A Lot of Questions

Far too often in recent years, Liverpool’s internal dramas have been played out in public. It was tasteless and unseemly but at least once Rafael Benitez was handed the new contract that he wanted, the stories seemed to die down.

Or that was the case until the summer began. Because suddenly Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano became daily features in the news: the first being rumoured to be on his way to Real Madrid and the second apparently wanted by (and wanting to go to?) Barcelona. Coming after a season that proved that the foundations were there to take the final step forward and win the league title, the threat of seeing such an effective midfield combination broken up is all the more frustrating.

Yet, away from those two stories, there has been a third player whose apparently unavoidable departure seems to have been forgotten: Alvaro Arbeloa.

Arbeloa’s willingness to leave Liverpool has been rumoured since last summer when it was said that his family hadn’t settled in. Eventually, that story went away but only temporarily. Come the summer and stories about his departure once again started to resurface.

Once Liverpool signed Glen Johnson then this became practically an inevitability and everyone accepted this without any fuss. Real Madrid then came along with their usual low-end bid, expecting Liverpool to roll-over and accept. Only that Benitez was that willing to act like a circus seal and the move has stalled.

At least temporarily since even Benitez has publicly accepted that Arbeloa will leave. Which leads to a whole series of questions and surprises.

First of all, there’s the lack of fuss around his departure. Arbeloa was practically ever-present last year and he had a pretty good season: why isn’t doesn’t anyone seem to care that he will leave? How come his contribution wasn’t appreciated?

There is of course the other side of the picture. Wanting to move back home is understandable if there’s a member of your family who hasn’t settled in. What is much less clear is his eagerness to move to Real Madrid. After all, this is the club that didn’t give him the opportunity to progress when he was younger, not to mention the side that contains Sergio Ramos who is the player that is keeping Arbeloa out of the Spanish national team.

This latter point does at least clear up one thing: the decision to leave is down to Johnson’s arrival because Arbeloa is indicating that he’s more than willing to be considered as the back up option because that is what he’ll be at Real.

It is somewhat disappointing. Liverpool put their fate in Arbeloa three years ago when he hadn’t even played a full season of top-flight football in Spain and helped him develop into a Spanish squad national. Would that have happened had he stayed in Spain? Possibly, but being at Liverpool certainly raised his profile and helped his cause.
Had he opted to go for another club – one where he would have been a regular starter – then it would have been completely different. As things stand, the acceptance of a move to Real seems like a huge waste of talent and frankly borders on the insulting for Liverpool.

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