Liverpool Set To Ditch Alberto Aquilani?

By Chris Wright

According to reports in a few of this morning’s papers, Liverpool are set to offload midfield ‘flop’ Alberto Aquilani this summer, after just one injury-strewn season at the club.

Manager Rafa Benitez has apparently confirmed that this season will be Aquilani’s last at Anfield (although no actual quotes are offered in any of the rags) and is now ready to make a massive financial loss on the Italian in order to clear him from the wage bill.

The Daily Mirror goes on to suggest that the 25-year-old could be let go for as low as £7 million and, after only 12 starts, could end up costing Liverpool nearly £1 million-a-match once his £70,000-a-week wages are factored in.

Fiorentina and Juventus are both being linked with summer moves for Aquilani, but both clubs are unwilling to pay anywhere near the fee the Anfield club paid Roma for his services just ten months ago.

Personally, I think Rafa would be foolish to let Aquilani leave – especially at such a dramatic loss – as he has shown a great deal of improvement in a Liverpool shirt over the previous few weeks (I thought he played well against Atletico Madrid in the Europa League t’other week).

The Spaniard is currently presiding over one of the thinnest squads in Liverpool’s recent history, and surely cannot afford to let a player with genuine class and creativity slip through his fingers so readily?

So, the question goes out. Are Liverpool right to cut their losses on Aquilani and put the money towards bringing in a replacement with a less ominous injury record? Or is he worth another season, given his recent on-field improvements?

Posted in Liverpool, Serie A, Transfers & Rumours

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21 Comments

  1. Ollie says:

    I doubt Rafa would ditch him so soon?

  2. Chris says:

    I have to agree Ollie. He’s got proven kwality.

  3. Mellows says:

    He deserves another season, I think he could really come good for them next year.

  4. Ryan Kam says:

    That’d be an awful move. He’s been playing rather well in the last couple games. They stuck with him through his injury and just recently he’s seemed to be playing with confidence. It’d be a boneheaded move, but then again, it’s Liverpool. I’d not put it past them after this season.

  5. busker rhymes says:

    itd be silly to let him go if they did, particularly when hes just finding his stride
    hes a victim of the situation lfc has put him in imho; buying him injured following the departure of alonso was a big mistake… chelsea did the same thing with zhirkov, but the squad was deep enough that he wasnt vitally important from the word go this season
    by the time he actually played, the team was already well up the creek and the fans expected a miracle
    lucas is alright too, he doesnt deserve some of the stick hes gotten this year, but theres undeniably a huge gulf in class between him and alonso- again its the clubs fault for failing to replace him with similar quality
    liverpool made the mistake, lucas and aquilani got the blame

  6. Stuart says:

    Where do papers get such crap?
    1) Liverpool are in debt. If they’re going to sell anyone, it will be for a profit.
    2) Aquilani was just starting to show the type of form to justify his price tag now that he’s finally fit.
    3) Rafa rates him.
    4) The other players rate him.
    5) Where are the quotes from ANYONE to say this story has any merit AT ALL.
    6) I rest my case.

  7. spectator says:

    yes, he didn’t play that often, but when he did he played well. sometimes very well. his creativity is a very rare commodity in the current squad, and if they keep him i’m sure he’ll have a good second season. in the mean time, sell babel, el zhar, degen, riera and spend the money on a good left winger.
    selling the only genuine play-making centre mid in the squad would be mental, which is precisely why benitez will probably do it. even though he’s entitled to 15mil in compensation, i think the club would come out ahead purely from him not being in charge of transfers anymore. sack him and hope that the prince of dubai is serious.

  8. anteater says:

    Let’s put it this way: As soon as Benítez tries to offload Aquilani before the end of next season, he (Benítez) should be sacked without further discussion. He has bought him, and not exactly on the cheap, so it would border on crime to let him go now, especially as he’s been one of very, very few players in our squad who can actually create something or beat an opponent.

  9. jojo says:

    Liverpool Owe Roma 7m, which as to paid before 30 June, Rafa as no money, so he could be force to sell Aquilani as the owner refuse to give any transfer funding.

