Why won’t the Aqua Rumours evaporate?

With the Fabregas-Barcelona switch turning into a repetitive bore fest, there is a new name constantly cropping up on the back pages. His name: Alberto Aquilani. In the past month or so, he’s been linked to many different clubs, including AC Milan, Fiorentina and most surprisingly, Chelsea.

But why is he so suddenly the talk of the town? It has been frustrating to read day after day, Aqua constantly being linked to other clubs. It is known that Alberto is unsettled at Anfield and he has been the standout performer in Liverpool’s preseason escapades. Many journalists have put 2 and 2 together and have come out with 5.

Even though Aquilani is unsettled at Liverpool, it isn’t something that can’t be fixed. He feels alienated because of Roy Hodgson sending him out on loan when he was starting to show why he was bought to the club by Benitez. Also, he is the scapegoat of the Premier League. Whenever there is an article about Alberto, the word ‘flop’ never seems to be very far away.

Journalists need to give the guy a break. He was injured when he was signed. Could he help it? No. He needed to adapt to a very physical Premier League. Could he help it? No. At the end of Rafa’s reign, you could see that Aqua was finding his groove with goals against Portsmouth and Athletico Madrid, and an assist which saw Liverpool on their way to beating Spurs by 2 goals to 0.

It is fair to say Alberto has been the standout performer for Liverpool in preseason. Even though I think he’s been great in preseason, people need to calm down. The teams Liverpool has been playing are Championship/League One standard (with the exception of Galatasaray). The only reason why he stood out is because the rest of Liverpool’s so called second team are very poor indeed. Kyrgiakos, Poulsen, Cole, Ngog. Need I go on?

The simple reason why the Aquilani rumours won’t go away is because journalists think that an unsettled player mixed in with some good preseason performances equals a move to another club. It simply doesn’t happen like that. And with the injury to Steven Gerrard, Aquilani’s move away doesn’t seem very likely.

Josh. Mcgrillen