Wenger baulks at Liverpool's £18m price tag, as he dreams of a
Spanish midfield axis at Arsenal
Arsène Wenger wants Xabi Alonso to form a Spanish
midfield axis with Cesc Fábregas at Arsenal next season, provided
Liverpool dramatically lower their £18m price for the marginalised
playmaker.
Arsenal have made an initial approach for the 26-year-old
Alonso, who has been told he can leave Anfield for the right price.
His first-team prospects are threatened by the imminent arrival of
Gareth Barry; Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benítez, hopes finally to
complete the saga of Barry's £18m transfer from Aston Villa this
week, after Martin O'Neill was forced to make a U-turn over his
captain's future, and has insisted on a similar fee for Alonso as
he attempts to balance the books.
Benítez's price tag, however, has deterred Arsenal from
returning with a firm offer for a player they value at closer to
the £10.5m Liverpool paid Real Sociedad for him four years ago. The
deal will remain only a remote possibility unless Arsenal revise
their stance or, despite Benítez's insistence that Alonso and Barry
can operate in his already crowded central midfield, the Liverpool
manager's need to raise funds forces a compromise.
"I don't think it will be easy [for him to leave]," admitted
Benítez in Glasgow on Saturday. "The value of Alonso in the market
will be really high. We are really pleased with him and we don't
want him to go unless we get a very good price."
Liverpool had intended to sell Alonso to Juventus to finance
Barry's transfer but, despite the collapse of that deal and a lack
of suitors apart from Arsenal, Benítez will sign Villa's captain
provided Liverpool's co-owners underwrite a loan to conclude the
£18m deal. Tom Hicks and George Gillett promised the money before
Villa's deadline to complete the transfer last week, only for a
revised payment structure to cause Liverpool to miss the cut-off
point - whereupon Villa issued a statement insisting, farcically,
that the deal was off.
Liverpool's willingness to meet Villa's asking price led Barry
and his agent, Alex Black, to insist again on the move on Friday
morning. O'Neill and Randy Lerner, Villa's owner, then ended their
resistance and put the onus back on Liverpool to come up with the
package they had promised last week. "I gave it some thought and
realised there is little point in pretending," said the Villa
manager. "Gareth would want to join Liverpool and therefore there
would be no deadline. I have agreed with Gareth now. That's it, no
problem: Liverpool have all the time in the world to do it if they
want to raise the money."