There has been some discussion over the last few days about Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani so I thought I'd have a quick look at two of our players who spent last season away from Anfield.
From Brendan Rodgers interviews since he took over it looks like Cole will be given a chance to show what he can do at Liverpool. Anybody who saw him play in his single season with us will know he certainly wasn't anything special, in fact he struggled to reach the level of 'average' most of the time. Cole is a player who has proven himself more than capable of holding his own in the Premier League at West Ham and Chelsea and I think we really have nothing to lose by giving him next season to try to settle in and make a positive impact for Liverpool. His attitude is good and last season at Lille he did well so hopefully his ability allied to his application will provide us with a good attacking option for the 2012/13 season.
Aquilani is a different case entirely. He was signed for big money whilst injured and had the unenviable task of trying to replace Xabi Alonso who had just had by far his best season for us. In my opinion he was beginning to show positive signs towards the end of his sole season in the red shirt. I recall him playing well behind Dirk Kuyt in a 2-0 victory against Spurs and also he was impressive in the UEFA Cup semi final against Atletico Madrid. And then we changed manager. And the new manager was Roy Hodgson. And Aquilani was an attack minded player. And he was sent out on loan to Juventus for the purpose, according to the new boss himself, of keeping his value high. The following season saw us kick off with yet another manager and Aquilani was again sent out on loan, this time to AC Milan. I quite like Aquilani and I think he has the potential to be a good player for us, he has good vision and a decent long range shot on him, and we've struggled to find someone who can provide real creativity in the final third to help ease the pressure on Steven Gerrard. The problem with Aquilani now is that he has too short a time left on his contract. To offer a new deal to a player who hasn't proved himself with us would be foolish so that's not really an option. And if we use him in the first team next season and he plays well it's difficult to see him remaining with us rather than going back to Italy on a free transfer. As much as I'd like to see him become a success for us I think the most realistic way forward for the club and the player is for us to attempt to sell him this summer and recoup as much money as we possibly can for him.
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