Steven Gerrard claims ‘heartbreaking’ £30m Liverpool transfer ‘set us back a long time’
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Steven Gerrard believes Liverpool took a ‘step back’ when Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid (The Overlap) Steven Gerrard has described Liverpool’s decision to sell Xabi Alonso as ‘heartbreaking’ and a ‘step back’ for the club. Gerrard, who flourished in his midfield partnership with Alonso, believes Liverpool became a worse team when they sold the Spaniard. ‘At the time Liverpool weren’t splashing the most money but that was the moment I felt you got the closest to us,’ Gary Neville told Gerrard on The Overlap. ‘I think it was when Alonso left, I felt that was a massive sort of…’ Gerrard interjected: ‘Step back.’ Get your football fix Metro's weekly newsletter In The Mixer delivers punchy analysis and breakdowns of the biggest football stories directly to your inbox.
Steven Gerrard says he was heartbroken by Xabi Alonso’s exit at Liverpool in 2009 (AFP via Getty) Neville replied: ‘A massive step back, and you brought in the lad from Italy, [Alberto] Aquilani.’ Gerrard said: ‘That was heartbreaking as well. Because you think to yourself we’ve put so much in to try to close, it felt like we were getting closer and then you take one of those big signings out. ‘It can set you back, it can set you back a long time, especially when you’ve played with them and you think they are the people who can win games for you. ‘He [Alonso] was such a big player for us, how we played, everyone sees him as a good player from the outside but when you’re on the pitch with him, he was top.’ Jamie Carragher said: ‘We’ve both got unbelievable respect for Rafa [Benitez], he took your game, you said, to another level, took mine to a completely different level in terms of being centre-back and Champions League final, I was happy to just be a Liverpool player, playing every week. ‘I always look back at the Alonso one, it goes back 12 months before, it got a bit messy, Alonso wanted to leave at that stage because he wasn’t playing as much.
But I look at Rafa there and it was almost like he wanted to win this fight with Alonso about staying or going. I just thought, you’ve had that fight, you’ve won the fight because the player is playing amazing, just move this team forward, and then it got to the summer and it was like, ‘right, let’s carry on this fight again’. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Real Madrid started coming for Xabi but get him to sign a new contract, or just say he’s not going, we’re that close here. ‘It was almost like a personal thing.