Wenger ready to move for Liverpool’s Alonso

Arsenal are to make a January bid for Liverpool’s Basque midfielder Xabi Alonso, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The Gunners apparently also had a deadline-day bid for the Spain international turned down in the summer by Liverpool because the Londoners could not meet the Reds’ £17 million valuation of the player. Arsenal offered £14 million.

The Telegraph reports that a source “close to the Arsenal board” has revealed that the real reason the bid failed was due to Arsenal’s delay in naming a successor to vice chairman David Dein, who had walked out of the club in a row over bringing in new investors during 2007.

In May this year, managing director Keith Edelman also left the club.

Ivan Gazidis will join the club as chief executive on January 1, and will apparently be more likely to try and find a way to persuade the normally reluctant Arsene Wenger to actually spend some money.

“Hopefully Gazidis can come in and recognize that Wenger needs someone like Dein in his ear to reassure him that the money is there to spend,” the source is quoted as saying.

Alonso had been unsettled at Anfield in the early part of the season, largely due to the intense speculation that linked Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry with a move to Liverpool. The Spain player was apparently close to a move to Juventus, having become frustrated at a lack of first-team action, even though he had recently signed a new contract that would keep him on Merseyside until 2012.

Subsequently, however, he has become a key part of Rafael Benitez’s table-topping Liverpool side.

Should Arsenal wish to buy him in January, the price would more than likely be reduced due to Alonso having already played in this season’s Champions League.

Alonso is not the only player rumored to be attracting the Gunners’ interest, though. Yaya Toure, the Barcelona midfielder, Juventus youngster Sebastian Giovinco, Stephane Mbia of Rennes and AC Milan striker Alexandre Pato are also reportedly being monitored by Wenger’s scouts.