Liverpool Football Club News

• Nickname:Reds
• Founded:1892
• Manager:Kenny Dalglish

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Rafa urges Alonso to stay

25 Jul 2009 - 11:42:43

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Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has urged Xabi Alonso to stay at Anfield as speculation linking the Spain international with a transfer to Real Madrid intensifies.

Real's sporting director, Miguel Pardeza, said earlier in the week that his club remained hopeful of being able to agree a deal to bring Alonso to the Bernabeu while the player himself has spoken of how flattered he is to be linked with a move to the big-spending Spanish giants.

But Benitez revealed: "I was talking to him (Alonso) yesterday and telling him to listen to the fans. They love Xabi.

"I said to him, 'Maybe you have to stay.'

"You can see he is a really good player and I'll be really pleased if he stays. All the players and his team-mates want him to stay. If we keep Xabi I will be very pleased."

Pardeza had earlier said: "The problem with Alonso is there are no alternatives, with the way football is evolving, the creative central midfielder is becoming rarer and rarer.

"Alonso is not a fad, there are just not many alternatives - not in the Americas or in Europe are there players who can perform his task.

"They stalled, from day one - the demands of Liverpool were beyond what Madrid was willing to pay and that is very difficult to understand.

"That is not the way to get things done, but I have not given up hope we can solve this."