Alonso to seal Real Madrid switch

The 27-year-old midfielder flew to the Spanish capital on Tuesday night after a fee, believed to be £30million, was agreed between Liverpool and Real Madrid to end the summer's longest transfer saga.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez flew with his squad to Norway for Wednesday night's friendly with Lyn Oslo, already working on signing a replacement.

Now Benitez has the cash to spend on his own squad, with one of the hold-ups this week being his insistence on the first instalment of the Alonso fee being paid immediately.

He is believed to want to close a deal to bring in midfielder Alberto Aquilani as Alonso's replacement. Cash-strapped Roma are willing to sell for around £15million and the player is happy with a five-year contract worth around 4million euros a year.

It is believed that the player has agreed personal terms already, but negotiations could not be completed until Alonso was sold.

Benitez is also known to be considering moves for either of Valencia pair David Silva and David Villa. But that could well push his budget to the limits unless he can off-load the likes of Andriy Voronin.

On Tuesday night Liverpool issued a curt statement which brought to an end Alonso's five years on Merseyside.

It read: "Liverpool Football Club this evening confirmed they had reached agreement for the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, subject only to a medical. The terms of the deal will remain confidential and undisclosed."

But although Liverpool will not reveal the details of the deal, privately sources were maintaining that Benitez had got his own way over the fee.