The Aquilani Headache

Please post a poll if possible!

I personally feel this is a terrible move - The lad wanted to prove himself this season and he is being packed out "to preserve his transfer value"

Shocking business by Woy.

No way this could be a good decision, losing a very good player without even giving him a chance to prove himself.

Awful decision one of the reason i was looking forward to this season was seeing him play he has the talent, he's just yet to be given a go whilst Poulsen strolls straight in and hasn't warranted a start. When Cole and Gerrard get injured Roy is going to feel the burden on his shoulders for this one big time.

No its terrible business for many reasons.

(1) Aquilani could get plenty of game time here whether it be in the Europa league, League Cup, FA Cup, In rotation with Gerrard & Cole, Along side Gerrard playing lesser teams, Covering for injuries to Cole & Gerrard.

(2) Letting Aquilani go out on loan means we recoup no transfer fee but lose a player with no funds available to replace him.

(3) letting Aquilani go out on loan means that if Gerrard gets injured we will possibly be reliant on a Lucas/Poulsen central midfield pairing if Mascherano leaves and that will stifle us with creativity as playing two defensive midfielders did last season.

(4) He added good strength in depth from the bench and the ability to unpick the lock of a stubborn defense.

(5) 1-0 down at Anfield with 30 minutes to go I'd rather see Aquilani coming on than Lucas or Poulsen as it would give me greater confidence in clawing the game back.

I'm sure there's more but the more I type the more I'm getting pissed off by it.

Stick a poll up mods, I'd be very surprised if it wasn't a %100 bad decision

Only if we don't replace him with a player of similar style (central attacking player who can move the ball). If we were to buy a player like Defour, Van Der Vaart or Banega then it make a bit more sense but as it looks right now that isn't going to be the case so I would say as of right now it is a very poor decision.

A truly diabolical decision when we are crying out for playmakers our manager gets shot of one of the few we have. Oh yes i get it get rid of the skillfull ones and fill our midfield up with headless chickens fcking great plan ROY.

I really am starting to wonder if this is financially motivated, rather than a player issue.  I'm sure we all saw glimpses last season that he could be, if fit, a very good signing.  the only other thing I can think of, offhand, is the new medical team have not given him a glowing report. This certainly stinks to high heavens of off the field shenanigans.

This guy can't be worse than our Lucas-Poulsen combo, which in my eyes, has average written all over it. He should good movement and some clever passes and I cannot believe this would happen.

All it means to me is we get another season with Lucas running around our midfield omg think i will go and pluck my eyes out.

With Joe Cole brought in I see no way how he's going to break in to the first team especially if Mascherano doesn't leave. But to be fair, you've got to question why we bought a crocked player for 18 million and then Rafa was so scared to play in case he got injured again meaning he spent the rest of his injury free time on the f**king bench. Yeah, that did him a lot of good didn't it. Having said that, we should keep him on though giving us extra depth and dimension. But it seems unlikely. Something smells very fishy about it though, making me believe that it is entirely financial.

There goes our midfield depth...

Looks bad at first but I'm not entirely sure about it until we've seen what he's got planned.  There's a very strong chance that there will be a loan fee involved (probably somewhere in the region of a few million) and it also frees up wages.  With that in mind, the loan fee could add to our remaining transfer kitty (being hopeful here) and could potentially have raised enough money to buy someone who could be equally worthwhile but perhaps a little better suited to our needs/the league.  

It seems fairly clear that another player is coming in and quite possibly a change of formation, until we know who or what the planned changes are, I'll reserve judgment.

Just like to know the name behind  the minus whats the point in negging someone then hiding behind a screen, This is a forum is it not criticism goes on all the time because as human beings we are not all going to agree on the same points all the time , does not make me right or whoever right its just a different opinion, at least put youre name to it .

Bad bad decision.Lets hope either this does not materialise before the end of the transfer window or Roy has got someone planeed to replace him.However one good thing that could happen as a result of this move is more game time for Pacheco.

What a shock, instead of discussing the issue at hand, people are using it to slag Lucas.  Sometimes I despair.

I wasn,t slagging off Lucas if i did it would be a lot worse than that i was just pointing out that we will be left with too many holding midfielders  , on his day Lucas does the job he is asked to do very well but my point is, it wont win you many games ,where as someone who can spray the ball about and has vision will win you a lot more.

We could have another thread asking if Aquilani is making the right decision asking to go on loan? Bottom line is that we do not know the facts here. My gut feeling is that Aquilani has had a word in the aftermath of the Arsenal game and asked to go on loan because he wants to play every week. Lets see how this pans out before we jump to conclusions. If he does go out on loan I feel it will be good for him. The lad is injury prone and getting more than 20 games a season out of him seems a stretch at the moment. I also do not believe he has fully settled into this country. There could be many factors here. To put it all in black and white and have a go at the manager without knowing what has happened does not seem right to me.

Lets just see what we have come September 1st qand go from there. Im really looking forward to this season. Had enough negativity last season. Lets be positive and see what happens boys!

I don't know the facts behind this move to send Aquilani out on loan.  I haven't seen anything explaining the reason but if it is a straight swop of Poulson for Aquilani then I think it is a retrograde move.

I know it was Poulson's first game for a while last night but he hasn't got the skill or guile of Aquilani.  You need something special to open up Premiership defences and I think Aquilani has got it.  Poulson has yet to convince me he has this ability.

I'll wait and see.

I wasn,t slagging off Lucas

Yes you were.


And yes, horrific decision by the club. Probably would rank up there with the all time WTF transfer moves.

Really poor decision, I'd expected him to start whenever Gerrard or Cole doesn't - eg. on Monday against City

Unless Roy's got a transfer for Defour or someone in mind it's a very puzzling decision, especially with the Mascherano situation

It's a good decision. We have Cole. Aquilani isn't strong enough to play in the EPL.

Yes you were.


And yes, horrific decision by the club. Probably would rank up there with the all time WTF transfer moves.

All time WTF transfer moves? I do not see how loaning an injury prone player so he can get regular 90 minute football is one of the all time wtf moves. Spending 20m on him knowing his injury record maybe?

No simple as that and if Poulsen is a replacement for Aquilani I think it is a joke.