Alonso Out - Aquilani In For Liverpool

With Real Madrid and Manchester City coming to the end of their respective rape and pillaging of the transfer market, the rest of the football world are starting to think that it might be safe to go outside again.

If Real club president Florentino Perez is to be believed (and he almost always isn’t), the £30m capture of Liverpool and Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso will be the final act of Los Merengues’ attempt at re-creating the ‘Galáctico’ era, which also saw enormous spending but brought only moderate, un-sustained success. Alonso follows Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul Albiol to the Bernabau as Real seek to exorcise the demons of last season, which saw bitter rivals Barcelona hammer Real 6-2 at the Santiago Bernabau on the way to sweeping a league, cup and European treble.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has moved quickly to replace Alonso, with AS Roma accepting a £20m bid for Italy midfielder Alberto Aquilani the following day. Aquilani was long-touted as one of Europe’s top midfield prospects but, at 25, his development has stagnated somewhat recently, with injuries restricting the Roman to just 73 appearances over the last three seasons. Aquilani is expected to fly in to Liverpool this week to discuss personal terms, with Benitez hoping to have the deal tied up in time for Liverpool’s season opener away at Tottenham in just over a week’s time.

Elsewhere AC Milan have agreed a deal to take Real Madrid’s Dutch International striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to the San Siro. Huntelaar only joined Real during the January 2009 transfer window but, despite hitting form towards the end of last season, he has already found himself surplus to requirements at the Bernabau following Real’s massive summer spending spree.

Darren Bent finally completed his move to Sunderland after the Black Cats and Bent’s former employers Tottenham Hotspur finally came to an agreement on over a fee for the England International. The deal looked in doubt due to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s determination to recoup the money spent on flops such Bent (who was actually Spur’s top scorer last season) and David Bentley. Unsurprisingly, Levy has as yet been unable to find a club willing to match the £15m Tottenham paid Blackburn for Bentley’s services 12 months ago.