19 Feb 2013

Time's up: £15m Reds star keen to quit LFC this summer. £7m replacement...?

Speculation over the future of Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina continues to rumble on, and reports over the weekend claim that the Reds have dropped their interest in Stoke City stopper Asmir Begovic, and are now focused on recruiting 6'5 Wigan star Ali Al-Habsi to replace the Spaniard.

A report in Sunday's edition of the the Daily Mail states:

"Anfield keeper Pepe Reina is keen on a move back to Spain this summer [and] Liverpool are looking at Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi as a cheaper alternative to Stoke's £15million Asmir Begovic"

Liverpool were linked with £7m-rated Al Habsi several times in 2012, but in a November interview with the Wigan Evening Post, the Omani International emphatically underlined his commitment to Wigan. He said:

"I heard about what was said at the weekend [about LFC's interest] but that kind of thing is not of any importance to me. I am very, very happy at Wigan. I am doing well, and my confidence is very high"

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez admitted that the rumours linking Al Habsi with a move to Anfield were 'a compliment' to the club, but he ultimately dismissed reports of a move to Anfield. He told ESPN:

"I don't think there is any truth behind it [the LFC rumours]. He [Al Habsi] is on a long-term contract and is an important player for us. He has been impressive, and is reaching good levels, but he has a long way to go"

In an interview last week Juan Carlos Unzue - who spent eight years at Barca's goalkeeping coach before leaving in 2012 - confirmed that Barcelona have watched £15m-rated Reina. He said:

"It is difficult to follow Valdes, but also a nice challenge. Vicente Guaita, Maarten Stekelenburg, Jose Reina are all all interesting names we have watched."

Of all the goalkeepers linked with Anfield recently, Al Habsi is arguably the most realistic and cost-effective option, and if Wigan end up going down this season, I seriously doubt he would reject a transfer back to the Premier League.





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65 comments:

  1. I wish you would stop trying to cause trouble Jaimie, read and inwardly digest:
    Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina once again denied speculation that he will join Barcelona this summer, but he would like to see the back of Gareth Bale.In an interview with Radio Marca, Reina played down suggestions that he will replace Victor Valdes at the Nou Camp but he also joked: 'If Real Madrid signs Bale I'll be delighted. He causes me a lot of problems.'

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2280809/Pepe-Reina-says-going-Barcelona-hopes-Gareth-Bale-joins-Real-Madrid.html#ixzz2LLDTVJ85 
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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  2. I don't understand why some people still pretend G&H are still in charge. All this talk about cost effective and cheap players. These guys have spent everything that has come in and some thirty million on top of that. If we sell Reina for, say, 15 million there is nothing there to suggest we'll sign a cheaper keeper to replace him. We might, but it will be because it's the right guy and we haven't been held to ransom on the price. But if the right guy costs more than what we get for Reina, I'm sure he'll be brought in too.

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  3. If pepe goes,then Fraser foster of celtic would be a great choice.

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  4. If Reina goes, we'll need some defenders who don't rely on a keeper sweeping up behind them. Reina's made more mistakes this season but most keepers do in the Premier League. It's not the easiest place to be a goalkeeper. Al-Habsi and Begovic are good players, but there's a world of difference between playing for a team like Wigan or Stoke, and playing for a team which is constantly in the media spotlight. Some keepers are able to step up and handle the pressure, but many do not. Ask Man Utd fans about some of the keepers they've tried to replace Scmeichel with over the years...

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  5. Wigan are fighting relegation again. Do we really need Al-Habsi considered our defense isn't all that great? He may have had moments of brilliance but we still someone of Reina's quality, someone who can distribute the ball and really make the saves when needed to. I'm not really sure about Al-Habsi.

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  6. How many times does he have to say he's not leaving before certain people will believe him?

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  7. Agreed! Jaimie always seems desperate to get rid of Pepe. He's just made it clear, again, in an interview, that he's not leaving in the summer and he's happy at Liverpool. I feel that these stories are part of Jaimies agenda and try to create a groundswell of opinion to undermine the player, either in his own eyes, the eyes of the team, or the fans.

    Pepe hasn't suddenly lost his ability. Look how many times he won the Prem's golden gloves. OK, he's made more mistakes over the last couple of seasons, but is that all down to him, or has the defence put unnecessary pressure on him on occasions. No, Pepe's got to stay. He's got years left in him at the top level.

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  8. Most players say they're not leaving before they actually leave. That's standard, isn't it?

