The Xabi Alonso Deal Is Done

We have the final piece of the puzzle. Real has confirmed it on their website, so we get Alonso for 30 million euros, a rather overblown fee, on a five year contract worth 4.5 million. Xabi will be the final signing of a remarkable transfer window for Real, who have strengthened every area of the team that fans pointed out were weak, and have begun cutting the fat off the squad, with players that the fans singled out as needing be sold actually beings sold. Amazing right! Anyways, Xabi is a Real player almost five years after Florentino Perez refused to fork out just 13 million for him after he had just completed two magnificent seasons with Sociedad, including a title run in 02/03 which Real pipped them too, and a Champions League campaign that Alonso excelled in. Liverpool soon swopped in for the player and Real instead bought Thomas Gravesen and had Helguera and Celades as backups, after the transfer for Patrick Viera also failed. Perez wanted Viera more then Alonso, and ended up getting neither, one of the biggest blunders in the clubs history.

I find this move ironic because it was this exact transfer, coupled with Claude Makelele leaving, that caused all sorts of bother in the Real administration. Jorge Valdano was reportedly so infuriated with Perez’s unwillingness to purchase Alonso as a replacement for Makelele that he quit after the season, and we all know how it snow balled from there. But besides my almost anger in the fact that this transfer did not take place ages ago, I am pleased that the Real Madrid management have gone out and gotten the pieces needed to build an excellent team. Of course it will never replace the joy of seeing Marcos Tebar or Javi Garcia step up to the challenge of a starter, but we have seen that neither of them are really prepared to do that, so this is our other course of action. The fact that it is yet another Spanish player added to the mix is a different kind of bonus of course.

Alonso will thus slot in to a busy central midfield that already boasts Lass Diarra, Mahamadou Diarra and Fernando Gago, with Gago being the odds on favorite to go out the door as Granero, Guti and Sneijder are all also capable of playing a less defensive, but acceptable role in the center of the midfield. Alonso can be considered a starter with the fee spent on him, a ridiculous 30 million, but the deal is done and we welcome him to Madrid. Alonso has past his medical and should join the squad for the second session of training today before traveling with the team to the US to take on Toronto FC and DC United. So Cesar and I (and anyone else going to the friendlies in the US) can see Alonso in action for the first time, along with Albiol and Kaka who will play their first matches for the team.

Let me know what you think of the Alonso signing, the repercussions it has on the rest of the squad and if the squad is finally complete.

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Category: Team News