Steven Gerrard slams 'stupid' Rafa Benitez over 'disastrous' sale of Xabi Alonso

Alonso left Liverpool for Real Madrid for £30 million after falling out with Benitez, the catalyst of which was the manager’s bungled pursuit of Gareth Barry 12 months previously.

[GERRARD: I don't talk to Benitez any more]

Gerrard, writing in his forthright autobiography My Story, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, said Alonso was the best midfielder he ever played with at Anfield.

And his anger at Benitez’s decision to sell him to Madrid is palpable.

"It was clear Alonso was royalty after our first training session together in August 2004, and Rafa Benitez, who had been so clever to buy him in the first place, was equally stupid to sell him to Real Madrid five years later,” Gerrard writes. “He was, by some distance, the best central midfielder I ever played alongside.

"It was a disastrous decision to sell Alonso, and especially for just £30 million — which looks a snip now when you reflect on all he has achieved subsequently, both at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and with Spain, winning the Euros and the World Cup.

"I blame Rafa entirely for the loss of Alonso. He could still have been playing for Liverpool six or seven years after he left in 2009."

Gerrard’s new book has been candid about Benitez’s shortcomings, with the current Real Madrid manager a repeated target for criticism.

In extracts published on Sunday, Gerrard said he does not speak to his former boss any more, as well as describing how embarrassed he felt when Benitez embarked on his infamous “facts” rant at Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009.

"Rafa kept saying 'fact, fact, fact' and I could not believe what I was hearing," Gerrard writes in his autobiography.

"I was grabbing the couch, digging my fingers into the arms, feeling embarrassed for him.

"When I met up with England, all the Manchester United players told me Fergie was just laughing at Rafa, saying: 'I've got him, I've got him'."