Rafa defends costly purchase

Rafa Benitez has scoffed at suggestions that he was wrong to sign Alberto Aquilani. Liverpool paid Roma £20m for Aquilani in the summer despite the Italian midfielder carrying a serious ankle injury. Until now he has only been able to play 21 minutes of first team football for the Reds. "We signed him for five years so we were bringing in a player with quality for five years. We knew about the Alonso situation already, so we were planning to bring in a player with quality to replace him in the long term and Aquilani was this player," said Benitez on Tuesday, before pleading for patience from the fans. "If he had been fully fit maybe he could have cost £25-30m, so we were bringing in a good player for a good price and trying to do our best with the medical staff."