  10. chas says:

    No hard quotes, just typical lazy journalism in the rags trying to fill inches with the normal crap.

    I agree with the article that he started to play well towards the end of the season and should be given next year to come through :)

  11. RafaTheRed says:

    Lazy Journalism!

    If you haven’t been keeping up kwith current events you’d notice that the 2009 -10 football season is over so you can stop beating up on Liverpool now!!!

  12. Anonymous says:

    hahahaha CUMON THE SPURRRSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. bazza says:

    lol c’mon the spurs…. i can’t wait to see the yids get humiliated in Champs League football!! i like tottenham as a club but some of the fans are ‘elmets!

  14. Michel says:

    Same stories again. If they put Aquılanı for sale lots of fans wıll be disappointed. I am one of them. Why???
    1. This means that will be no funds for next season.
    2. No reınforcements in the transfer period and short and thin squad.
    Another reason ıs that Aquilani ıs a player wıth star qualities, a kind of player that we need. He showed just a hint of what he can do on the pitch and he was ımproving game afther game.If this comes thrue i will start to doubt Rafa’s capability to bring the team on the right track next year. İt wıll prove that lots of criticism about the transfer politics in last 4 years are truth. Liverpool fan, Macedonia

  15. yuan says:

    rafa the idiot should go! not aqua! rafa really a bastard idiot money greedy manager! he should be sack immediately! only those stupid liverpool fans backed him! STUPID Fans!

  16. yuan says:

    rafa is a bastard manager!

  17. PhYz says:

    dont understand how Aquilani could be sold or why a real LFC fan would want him to be…. its fairly simple – 12 appearances and in at least three of those he made a real difference – not quite alonso but intelligent – aware of Gerrard and Torres’ abilities also and showing definite potential to fit in, learn and pick out a pass or few …without the repeated mistakes of say Luis Larcia
    We should get rid of the players who genuinely are not good enough to play in a red shirt revealed through repeated trials and sort out the defence!!!!!
    Has anyone else noticed that our issues are primarily at the back??
    Rafa’s made some odd in-game decisions and some stupid but is still capable of brilliance IMO. But Pellegrino really should bow out and give us back a more coherent / organised defence. OK w/o Torrs we’d struggle up front so that needs addressing but we do have creativity that even Kuyt can get on the end of. If Kuyt is .5 seconds quicker and 30% more confident of his decision making he’d be world class btw!!

  18. PhYz says:

    that’s Garcia btw !!

  19. stef says:

    Please take a second to read this – credit to B_H_B of RAOTL for the original post:

    “While “senior sources” at the club (CP) try to facilitate a smear campaign against the manager, pretend everything is rosy at the club and briefs the press to headline the Rick Parry pay off on the day the club’s financials are tactically released on election results day; here’s what’s really going on at Liverpool Football Club:

    The figures released on Friday 8th May 2010 indicate that Liverpool FC is in net debt to the tune of £351m; an increase of £52m from last year’s figure.

    A total of £233.996m is owed to RBS, in addition to an inter-company loan of £144.441m owed to “Kop Cayman”; a company owned by Gillett and Hicks based in the Cayman Island for tax reasons; a company that have loaned Liverpool FC £144.441m at an interest rate of 10%. This is the “own money” that Gillett and Hicks claim to have put into the club. In reality, they’re just charging the club 10% interest for lending that money through an offshore limited liability company that they aren’t even personally liable for – Liverpool FC are.

    Liverpool FC are not paying the interest off on that £144.4m however. It is being charged as a “compound interest”, meaning the interest isn’t paid, but is instead “rolled up” to the grand total. For example, this year (if I’ve got this right):

    £144.4m @ 10% interest = £14.44m payable this year.

    Instead of paying that £14.44m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £158.88m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

    £158.88m @ 10% interest = £15.88m payable next year.

    Instead of paying that £15.88m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £174.76m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

    £174.76m @ 10% interest = £17.76m payable next year.

    Instead of paying that £17.76m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £192.52m etc etc etc…

    The debt soon spirals out of control, as you can see; and don’t forget, this only concerns the £144.4m owed to Gillett and Hick’s Cayman Islands company – it doesn’t concern the huge £234m owed to RBS.

