Alonso's Departure: A Silver Lining?

It is a pity that the inevitable happened so close to the curtains being raised for the new season -- 10 more days before we meet Spurs -- but then it is better now than next week I guess. Rafa comfirmed that Alonso made his decision two months ago and that would have given Rafa ample time to plot the strategy for the new season.

Alonso, after five good years at LFC, has gone and life goes on for us because he is not the first important player that have left for greener pastures, and will not be the last. His skills and professionalism will be remembered always. Especially his professionalism. Never once did he moan and groan about his problems to the press. When he first arrived, he was quite an unknown to us. We knew about his close relationship with Rafa afterwards. We saw his quick thinking with the ball at his feet and his famous accurate passes and some spectacular goals that included embarrasing the opponents' keepers. But sadly, he will not be remembered as one of the greatest players or a legend for us.

At times, we used to complain about how his skills was not really good enough to prise open the defence of the teams that came to Anfield and parked the bus in front of the goal. Some fans even went further and deemed this as Rafa's weakness or his negative approach of not wanting to win games but more like not wanting to lose games. And this was the reason we dropped points and did not win the league last season.

Well, with Alonso gone now, Rafa has the opportunity to change his tactics, which might see us with player/s brought in that could change the outcome of these difficult games against the so-called weak teams we need to win against to win the league. Fans that have said Rafa was building his team around Alonso, to the effect that we dropped crucial points because we lacked the ability to kill off games, will definitely be happy with the departure of Alonso.

As the transfer fee was not disclosed, we do not really know how much Real paid for Alonso or whether it was paid in cash or in instalments. But we do know that Rafa was always in control of the situation and not Parry, and we can conclude that the fee should be around 30M which was mentioned time and time again. If that were to be the case, it was a good business deal for us and hopefully the large part of the funds is given to Rafa to strengthen the squad and also maybe for one formidable CM who will not only compensate the missing Alonso but also someone who has the ability to win us the games against the difficult teams.

And in Rafa we trust.

YNWA