191: Alberto Aquilani, Liverpool, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

 In case it escaped your notice Liverpool won the Premier League last season. It was the first time in thirty years that the Reds had claimed the top prize in English football and, in fairness, they won it a canter playing high energy attacking football that, at times, made you feel sorry for their opponents. That being said it didn’t make any of the ‘greatest Premier League team of all time’ chat and gushing punditry any less annoying. In fact, despite their deserved success and the painfully long wait their fans endured, it made those of us disposed towards any other club long for simpler times when Liverpool appeared slightly more human.

In the 2008/09 season Liverpool finished second in the Premier League, reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, beating Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate in the process, and only lost five games in all competitions. Steven Gerrard scored 24 goals from midfield while Fernando Torres chipped in with 17 and Dirk Kuyt 15. However, they finished the campaign with no silverware to show for their efforts and manager Rafa Benitez decided it was time to break up what remained of the gang from the club’s infamous Champions League victory in 2005. In the summer of 2009 Spanish midfield maestro Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid for £30m. Benitez had come to the decision that, at the ripe old age of 28, Alonso was getting too slow and had set his sights on restructuring his midfield around the far more sprightly…28 year old Gareth Barry.


Now, as you may have seen in a previous post, I have a lot of time for Gareth Barry. In 2009 he was at the peak of his powers and had made his desire to play Champions League football abundantly clear to his then employers Aston Villa. That being said if someone made me choose between him and Xabi Alonso I doubt I would think twice before plumping for the latter. But what do I know? After all, Rafa’s partial overhaul of his squad the previous season had seen a significant improvement in results and he’d shown his commitment to ending Liverpool’s twenty-year wait for the league title by growing a questionable goatee.



The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft aglay. Barry decided to pursue his Champions League dreams at newly filthy rich Manchester City and Benitez was left in dire need of a midfield lynchpin. In August 2009 Liverpool shelled out £17m to bring Alberto Aquilani to Anfield from AS Roma. Aquilani had endured an injury-plagued 2008/09 campaign in the Italian capital but, at the age of 24, had racked up over 100 appearances for the Giallorossi since graduating from the youth team and had displayed flashes of brilliance in both Serie A and the Champions League. He was no Gareth Barry but beggars can’t be choosers.


Aquilani took a while to reach match fitness and made his competitive debut for Liverpool in a League Cup defeat to Arsenal in October wearing the vacated no.4 jersey of former skipper and fan’s favourite Sami Hyypia. After some sporadic substitute appearances he earned the approval of the Kop faithful with an impressive performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers on his first Premier League start on Boxing Day. Impressive performances followed later in the season against Burnley, where he provided three assists in a 4-0 victory, and Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals of the Europa League. However, Aquilani struggled with his fitness and rarely played a full 90 minutes in his 26 appearances. As for Liverpool a disappointing seventh placed finish in the Premier League and early exits from the Champions League and both domestic cup competitions saw Benitez leave the club in August 2010.


New Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson sent Aquilani out on loan to Juventus in the 2010/11 season and, despite featuring in their pre-season tour of Asia ahead of the 2011/12 campaign, it was clear that he did not feature in Kenny Dalglish’s plans and was farmed out to AC Milan for another season-long loan. Eventually he was put out of his misery and given a free transfer to Fiorentina ahead of the 2012/13 season. Upon his arrival in Italy Aquilani suggested that an excessive price tag had prevented him leaving Anfield earlier and his performances in Florence were enough to earn him a place in Italy’s Confederations Cup squad where he scored in the penalty shoot-out of their bronze medal match with Uruguay.

 

During this time Xabi Alonso was an integral part of the Spain team that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2012 European Championships as well as the La Liga title in the 2011/12 season. He scored another Champions League victory in 2013/14 before departing for Bayern Munich where he added three successive Bundesliga titles to his impressive CV. In the meantime Gareth Barry collected FA Cup and Premier League winner’s medals with City. A Liverpool side featuring Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy did pick up a League Cup in this period but their penalty shootout victory against Cardiff City was not one of the 28 games that Alberto Aquilani managed for the club during his three seasons at Anfield. Aquilani was a talented player but he wasn’t the next Xabi Alonso. Moreover, he wasn’t Gareth Barry.

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