{"id":1138230,"date":"2020-03-26T10:36:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T10:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1138230"},"modified":"2020-03-26T10:36:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T10:36:13","slug":"xabi-alonso-begging-to-leave-liverpool-for-arsenal-cesc-fabregas","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/xabi-alonso-begging-to-leave-liverpool-for-arsenal-cesc-fabregas\/","title":{"rendered":"How Arsenal missed out on Xabi Alonso despite midfielder \u201cbegging\u201d to leave Liverpool: \u2019They were \u00a33m short\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cesc Fabregas has revealed fellow Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso was begging to leave Liverpool for Arsenal in 2009, but the Gunners&#8217; hierarchy failed to make the deal happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By then, Alonso had spent five seasons at Anfield, forming brilliant midfield partnerships with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano as the Reds won Champions League and FA Cup titles.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How close was Alonso to joining Arsenal? Five things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Alonso played 210 times during a five-year stay with Liverpool.<\/li>\n<li>The Spaniard helped the club to FA Cup and Champions League titles during that time.<\/li>\n<li>But in 2009, manager Rafa Benitez informed Alonso he was to be sold.<\/li>\n<li>He signed for Real Madrid after Arsenal and Juventus fell \u00a33m short of his \u00a318m valuation.<\/li>\n<li>Fabregas has revealed Alonso spoke to him on a &#8220;day-to-day&#8221; basis of wanting to join Arsenal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"Audioboom player\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/posts\/7533381\/embed\/v4\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nBut Alonso was told he could leave by then-Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, who reportedly wanted to bring Gareth Barry to Merseyside from Aston Villa to replace his compatriot.<\/p>\n<p>Barry never did join Liverpool but Alonso still left Anfield to join Real Madrid, although things could have turned out very differently according to Fabregas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He\u2019s one. I was with Xabi on the phone the whole summer,&#8221; Fabregas told <a href=\"https:\/\/arseblog.com\/2020\/03\/episode-570-cesc-fabregas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arsecast<\/a> when asked about players Arsenal missed out on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not a director, I see it from a player\u2019s point of view. If it was me, if I wanted to go somewhere like I went to Arsenal, I do my everything to go to Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Takumi Minamino: How Japanese fans support Liverpool&#039;s new signing | \u5357\u91ce \u62d3\u5b9f\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7qsprIbhfVE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC_QgsfA8W1TdLADOz0txpTg?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I see that when a player wants to go somewhere, it\u2019s easy. Forget contracts. Okay, sometimes it\u2019s more difficult, if you have a long contract or something, but normally it should happen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And yeah, Xabi Alonso was one of them. I mean I was living it day-to-day because he was texting me all the time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember the whole holiday I was talking to him, he was texting me: &#8216;What\u2019s happening?&#8217; And it was a shame, because I think he would have been a great, great, great addition to that team. He was made for Arsenal, I think.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Alonso: Arsenal were just \u00a33m short<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In an exclusive interview with the Liverpool Echo&#8217;s &#8220;Anfield Extra&#8221; show in March 2017, Alonso himself revealed that Arsenal, as well as Italian giants Juventus, were only \u00a33m short of the Reds&#8217; \u00a318m valuation of him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said to him, \u2018Rafa, of course. I need to accept this \u2013 you are the ones who make these decisions\u2019. But, in the end, nothing happened,&#8221; Alonso <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/exclusive-interview-xabi-alonso-life-12788678\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1138192\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/football-manager-2020-tactics-basic-mistakes-everyone-makes\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1138192\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1138192\" src=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-66x37.jpg 66w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-620x350.jpg 620w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/03\/24174629\/1138140_1138140_FOOTBALL-MANAGER-MISTAKES-940x530.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1138192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/football-manager-2020-tactics-basic-mistakes-everyone-makes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Football Manager 2020 tactics: Basic mistakes everyone makes<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;My position changed a little bit because I wasn\u2019t expecting the manager to say I could be sold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u00a0was really close to Juventus and I was close to Arsenal. But, it was just \u00a33m. Liverpool were asking \u00a318m and both offered \u00a315m \u2013 so that\u2019s why it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Los Blancos were, indeed, the club to front the cash in the end and Alonso went on to win four major trophies during his five-year stay at the Bernabeu, including the 2013\/14 Champions League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cesc Fabregas has revealed fellow Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso was begging to leave Liverpool for Arsenal in 2009, but the Gunners&#8217; hierarchy failed to make the deal happen. By then, Alonso had spent five seasons at Anfield, forming brilliant midfield partnerships with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano as the Reds won Champions&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1091705,"parent":0,"menu_order":2706,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Liverpool news: Alonso was desperate to join Arsenal, Fabregas reveals","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Cesc Fabregas has revealed how close fellow Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso came to joining Arsenal back in 2009.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1138230","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Liverpool news: Alonso was 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Die spanische Staatsanwaltschaft fordert im Zuge der Ermittlungen wegen Steuerbetrugs fuenf Jahre Gefaengnis f\u00b8r den 36-Jaehrigen \u2013 sowie zusaetzlich eine Geldstrafe in Hoehe von vier Millionen Euro. Archivfoto; Xabi ALONSO (Bayern Muenchen) in zivil,privat, Einzelbild,angeschnittenes Einzelmotiv,Portraet,Portrait,Portr\u2248 t. Fussball 1. Bundesliga, 22. Spieltag, FC Bayern Muenchen (M)-Hamburger SV (HH) 8-0, am 25.02.2017 in Muenchen\/Deutschland, A L L I A N Z A R E N A. \u00ac *** The former FC Bayern star Xabi Alonso threatens a sentence of several years The Spanish prosecutor demands in the course of investigations for tax fraud five years imprisonment for the 36 year old \u2013 and additionally a fine in the amount of four million euros archive photo Xabi ALONSO Bayern Munich in civil privately individual image trimmed single motive Portrait Portrait Portr\u2248t Soccer 1 Bundesliga 22 Match day FC Bayern Muenchen M Hamburger SV HH 8 0 on 25 02 2017 in Muenchen Germany ALLIANZARENA \u00ac."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/xabi-alonso-begging-to-leave-liverpool-for-arsenal-cesc-fabregas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Squawka","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How Arsenal missed out on Xabi Alonso despite midfielder \u201cbegging\u201d to leave Liverpool: \u2019They were \u00a33m short\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/","name":"Squawka | EN","description":"Football News, Stats, and More...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/dcaaeb201e0e17d78934592371278e5c","name":"Chris Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris Jones"},"description":"Gold Standard NCTJ-qualified sports journalist from England. 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