Xabi Alonso would be fantastic at Arsenal.
If Liverpool sign Barry, they will sell Alonso
He is an all-round midfield player who would add something special : class and experience.
He is 26 and a strategic anchorman-playmaker who can read the game and hit 40-yard passes and 25-yard shots. He is the best long-passer in the EPL. He speaks English, knows the Premier League inside out, and has won the Champions League.
However, I’ve heard his family is happily settled on Merseyside.
Rafa has to fund his acquisition of Gareth Barry by unloading Xabi Alonso for between £12m and £16m.
Only Rafa knows whether he wants to play Lucas and Mascherano in the middle and Barry on the left side. Would Barry accept that? Maybe. Like Robbie Keane, Barry is desperate to play Champions League football.
Xabi Alonso is just what Arsenal need.
And playing at the Emirates would revive him. I really hope he comes. But I’ll believe it when I see it.
Liverpool signed Xabi Alonso from Real Sociedad for £10.5m in 2004.
Inter Milan have offered £10m for him. He fancied Juventus but Rafa turned down their £15m offer. And Luis Aragones wants him at Fenerbahce.
For years, I wondered why Arsene didn’t sign a few foreign players from the Prem. Nobody ever wrote about that. Nobody ever pointed it out.
Then he signed William Gallas when Ashley Cole went the other way.