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  9. If you're gonna use quotes from the Daily mail and other papers you should at least use the quotes from the player himself, who says he wants to stay!

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  10. No offence to Jaimie, but do you really think a blogger and the site's readers will undermine a player who doesn't even know of their existence...

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  11. So what you're saying is that if a player says he's staying, he's actually leaving? Hmmm......Pepe's had to come out and say he's staying for the last few seasons because people keep speculating about him leaving, so how come he hasn't already left?

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  12. all te comments i,ve seen today say pepe wants to stay,maybe hes being forced out as long as its not another downgrade and he wants to go there is no problem,but if he wants to stay and its a downgrade then we have to start asking serious questions

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  13. Greg, no matter how insignificant Jaimie's site is, the fact is that you and I are here, along with others and I don't care for anyone being allowed to get away with attacking the team and players that I support, unchallenged. Even if one fan is persuaded by Jaimie's vitriolic criticisms of LFC players, then that's one too many for me.

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  14. I am hoping Reina does leave but i dont want Al Habsi that is definitely a downgrade.

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  15. Whilst I know Reina hasnt been at his best for a while, Im always wary of replacing a keeper, its not an easy thing to do. Plus he does still have it in him, he made some top saves against Zenit.

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  16. Al Habsi will be backup to Reina, ensuring he has to keep his form as their's a more than viable replacement. Al Habsi will just be happy not to be in the Championship. 

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  17. You're spot on, Greg. The idea that this site has any direct bearing on Reina is total nonsense.

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  18. Get over yourself already! What are you, the self-appointed defender of LFC? How is this post in any way an attack on LFC or the team? You're just another hyper-sensitive LFC fan who's so emotionally involved that you can't see the wood for the trees.

    This is a transfer rumour. Deal with it. Whether you like it or not, LFC players will be linked with moves away, and just because Reina says in public he's happy at the club, doesn't mean that he's not going to leave.

    Vitriolic criticism? What a joke. Any criticism of LFC players fans love will be deemed that (or something similarly negative), but if this post was about, say, Brad Jones, I doubt you'd be defending his honour so vociferously.

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  19. No, that's not what I said at all, but if you want to twist my words go ahead. With the greatest respect, I pity fans like you who seem to get personally offended at anything deemed to be critical of LFC players. 

    Any objective observer can see that this post is just passing on the latest transfer rumours about LFC goalkeeping situation. There's no attack on Reina whatsoever. However, due to your complete inability to look at things objectively, a red mist descends instead, and you see things that just aren't there.

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  20. Yes, because everything players say in public is always 100% truth. What else is Reina going to say?! 'Yes, I want to leave Liverpool for Barcelona'?! 

    History proves that players mostly say the same thing as Reina publicly, but it doesn't stop them from leaving. 

    Some people need to seriously wake up.

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  21. Well you stated before that Reina said he wanted to leave to play for Barcelona and he stated today that he is happy here and wants to stay - so that doesn't determine he wants to leave.

    Reina is leaving Liverpool when the club decides his services are no longer needed so please stop speculating - You have posted a lot of articles about this topic and Reina is currently our no 1 keeper and we're only just over half way through the season. 

    You've got to set an example in your articles and not encourage hatred or pin point mistakes and blame it on individuals which causes a backlash from fans to get involve and hurl abuse. It's a team game!

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  22. Sorry, but that's nonsense. What you're basically advocating is censorship. You're saying that I should post only positive stuff. Seriously, get a grip. I'm not responsible for how others react when they read something. Everyone has the ability to control their emotions/reaction, and if people react to innocent transfer rumours with 'hatred' then that is their problem, not mine.

    I guess the entire world should follow suit. The press should never report on mistakes by Governments, or corporations, or the Judiciary, or anything at all. Hell, let's outlaw critical news articles about individuals all together. Let's just have reports about kittens being saved from trees. 

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  23. It's fair to say, that the only concrete information we have either from the player, his agent or the team people say he wants to go to, is what he has said today (and many other times) that he wants to stay. So why shouldn't we not believe him?

    In many other articles where you have talked about us missing out on players, you quote agents as saying we were interested and/or have put a bid in but lost out as 100% fact (why would they lie), then what is different in Reina's case?

    You don't think he is good enough and you want the rest of us to think the same but more importantly you want us to think every time he messes up it is due to the fact he wants to leave. Why is that?

