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• Midfielder joins Italian club on a season-long loan
• Liverpool manager hcould not guarantee him a start

Alberto Aquilani has joined Juventus on loan for the rest of the season. The midfielder, signed by Rafael Benítez for Liverpool last year for £18m, was deemed surplus to requirements at Anfield after Internazionale ended their interest in Javier Mascherano.

The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, was holding out for £25m for Mascherano and was unwilling to deplete his midfield options by letting Aquilani move until he knew whether the Inter would match his valuation for the Argentinian. Massimo Moratti, the Italian club’s president, confirmed yesterday that he would not.

Aquilani, who joined from Roma as a replacement for Xavi Alonso, was unable to make his debut for Liverpool until October due to an ankle injury and then only started nine games for the club, failing to make an impact in the process.

Hodgson felt he was could not offer the 26-year-old a guarantee of first team football either, saying: “He came here to play every week as a very expensive signing, the first name on the team sheet. But with Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano and Joe Cole, it’s going to be very hard for me to say: ‘You’ll always be the first name on that team sheet,’ so he would risk not getting enough games again.”

The Liverpool manager now hopes Aquilani will rediscover the form that led to Benítez signing him in the first place by playing regular football in Italy.

“After last year, when he came here injured and hardly played, it would be a disaster for him to have two years of hardly any football,” he said. “If he can get regular games for a top Serie A team, it gives him the football he needs and protects the value of the player. But first we need to get him back to being the player he was when he came over a year ago. We’re doing it with a view to bringing him back.”

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• Argentina midfielder wants a change of lifestyle
• ‘Maybe for my life I prefer to change the country’

The Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano insists he has no problem with the club but just fancies a change of lifestyle. The 26-year-old has made no secret of his wish to leave Anfield, with Internazionale and Barcelona reportedly interested in acquiring his services.

Speaking after Argentina’s 1-0 win over Republic of Ireland, he told Sky Sports: “The only thing I want to say is I don’t have nothing against the Liverpool supporters, the Liverpool people. My problem is not to play for Liverpool. I’m very proud to play for Liverpool. It’s another thing.

“I said to him [the new Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson] that maybe for my life I prefer to change the country, not to change the club – that is the fact.

“Sometimes you can see all the things that the papers or the press say, but at the end the only thing I can say is thank you to everyone in Liverpool because they supported me all the time, from the beginning until now.”

LiverpoolTransfer windowguardian.co.uk

• Representative says midfielder is chasing a move to Spain
• ‘Liverpool promised him that they would help him leave’

Liverpool’s unsettled midfielder Javier Mascherano is determined to join Barcelona, according to his representative in Spain.

The Argentinian informed the new manager Roy Hodgson that he wants to leave Anfield last month, and has also been linked with Internazionale in Italy.

Speaking to the Catalan radio station, Com Radio, Horacio Zandonadi said: “The player and all of us would be delighted if he could end up at Barcelona. We’re talking about a figure that is about half the size of what Barcelona were being asked to pay for Cesc Fábregas.

“He has not renewed his contract [with Liverpool] and they promised him that this year they would help him leave, so we’re talking about a situation that is much easier than it was last summer.

“Mascherano and [Lionel] Messi are friends, they get on very well because they are similar personalities. They are very professional, very committed and they love football and family.”

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