The article says this: This suggests the deal might be dependent upon the sale of Michael Owen, and it's hard to say what the chances of that happening are at this point.
I think that Liverpool are using the ties between Sociedad and Madrid's management to help them succure Alonso easily in exchange for selling Owen to Madrid and not even considering Barca.
Not quite sure what you mean here. Could you ellaborate? I was under the impression that since the Viera deal fell through, Madrid would try and snub Alonso from us.
This seems to be the case. I hope he's in the bag already, because if they take Owen and steal Alonso from us... BAD WEEK. VERY BAD WEEK. grrrrr.
Madrid will probably totally screw us over by getting Owen for barely anything and then stealing Alonso.
Ok, this is from another site's BBS, but made me feel better anyway. no telling if it's true... "Just checked some of the Spanish papers. Marca say that Real are chasing two players after the Viera talks broke down, Maniche and Coloccini. Supposedly the've made a €16 million bid for Maniche but it's not been confirmed. No mention of Alonso anywhere. 'AS' states that Real have Colloccini as their number one target and that the option of Alonso had bitten the dust as he only needs to put pen to paper to become a Liverpool player for a fee of €16 million - £10.7 million. So everyone should relax about Alonso. He's on his way. " Well, I hope it's true. <fingers crossed>
I wouldn't be suprised if part of the Owen to Real deal was a gentlemen's agreement that Real would not hijack the Xabi to LFC deal. In fact, I'd wager that was a 2+ mil pound 'coupon' on the Owen deal...figuring in to his low price overall. But I think it is worth it...Xabi is a fantastic and creative DM.
Here's some recent news from soccernet. It looks like Xabi's move is getting closer and closer. I'm really excited about this guy. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=307308&cc=5901
Yeah, a while . . ., like 14 years! Almost can't believe someone remembers me! Yeah, I was pretty active on here from 2001 to 2005. Moved to Brazil in spring of 2005* to pursue a relationship and didn't have means to watch Liverpool games much at all (and didn't always have regular internet access), so I primarily became a lurker here, which I have remained to this day. Got married and lived in Brazil for 6+ years. We had our first child there months before moving to the States in 2011. We now have four kids who leave me with limited time and money left over for my own interests, but, thanks to one fubo.tv trial week after another, I have watched more Liverpool games this season than any since 2004/05*, and my 6-yr old son has been by my side for most of them to make it even more special. * - I had just moved to Brazil before the Champions League semifinal versus Chelsea and the historic final victory over AC Milan. I had found a sports bar that showed Champions League games where I stood out both as a gringo with very rudimentary Portuguese and as a Liverpool fan (Chelsea and Milan both had pretty strong support among Brazilians, including my wife-to-be). I had to take a bit of stick in the final through halftime, but left that place with my head held high and a huge smile, having had one of my all-time best sports fan experiences.