Through no fault of his own, Alberto Aquilani has come to symbolise another season of unfulfilled potential at Liverpool.
A £20million signing from Roma, he was the man to replace fans’ favourite Xabi Alonso, a playmaker ready to step in and lift some of the burden off Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. The key, perhaps, to ending Liverpool’s 20-year wait for the title.
Four months later and Aquilani has played just 21 minutes of first-team football due to a slow recovery from ankle surgery in the summer and Rafael Benitez’s baffling insistence on holding him back.
Tomorrow night at Anfield, the 25-year-old Italian is expected to make his first start against his compatriots from Fiorentina, but Liverpool are already out of the Champions League and flagging in seventh place at home.
No one is more frustrated than Aquilani himself.
‘Alberto is available to play and has been for more than a month,’ his father Claudio said yesterday. ‘He feels good and the injury has cleared up, and now the only way he can get truly fit is to play more and more minutes.
‘He is desperate to get his career in England up and running. He has been very frustrated, first at being injured, then at not being chosen to play for so long.
‘Obviously he’s not happy at waiting for such a long time to get involved with the team. I don’t know the reasons why Benitez has chosen not to play him since he came back from injury. That is an issue for Alberto. He must convince the coach that he has to play.
‘I don’t know of any special motivation for Benitez in not playing him. The only way he will recover is if he is given the chance to get back to full fitness and play some games.’
Benitez knew Aquilani was not fit when he signed him in August, having decided the attack-minded Italian was ideal to fill the gap left by Alonso’s move to Real Madrid, but thought he would be ready in a month.
However, it is seven weeks since he made his first appearance in a Liverpool shirt in a reserve game against Sunderland at Tranmere.
Since then a player with six years’ experience in Serie A and 11 senior caps for Italy has been restricted to brief appearances as a substitute against Arsenal in the Carling Cup and Birmingham in the League, before a bizarre 30-second cameo away to Debrecen as Liverpool’s Champions League hopes disappeared in Hungary.
On Saturday he was held back again, even though Benitez’s side were struggling to break the deadlock in a goalless draw at Blackburn, with the manager still insisting the time was not right to risk his player’s fitness or the blow to his confidence a mistake might cause.
That night, Aquilani watched the Rome derby with his friends and fiancée Michela Quattrociocche in Liverpool, no doubt growing accustomed to life as a spectator.
But as he prepares finally to make a full debut tomorrow, his father insists he is as determined as ever to make a success of his career in England. He added: ‘Alberto is really happy in Liverpool, he has settled in really well.
‘He’s getting to grips with the language, which was a problem at first, and he’s always
surrounded by friends, family and his fiancée.
‘The Premier League has a huge following in Italy and every-one knows about the important teams, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
‘It’s a great challenge for him and he’s had plenty of time to study the game, how it is played in England and how it’s different from Serie A. He is confident he can adapt.’
First of all he will be up against some familiar faces from Fiorentina, and Liverpool midfielder Lucas yesterday welcomed the prospect of Aquilani finally making his debut for the club.
‘It is exciting that Alberto is going to get his first chance and we are all looking forward to it,’ said the Brazilian. ‘We will give him all the support and respect he needs.
‘People will make comparisons but he is a different player from Xabi. He is more attacking and we can all see that he is going to play in a more advanced role.
‘But he is going to need some time to settle and we will do everything to make that happen quickly.’
For the Liverpool fans who have waited so long to see the £20m man given his chance, it cannot happen quickly enough.
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