At 11 mil and a place in the Spanish side, I think Alonso was a little more than a lesser-known guy. For me, Xabi was Rafa's best signing last summer (Houllier gets the credit for chasing down Cisse) gave us the most payoff.
Isnt Michael Ballack on a free next season???? We need to snap him up. He's a perfect replacement for Gerrard.
Encouraging piece on Mark Gonzales fromt the BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/4649849.stm
Mark will be a perfect player for us away from home!If liverpool can somehow connect Xabi and Gonzalez,i can already imagine xabi sending long balls in counter attack,gonzalez using his pace to beat of defenders and scoring many goals on the break!