Rafa Benitez’s decision to try and sell Xabi Alonso in order to sign Gareth Barry back in the summer of 2008 now makes more sense.
Benitez is thought of incredibly highly at Liverpool, but one decision that left many supporters baffled was him trying to replace Alonso with Barry 11 years ago.
Although the Englishman was a good player in his own right at that point, he was a far inferior midfielder to the Reds’ legendary Spaniard.
In a Q&A with The Athletic, however, Benitez has explained what his plan really was all along:
The Barry story is something that still people don’t understand.
Barry had been playing for years at his maximum level and, at this time, he could play in three positions: midfielder, winger and left-back.
We had Mascherano Lucas Leiva and Gerrard with experience, and selling Alonso was a way to make some money and balance the team.
Barry wasn’t to replace Alonso, he was to give us something different that we didn’t have at this time.
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It’s good that Benitez has finally brought an end to the debate, considering how much has been made of it.
Firstly, choosing to sell Alonso was a bad move, even though he would have generated huge funds and hadn’t been on top form the previous season.
His influence in the middle of the park was vast and Barry would never have reached that level in the middle of the park.
In fairness to Benitez, though, it was never a like-for-like replacement and Barry would have brought invaluable versatility.
As it happened, neither move ever came to fruition, with Alonso leaving for Real Madrid the following summer.
