Liverpool Football Club News

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Aquilani deal pleases Benitez

13 Aug 2009 - 09:00:38

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Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is confident that new signing Alberto Aquilani will prove to be an adequate replacement for Spain international Xabi Alonso.

Alonso has headed home to join Real Madrid, with 25-year-old Italy international Aquilani drafted in from Roma to take his place, although he is currently recovering from an ankle injury.

Benitez told the Daily Mirror: "If Aquilani was in a normal market he would cost £25-30million, but because of the operation he had on his ankle he was a bit cheaper.

"We have to wait for a month for him to be fit, but he is a player we are signing for five years, not for five matches.

"He had a bad tackle and an operation and that's normal he missed matches. It would have been the same with Fernando Torres or Steven Gerrard. That is why I don't think his signing is a gamble.

"I was talking with a lot of people in Italy and people are saying it is a fantastic signing.

"Alberto is now under the control of our medical staff because he had been going to different people. He has the quality to settle down well in England."