Football: Alonso asks to leave as cracks show in the Liverpool hierarchy
Andy Hunter The Guardian, Saturday August 16 2008
The fall-out from Liverpool's arduous pursuit of Gareth Barry continued yesterday when Xabi Alonso asked to leave Anfield and Rafael Benítez revealed evidence of his strained relationship with the club's chief executive, Rick Parry.
Alonso, a recent transfer target for Juventus and Arsenal, wants to be sold having become disillusioned with the manager's attempts to finance the Barry deal by off-loading the Spain international amid concerns that his first team chances will be reduced this season. The 26-year-old has not submitted a transfer request, but has asked the club to renew its efforts to sell him in the coming weeks - a stance that will alert the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger.
Arsenal are the only club to have made an official inquiry about Alonso since his proposed transfer to Juventus collapsed over Liverpool's £18m valuation. They too, however, share the Italians' view that Liverpool's price-tag is excessive and are only prepared to pay around £12m for the playmaker who moved to Anfield from Real Sociedad for £10.5m in 2004. Without a compromise from either party Alonso will be left in limbo this season but Benítez remains intent on signing Barry, who is also valued at £18m by Aston Villa, and is prepared to sell his compatriot and/or Jermaine Pennant and Andriy Voronin to fund the transfer of his own accord.
Benítez was refused a short-term loan to complete the Barry transfer last week by the Liverpool owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, with Parry, while denying the Americans had not backed their manager's judgement, issuing a statement that confirmed Villa's asking price was "too high". The Liverpool manager has since had e-mail conversations with the Americans and has been told money is available for other transfers. But yesterday he dismissed suggestions he had driven up Barry's price by publicly revealing Liverpool's interest before the end of last season and that the failure to sell Alonso had changed the club's transfer policy. In doing so, he indicated the Liverpool chief executive was accountable for the Barry saga now entering its fourth month.
"I get blamed for everything, for global warming to high petrol prices," said Benítez. "But in this case [Barry] I want to be very clear. Since I talked to Martin O'Neill about the situation in April, I have not talked to anyone at Aston Villa. All the talks have been between our chief executive Rick Parry, the owner and the chief executive of Aston Villa. And those talks have all been pretty good.
"If anyone wants to talk about Barry in the future they must talk with the owner, Rick Parry or the chief executive of Aston Villa. I was not involved in the talks about Barry, I was not involved in the talks about Alonso and Arsenal. If you want to talk about these players you must talk to the chief executive of our club who was handling the discussions. If you want to talk about football, then you talk with me."
The Liverpool manager remains confident of a resolution before the close of the transfer window, however. "We continue working and we have time. I have some players in mind," he added.
Please tell me this is not true?!!
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