IT was quite apt that Xabi Alonso sat right next to the emergency exit on flight 7208 from Barcelona to Liverpool on Monday night.
It was, after all, that very door which he had been searching for at Anfield for some time previous.
Given the way the relationship between Alonso had Rafa Benitez had deteriorated many had expected a few barbed comments to be fired back and forth from Madrid and Merseyside once the midfielder’s much-longed for moved to Real was completed a couple of days later.
Alonso, though, chose to be professional and passed up the chance to engage in what would have been an unnecessary and unseemly bout of blood letting, choosing to say all the right things about his former club and even talking of the respect he has for his former manager.
For his part, Benitez simply turned his attentions to the future by extolling the virtues of Alberto Aquilani in a football style “the king is dead, long live the king” speech.
With such decency being maintained – in public at least – it is hard to imagine that the pair have been as remote from one another over the past 12 months as it is possible for a manager and player to be.
So it is to their great credit that they have kept their problems with one another in house because at a club where there has been so much in-fighting it is a wonder the staff aren’t issued with gum shields it would have been disastrous if the fall-out between two of its most important employees had extended beyond the Melwood walls.
The low point in their relationship came in Belgium last summer when Alonso’s anger at Benitez’s decision to put him up for sale almost led to him refusing to play in the Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege.
Alonso told his manager that he should pick either Jay Spearing or Damien Plessis so that if he did leave and sign for another club he would not be cup tied in that competition.
When you consider the fright Liege gave Liverpool – who were already without Javier Mascherano – that night then it hardly bears thinking about what might have happened had Alonso also not played.
From that point on though there was to be no way back.
Even though Alonso regained his composure and went on to play a crucial role as Liverpool enjoyed their best league season for almost two decades, the relationship between player and manager was broken and it would not be repaired.
Which is why when it came a parting of the ways was in the best interests of everyone.
Alonso got to return to his native Spain with his young family and what’s more he got a move to a club whose ambition can be smelled in the hundreds of millions of Euros they have splashed out this summer.
At a club where the cash does not flow anything like as freely, Benitez was able to boost his transfer fund to the kind of level which will allow him to bring in the targets he feels will allow Liverpool to make that all important last step from challengers to champions.
It remains to be seen who has got the better end of the deal though.
Benitez will know that unless he spends the money wisely then the joust he had with Real to squeeze every remaining cent out of the Bernabeu coffers will have provided him with nothing more than a pyrrhic victory.
While Alonso must have a nagging doubt at the back of his mind that his new role will be as ring master to the ongoing circus that is Real Madrid.
The midfield stylist may finally have located the emergency exit but whether he will find the professional contentment he so craved is open to question.
It was, after all, that very door which he had been searching for at Anfield for some time previous.
Given the way the relationship between Alonso had Rafa Benitez had deteriorated many had expected a few barbed comments to be fired back and forth from Madrid and Merseyside once the midfielder’s much-longed for moved to Real was completed a couple of days later.
Alonso, though, chose to be professional and passed up the chance to engage in what would have been an unnecessary and unseemly bout of blood letting, choosing to say all the right things about his former club and even talking of the respect he has for his former manager.
For his part, Benitez simply turned his attentions to the future by extolling the virtues of Alberto Aquilani in a football style “the king is dead, long live the king” speech.
With such decency being maintained – in public at least – it is hard to imagine that the pair have been as remote from one another over the past 12 months as it is possible for a manager and player to be.
So it is to their great credit that they have kept their problems with one another in house because at a club where there has been so much in-fighting it is a wonder the staff aren’t issued with gum shields it would have been disastrous if the fall-out between two of its most important employees had extended beyond the Melwood walls.
The low point in their relationship came in Belgium last summer when Alonso’s anger at Benitez’s decision to put him up for sale almost led to him refusing to play in the Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege.
Alonso told his manager that he should pick either Jay Spearing or Damien Plessis so that if he did leave and sign for another club he would not be cup tied in that competition.
When you consider the fright Liege gave Liverpool – who were already without Javier Mascherano – that night then it hardly bears thinking about what might have happened had Alonso also not played.
From that point on though there was to be no way back.
Even though Alonso regained his composure and went on to play a crucial role as Liverpool enjoyed their best league season for almost two decades, the relationship between player and manager was broken and it would not be repaired.
Which is why when it came a parting of the ways was in the best interests of everyone.
Alonso got to return to his native Spain with his young family and what’s more he got a move to a club whose ambition can be smelled in the hundreds of millions of Euros they have splashed out this summer.
At a club where the cash does not flow anything like as freely, Benitez was able to boost his transfer fund to the kind of level which will allow him to bring in the targets he feels will allow Liverpool to make that all important last step from challengers to champions.
It remains to be seen who has got the better end of the deal though.
Benitez will know that unless he spends the money wisely then the joust he had with Real to squeeze every remaining cent out of the Bernabeu coffers will have provided him with nothing more than a pyrrhic victory.
While Alonso must have a nagging doubt at the back of his mind that his new role will be as ring master to the ongoing circus that is Real Madrid.
The midfield stylist may finally have located the emergency exit but whether he will find the professional contentment he so craved is open to question.
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