Didn't he used to be rubbish? Xabi Alonso of Spain

Very few football folk in England thought the midfielder Xabi Alonso, a £10.5m buy for Liverpool in 2004 was rubbish, but one who clearly did was enigmatic goatee-bearded, Simpsons-sock wearing former Reds manager Rafa Benítez. Having unsettled the Basque during the 2007-8 season by occasionally replacing him in the starting line-up with the hapless nincompoop Lucas Leiva, Anfield's tactical mastermind expended a good deal of energy during the transfer window trying to offload his compatriot to Juventus in order to raise funds to buy Gareth Barry. • Follow the Guardian's World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our daily Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more The idea that England's leaden-legged, possession-surrendering holding midfield letdown would do a better job than Alonso gives a clear indication that Rafa had somehow conceived that the Spain ever-present was utter crap. When Xabi engineered a £30 million move to Real Madrid the following summer, after Barry's decision to ditch his dream of playing for Liverpool in favour of a bank-balance busting deal with Manchester City, Benítez came over all humpy and blustered that Alonso hadn't shown any loyalty, a claim that was accompanied by the sound of glass-house shattering and an argument between a pot and a kettle over their relative shades of darkness. Luckily for the incoming Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson, Lucas is still available.