I agree he was the reason we came close last season and yes you can't Blame him for wanting to leave but for the good of the motivation in the dressing room and on the pitch he should be sold if he's handed in a written transfer request! It already seems to be a distraction as a senior player jamie carragher has already spoke out ! Alonso is one if my favourite players best passer of the ball probabley in the world at the moment! But if we do get 30 mil that's 15 mil more than we tried to get last season and if he dosnt wanna play it's better we get as much as we can! Aqualini would be a good replacement and your right gerrard and torres partnership should not be broken up as it's key to our premership challenge next season!
Some good points but I don't think Aqualini is the player Alonso is. I think we need to strengthen or side not weaken it. I can appreciate your point about the written request but I think Rafa slyly forced that on him with the ultimatum. I think Rafa wants to sell him but not seem as the bad guy to the fans. He's getting frustrated at the lack of pace of the whole thing and wants the money. Surely if he wanted to keep Alonso he wouldn't have given him an ultimatum. Sure way to agitate him.
I reckon he's as important as Torres and Gerrard. Another thing to bear in mind is that it's working. It might not with another player even if he is top class. Not a good idea to disrupt a winning formula. Big loss methinks, but only time will tell.