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  24. To be honest i would like reports about kittens and the crazy things they get up to a lot more than our news

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  25. Most of your posts do not "report" as you say the press do,they speculate,regurgitate others opinions (the legend Lawrenson) for one and offer personal opinion. Nothing wrong in that,so long as one does not imply one "reports" news. McKenzie implied he was reporting,in fact at best he was regurgitating and speculating. Pepe Reina has stated on several occasions he is not going to leave, surely we should respect that until something changes.Coutinho DID GET his WORK PERMIT .... all is not as it seems, (apparently)

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  26. I just meant surely Reina's word is worth reporting on if the Daily mail's is. I personally would not be surprised if Reina left us this summer, he has been through a lot of changes at Anfield and think he needs a fresh start somewhere to recapture his form. I hope he stays and proves me wrong though. 

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  27. Kieren, with all due respect, I don't 'want' people to think anything. I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion. I just give my view. It's that simple. Whether people agree or not is irrelevant. I don't write about LFC for validation - I just write what interests me.

    In Reina's case, I don't believe him because he has a long history of bitching publicly about his situation (and also in his recently published book)

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  28. To me this kind of behaviour is quite similar to the hooligans on the terraces. Go against my team in any way and you must be stopped. Just sad.

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  29. "So what your basically advocating is censorship" why remove my post ?

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  30. we ALL know your a closet manure cobble dodger, your peeing into the wind manc scum

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  31. We have leaked in too many goals either we find a suitable competition which would up Reina's performance or we buy a GK either way we can't continue as it is right now.

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  32. Well auto biography's have juicy information it's what sells, it's about his career as a footballer so obviously he is going to talk about what happen. I don't consider it as bitching after all it's a biography.

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  33. In Jaimie's defense, a player is smart to say he wants to stay, especially with three months left in the season.
    Imagine if Pepe came out today and said he wanted to leave this summer.  It wouldn't exactly go over well with the fans and he'd have nowhere to go for three months.

    Plus, all players usually want to stay until they realize they can make more money elsewhere.

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  34. But, what i am trying to point out is, looking at what we know, Reina has said on a few occasions that he wants to stay at the club, so surely he is just as trust worthy as agents around the globe 

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  35. Every quality player that we have will be speculated about and it'll usually be added to speculation about whether we can keep these players if we don't get CL football. The fan behaviour and so called lack of objectivity that you ascribe to me is unwarranted.

    I will be happy for Reina to go a) if he wants to go. b) If we can get a genuinely better keeper (El Habsi isn't that) and c) If Reina doesn't recapture his best form over the remainder of the season. But, when on form he is a world class keeper and it will not be easy to attract such as he to Liverpool, so we shouldn't throw away our best assets, for what I believe to be non-footballing reasons.

    For example, your hate campaign, if that's not too strong a word, towards Suarez, for his less that perfect ethics. Again, a player we can ill afford to lose. But it's also the general tenor of your comments respecting LFC, where almost all seem to be critical and very few get behind and encourage the team. I'm not saying that we should blindly accept all that we are dished up by our team with fawning praise, but you do want rid of Reina and because he's always the subject of speculation, you are only too happy to keep on posting these rumours.

    He's a great keeper, who doesn't want to leave and I and most rational people will recognise that we are better off keeping him, unless a genuinely better option arises.

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  36. I agree! It can sometimes take up to 3 years or more to replace a keeper.

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  37. And frankly, Al-Habsi has had some bonafide howlers this season

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  38. It is an attack on a LFC player, a player who has constantly come out and said that he is happy at Liverpool and is staying. The type of player we want playing for LFC are talented players who want to be at the club, which is exactly what Reina is. There is a saying that goes "form is temporarym class is permanent". Reina is class and his form will get back to the standard it should. As it is, he is one of the top 5 or 6 in the league, when his form matches his talent, he is the best in the league.

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  39. I guess they can't win mate. We only want players at LFC who want to be here, yet when they come out and publicly state it, there are hidden agendas and they want to leave.

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  40. If you take this article by itself, then you are correct, but we all know that you have mentioned numerous times how you wish we sold Reina, that insinuates that you do not like him and so taken in context of your previous posts, and the title of this post in particular, this is an attack on Reina.

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  41. Not only is he a world class keeper when his form is at it's peak, he is the best in the world at distributing the ball, no other keeper comes close and he is also a leader both on the pitch and in the dressing room. The fact that clubs like Barcelona, Man United, Arsenal all want him shows how good he is.

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  42. Why not take what Reina says at face value, he has been saying for the past few seasons that he is happy at Liverpool and wants to stay, maybe because he is actually happy at Liverpool and wants to stay, not because he has a hidden agenda.

