right frame of mind.  4-8 weeks short a midfielder is one thing.. 2-3 months is a whole nother.

You do realise 8 weeks is 2 months?

[liverpooll]

He could turn out great for us in the long term but if he is out until October we will have Lucas and Mascherano in CM and that could mean we out of the title race by then!

great positive attitude

[PassAndMove]

great positive attitude

Errrm this lad although extremely good has played about 50 games in 3 seasons and we have bought him while injured. Leaving that, we are light in midfield and have Lucas there who is okay but is he good enough to allow us to hit the ground running? If we start playing catch up we won't do it.

[uitmis]

You do realise 8 weeks is 2 months?

Actually it isn't

[bigbear]

Errrm this lad although extremely good has played about 50 games in 3 seasons and we have bought him while injured. Leaving that, we are light in midfield and have Lucas there who is okay but is he good enough to allow us to hit the ground running? If we start playing catch up we won't do it.

I have concerns.

Firstly that we are a midfielder light until October and secondly and more importantly, we have spent all our cash on a lad who is injury prone.

Whatever way you look at it, a player who has been injured for 3 years off and on has a huge question mark over him. I hope the 20m fee is very much geared towards additionals based on games. I find it difficult to believe we have lashed out 20m plus 4m a year in wages over 5 years without some form of re-dress for injury.

I'm also concerned that we've signed a player whose heart may be elsewhere. He is a Roma lad, from Rome which is a fantastic City and he is moving to Liverpool. Hopefully it is all a positive that he is prepared to give up that lifestyle as the Prince of Rome but I have concerns about how this transfer will go.

He does look a player though !!

[Smug Cassandra]

MASSIVE gamble

Lets hope we win it.

[Meako1977]

Same position as Lucas plays.

The strange thing is I cannot see why we have signed him when we have Lucas who does a very similar job. If anything I thought this might have been the opportunity to empower Lucas and give him the managers confidence in his preferred position.

Good luck to AA though. Cant see him making any impact before Xmas due to injury and then trying to find his match fitness but hopefully he can start showing his mojo after that.

[Schmidt]

The strange thing is I cannot see why we have signed him when we have Lucas who does a very similar job. If anything I thought this might have been the opportunity to empower Lucas and give him the managers confidence in his preferred position.

Good luck to AA though. Cant see him making any impact before Xmas due to injury and then trying to find his match fitness but hopefully he can start showing his mojo after that.

It's still a very big opportunity, Lucas has the chance now to step up and become one of our regular starters.

[bigbear]

The strange thing is I cannot see why we have signed him when we have Lucas who does a very similar job. If anything I thought this might have been the opportunity to empower Lucas and give him the managers confidence in his preferred position.

Good luck to AA though. Cant see him making any impact before Xmas due to injury and then trying to find his match fitness but hopefully he can start showing his mojo after that.

There's nothing wrong with having 3 good players for 2 positions especially as you could play all 3 at the same time anyway. Indeed it is both sensible and essential.

[Meako1977]

It's still a very big opportunity, Lucas has the chance now to step up and become one of our regular starters.

Yeah but you dont sign a player for £20m and put him on the bench. If I was Lucas I think I would be seriously considering my future.

[Bennyo]

The strange thing is I cannot see why we have signed him when we have Lucas who does a very similar job. If anything I thought this might have been the opportunity to empower Lucas and give him the managers confidence in his preferred position.

Good luck to AA though. Cant see him making any impact before Xmas due to injury and then trying to find his match fitness but hopefully he can start showing his mojo after that.

Cos when he's fit he's better than Lucas (and they play completely differently!). Since Xabi went everyone's suddenly found faith in Lucas (and that's a good thing), but for me he's still a long way from being where we want a first teamer to be. Gives the ball away far too regularly and gives fouls away far too regularly. I hope to fuck he's improved a hell of a lot over the off season because in my opinion he needs to improve a hell of a lot.

[Meako1977]

Cos when he's fit he's better than Lucas (and they play completely differently!). Since Xabi went everyone's suddenly found faith in Lucas (and that's a good thing), but for me he's still a long way from being where we want a first teamer to be. Gives the ball away far too regularly and gives fouls away far too regularly. I hope to fuck he's improved a hell of a lot over the off season because in my opinion he needs to improve a hell of a lot.

Well the being better is still debatable as he has never pulled on a shirt yet. Guess we will judge that this time next year (or after his first game!!). Trust me I have little faith in Lucas but it seemed that Rafa does/did rate him so I would have presumed this would have been his chance to allow him to step out of Xabi's shadow.

As for playing differently I seem to remember when we signed Lucas he was described as a box-to-box player who had a good short/medium pass and could score a few goals. Sounds like a very similar description to me?

[CHOPPER]

Yeah but you dont sign a player for £20m and put him on the bench. If I was Lucas I think I would be seriously considering my future.

Of course you don't. You leave him on the treatment table for 8 weeks and then put him on the bench.

[Meako1977]

Of course you don't. You leave him on the treatment table for 8 weeks and then put him on the bench.

Sarcasm I presume!! lol

[CHOPPER]

Sarcasm I presume!! lol

A tad, with whole lot of scepticism about signing a lad whose 8 weeks away from being fit and at what level his fitness is anyway.
Considering he hasn't played that much over the last few years, it's a gamble that has to pay off.

[lfc_fan2005]

I still don't think that this deal is 100% official, but it will happen.
.tv say he has agreed a deal, but nothing about actually signing a contract. Another article says he is 'due to put pen to paper on a 5 year deal', and he isn't on the squad list yet. Of course he definitely will sign but it still bugs me!

