Steven Gerrard claims £30m Liverpool transfer ‘set us back a long time’ | Football

Steven Gerrard has described Liverpool’s decision to sell Xabi Alonso as ‘heartbreaking’ and a ‘step back’ for the club.

Alonso had played a key role in Liverpool’s push for the Premier League title in the 2008-09 season where Rafa Benitez’s side finished second, four points behind champions Manchester United.

But after a fall-out with Benitez, Alonso pushed to leave Liverpool in the summer of 2009 and he ended up joining Real Madrid in a £30 million deal.

Gerrard, who flourished in his midfield partnership with Alonso, believes Liverpool became a worse team when they sold the Spaniard.

‘At the time Liverpool weren’t splashing the most money but that was the moment I felt you got the closest to us,’ Gary Neville told Gerrard on The Overlap.

‘I think it was when Alonso left, I felt that was a massive sort of…’

Gerrard interjected: ‘Step back.’

Neville replied: ‘A massive step back, and you brought in the lad from Italy, [Alberto] Aquilani.’

Gerrard said: ‘That was heartbreaking as well. And also the [Fernando] Torres one as well. Because you think to yourself we’ve put so much in to try to close, it felt like we were getting closer and then you take one of those big signings out.

‘It can set you back, it can set you back a long time, especially when you’ve played with them and you think they are the people who can win games for you.

‘He [Alonso] was such a big player for us, how we played, everyone sees him as a good player from the outside but when you’re on the pitch with him, he was top.’

Jamie Carragher said: ‘We’ve both got unbelievable respect for Rafa [Benitez], he took your game, you said, to another level, took mine to a completely different level in terms of being centre-back and Champions League final, I was happy to just be a Liverpool player, playing every week.

‘I always look back at the Alonso one, it goes back 12 months before, it got a bit messy, Alonso wanted to leave at that stage because he wasn’t playing as much. Rafa was trying to bring Gareth Barry in, it was almost going to be a bit of a swap, it doesn’t happen. Then Alonso has a magnificent season, we almost win the league, we get close, it feels like a great team. But I look at Rafa there and it was almost like he wanted to win this fight with Alonso about staying or going. I just thought, you’ve had that fight, you’ve won the fight because the player is playing amazing, just move this team forward, and then it got to the summer and it was like, ‘right, let’s carry on this fight again’.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Real Madrid started coming for Xabi but get him to sign a new contract, or just say he’s not going, we’re that close here.

‘It was almost like a personal thing. Rafa was really good, he always had the fans onside but he almost lost, Alonso had won the battle, I just feel it could’ve been sorted between the two of them.’

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