Source: Liverpool_Echo
TONY BARRETT: Liverpool FC and Xabi Alonso parting of ways was on good terms
IT was quite apt that Xabi Alonso sat right next to the emergency exit on flight 7208 from Barcelona to Liverpool on Monday night.[LNB]It was, after all, that very door which he had been searching for at Anfield for some time previous.[LNB]Given the way the relationship between Alonso had Rafa Benitez had deteriorated many had expected a few barbed comments to be fired back and forth from Madrid and Merseyside once the midfielder's much-longed for moved to Real was completed a couple of days later.[LNB]Alonso, though, chose to be professional and passed up the chance to engage in what would have been an unnecessary and unseemly bout of blood letting, choosing to say all the right things about his former club and even talking of the respect he has for his former manager.[LNB]For his part, Benitez simply turned his attentions to the future by extolling the virtues of Alberto Aquilani in a football style 'the king is dead, long live the king' speech.[LNB]With such decency being maintained - in public at least - it is hard to imagine that the pair have been as remote from one another over the past 12 months as it is possible for a manager and player to be.[LNB]So it is to their great credit that they have kept their problems with one another in house because at a club where there has been so much in-fighting it is a wonder the staff aren't issued with gum shields it would have been disastrous if the fall-out between two of its most important employees had extended beyond the Melwood walls.[LNB]The low point in their relationship came in Belgium last summer when Alonso's anger at Benitez's decision to put him up for sale almost led to him refusing to play in the Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege.