[Wewonit6times]

He could turn out great for us in the long term but if he is out until October we will have Lucas and Mascherano in CM and that could mean we out of the title race by then!

Welcome back Rashid. Banned again elsewhere I assume?

[dmn]

The 25-year-old has joined the Reds in a deal reportedly worth £20m.

If people have the patience to wait until Monday...

Roma is listed on the stock exchange, so they have to announce the amount.

[Bennyo]

Well the being better is still debatable as he has never pulled on a shirt yet. Guess we will judge that this time next year (or after his first game!!). Trust me I have little faith in Lucas but it seemed that Rafa does/did rate him so I would have presumed this would have been his chance to allow him to step out of Xabi's shadow.

As for playing differently I seem to remember when we signed Lucas he was described as a box-to-box player who had a good short/medium pass and could score a few goals. Sounds like a very similar description to me?

I've seen nearly all of the games which Aquilani's played over the last 3 odd years and he is better than Lucas. But, of course, we have to see how he plays wearing a brighter shade of red. Aquilani is quicker in nearly all aspects, foot, mind etc than Lucas and more attack minded.. but again that could be manager's instructions at work.

One thing though, last season had a lot of shots from distance and I'm pretty sure those were instructions from Rafa to have a go. From that perspective Aquilani will really shine cos the boy's got two fantastic shooting feet.

[The Bill Hicks Appreciation Society]

What I really really would like to know is why has Rafa got a picture of Rick Parry in his office?

[Bennyo]

I still don't think that this deal is 100% official, but it will happen.
.tv say he has agreed a deal, but nothing about actually signing a contract. Another article says he is 'due to put pen to paper on a 5 year deal', and he isn't on the squad list yet. Of course he definitely will sign but it still bugs me!

Aquilani said himself on Thursday that there would be a press conference on Monday. I imagine the signing would immediately prior to that?

[smicer07]

I still don't think that this deal is 100% official, but it will happen.
.tv say he has agreed a deal, but nothing about actually signing a contract. Another article says he is 'due to put pen to paper on a 5 year deal', and he isn't on the squad list yet. Of course he definitely will sign but it still bugs me!

He has signed, chill out.

[The Red artist.]

Blimey, i hope Rafa knows what he's doin here. This sounds like quite a gamble to me. But Rafa's the main man so Alberto, welcome to the promised land, and the greatest club in the world!!

[ThisIsMickey]

Yeah but you dont sign a player for £20m and put him on the bench. If I was Lucas I think I would be seriously considering my future.

look what keane's signing does to kuyt last year. If added competition makes you feel insecure, you don't belong in a top club.

[RamanathBhat]

I understand he's more of an attacking midfielder than Xabi was.
What will this mean for the way we play ?
Will Gerrard play further back than he did last season ?
Of course we can't say anything for sure, but I'm curious what you think about this transfer and the way it affects the team.

Absolutely.
Initially when Rafa took over, the onus was on defense and organization, then came the counter attacking plays.. two years ago, torres arrived and we seemed to attack more than usual, last season was mostly attacking. Gradually we are being a 'attack minded' team with a solid defense and superb organisation. 1-2 two months of Rehab for aquilani will help him settle in and hopefully lucas can somehow hold strings of our midfield.

I believe we are still in the market for a Defender and maybe a benayoun kinda cheap impact player.

[proudred]

Welcome Welcome Alberto to the greatest club in the world.Hope you get well soon.On the lucas issue I think he is not creative enough,his passing ability is questionable ,his positional sense is sometimes ??  (scrambled) .Hope that he proves me wrong though.Also I think rafa will buy a striker or another midfielder (defour,axel witsel )would be nice or give spearing a chance (15 minutes) a match & seeing how he performs giving him more chances or less.

[Fat Scouser]

Well, I got all me worries out in the other thread, and he's here now. So, there's no place for the doubt now. The Lad's one of us. He should be welcomed as such. Rafa's took the big decision and we should back him in that.

If anything the injury worries should now be seen as a guarentee that his ankle is going to be fine, as I bet it's had the most rigorous medical in LFC history.

So, I'm looking forward to the lad getting match fit now and starting his playing career for us. He's what I was hoping for anyway. Not him specifically, but when it was clear Xabi was going to leave, I was hoping we would get this sort of player... somebody who likes to run at the defence a bit more and get in the box. The type of player that would help us play more like the way we played at the end of last season.

So that's that now. The only thing left for us to do is to back the lad and cheer him on. End of.

[Walter Sobchak]

i think people are getting bogged down in the can he replace xabi argument. this kid is going to bring us something that xabi, for all his gifts never did. from what i can see aqualanis style of play is closer to gerrard than xabi

he likes to effect the game much further up the pitch than xabi. while last season in those draws at anfield we tried to  break teams down with xabi pulling the strings from the half way line we will now have a different string to our bow with aqualanis runs into the box and inter play with gerrard and torres and others as well as the accuracy of his long range shooting.

another plus point is that if gerrard is forced to miss games like last season i can see aqualani being more than capable of playing in that position off torres

this transfer is perfect timing when you hear mr ferguson during the week going on about teams being able to read us much better this season. they wont know what to expect from aqualani and he could prove to be a vital addition

[cox3100]

some people on here are never fucking happy,they complain that we never sign expensive players or we dont sign any players,and then when we do sign players its a gamble or hes fucking shit(johnson),for fuck sake weve signed 2 players this transfer window and all people have done is slate them,for fuck sake give it a rest people,if rafa thinks that johnson and aquilani are good enough then so be it,

we could sign villa,silva,kaka or ribery and still some people on here would moan