    The financial figures released last week are for the 2008/09 season.

    Those figures declare the club made a loss of around £52m for that year, due to the interest repayments on the loans and another £22m spent on the new ground; on what that was spent on we have no idea. There’s nothing to show for it anyway – and the total spend on the new ground now exceeds £50m. To put that into perspective – Sunderland managed to build the 48,000 seat Stadium of Light for a lot less than that. We have a few fences up at the back of the Anfield Road End!

    Anyway – we made a loss of £52m that year despite finishing 2nd in the league and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. The accounts also declared a profit made on player transfers (despite Purslow telling us we don’t need to sell players to balance the books and service debt, and Rafa being accused of wasting millions on players – the accounts prove otherwise).

    What are next year’s figures (which will reflect the financial state we’re in today) going to look like with a 7th place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League? We will also have an increased debt to service as explained above.

    Then what about the figures for the next financial year when there’s no Champions League money at all coming in?

    While the current owners are in place, we are going to continue to fall further and further into debt. We cannot meet the repayments on the loan as it stands now, and with our revenue due to fall with the lack of Champions League football, we’re on the brink of going into administration.

    Anyone with hopes of making any signings in the summer or any future transfer windows needs a reality check. We are going to be very lucky to be hold onto the players we’ve got, never mind being able to bring anybody else in.

    Gerrard and Torres don’t want to leave because they don’t like the manager (Purslow is feeding this story to the media to whip up the “Rafa Out campaign”); they want to leave as they know there is zero chance of any new players of any quality arriving at the club in its current state. They also know there’s zero chance of any top class manager coming to the club if Benitez decides to walk or is pushed; no manager worth his salt would come to work at the club under these conditions. They know the club is only going one way.

    Until Gillett and Hicks are removed from the club, we’re only going to decline. It really is as simple as that. Nothing else matters.

    And remember – these debts haven’t been accumulated through overspending in trying to buy success and compete like was the case at Portsmouth, Leeds and various other clubs – they are entirely generated through debt loaded onto the club just so Gillett and Hicks can own us and bleed us dry with expense claims, management fees, arrangement fees for every refinance deal and wasting over £50m of the club’s money on a non-existent new stadium.

    This isn’t the result of bad individual club management as Richard Scudamore of The Premier League claims; it is the result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the cost of buying the club onto the club to repay. Something The Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA should be doing everything in their power to prevent ever happening again.

    2007: £44m debt (£3m per year to service)
    2008: £350m debt (£36.5m per year to service)
    2009: £378m debt (£40m per year to service)
    2010: ???

    Those are the levels of debt on the club, with it being only £44m before Gillett and Hicks bought the club. Therefore the club’s profits were able to be invested back into the squad, allowing us to compete on the pitch. We’re now crippled by debts we cannot service, when that £40m leaving the club each year in interest repayments should be being spent on new players.

    £76.5m has left the club in interest repayments alone in the past 2 years – and in that time – the manager has not spent a single penny on new players. It’s been a sell to buy policy, with profits being made on transfers in the past few transfer windows as the books needed to be balanced; all while the clubs around us are spending to strengthen. How can we be expected to compete under those conditions?

    The debt is growing with every passing day. As a result of the lack of investment in the squad (as well as bad luck with injuries / poor decisions / players out of form etc), we’re paying the price on the field with declining performances which will therefore reduce the club’s revenue even further – giving us even less money to service increasing debts. A vicious circle. It’s unsustainable.

    Liverpool FC is paying £110,000 every single day in interest repayments to service a debt we should never have in the first place. That’s £110,000 a day of the club’s money that me and you generate, that we should be seeing spent on new players or developing the club; instead – we are standing back and watching the club being raped in front of our very eyes.

    YANKS OUT!

  20. […] headlines reading “Liverpool to flog flop Aquilani for loss of £13million” and “Liverpool set to ditch Alberto Aquilani” and paradoxically hailing him as the “new Torben Piechnik.” Who, incidentally, […]

  21. eddy says:

    Must be a slow news day

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