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  43. Or maybe it's the media making up another story?

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  44. We haven't leaked in as many as people seem to think or believe. There are only a handful of teams with a better defense than us and majority of them are only by a goal or two. Man City has conceded 24, which is far and away the best defense. Chelsea have the next best defense with 28, then Arsenal with 29, Tottenham with 30, Stoke and Man Utd with 31, Everton with 32 and then with 34 is Sunderland, Swansea and Liverpool. So, not actually that bad.

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  45. True, so I should rephrase. Reina has made errors which have cost us points both city games we should have taken 6 points but instead we walked away with draws. Maybe our defencive errors may not be high as other premier league points. However, the errors we have made have made cost us full points. Reina's howler against city prime example of a mistake at a vital point of the game.

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  46. been missin a few weeks pc nackered ! onthe subject of reina its done and dusted hes goin back to spain .hes been crap for 3 seasons and we should have got shut along time ago rumour has it his missues and kids are back in spain hes been caught with his playin away from home .most overated keeper i have ever scene and has cost us big time in every big game 

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  47. yes and reina should have been replaced 3 years ago thats when he started makin mistakes on aregular basics and has never recovered his form and never will. sell in the summer the man is shot!

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  48. Agreed ..

    Alot of people are on the Reina out bandwagon.. But I think it would be a mistake to get rid of him .. Below is more or less my thoughts on Reina and whether it is time for him to leave the club.

    http://www.theliverpoolword.com/2013/02/pepe-reina-one-howler-too-many/

    It's a good well balenced post that people who think his time is up would do well to read..

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  49. Reina has looked like he has his heart set on a move away for some time now,it is not certain if his last statements can be taken too seriously.I would be very surprised if Barca came in for him and he didn't leave.
    Despite his lack of consistency over the last 2 seasons I hope he stays its very hard to replace a goalkeeper and when in form there is very few keepers as good as Pepe.
    Al Habsi would certainly not be at that standard.

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  50.  I agree with you on this Jamie if Barca come in for him he is going to push for a move isn’t he.

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  51. Not suggesting that you only post positive stuff, but at least a bit of balance and show. I guess negative stuff creates more debate and therefore more traffic on your site. Oh, cynical me!

    You talk about reaction to "innocent transfer rumours", but transfer rumours are rarely that and if you analysed all of the transfer rumours over the last 12 months, for example, you'd realise that you can take most with a pinch of salt.

    I think you'll find that Reina's discontent voiced in the past, coincided with the club at it's lowest ebb. I believe that we are making headway and more importantly, I believe that Reina sees that also, so he wants to be part project Rodgers.

    Transfer rumours are created mostly to help line the pockets of the agents who stand to gain by player movements.

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  52. No not Al Habsi plz what a step backwards it would be :-(
    Im all in for Begovic but just not Al Habsi!

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  53. The first sentence used the words "speculation" and "reports". Copying lazy journalism is a futile endeavour and makes JK look as daft as the hacks form the rags.

    If the official LFC site says that he's going, then he will be. Until then, he's a Liverpool player; as is Suarez.

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  54. Fine mid-table keeper. Certainly not a keeper for a club aspiring to be in the top 4, imo. Flaps far too much.

    I've not been a fan of Reina for more than 2 seasons, sadly and so I'm not too fussed about him leaving but Al Habsi as a replacement, please no.

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  55. At the start of the season, Gerrard made errors which cost us at least 6 points, and although there were people saying his form wasn't good enough, the backlash against him and that he should be sold was nowhere near as great as it is for Reina, even though Gerrard's form, like Reina's, hasn't been his standard for the past couple of seasons. And by the way, "Reina's howler against City" wasn't actually a howler, you that situation happen multiple times, it's a keeper sweeping up the ball, the fact that the defender didn't shepherd Aguero and let him in certainly didn't help, Reina did well to narrow the angle, and Aguero made an unbelievable shot from that angle, even the commentator stated that 99 times out of 100 he wouldn't have made that.

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  56. If he's so crap, why does Barca want him? Why do Arsenal want him? Why do Man Utd want him? And he's saying that he doesn't want to move, that is a prime reason why we should be keeping him. And what rumour? One that you have made up? None of the articles written about him has once stated that his wife and kids are back in Spain. And even if they did go back, is it not possible they went back to visit family, after all, his wife is Spanish as well and they have a lot of family over there. He's cost us big time in every big game? Overrated? Which is why for 3 seasons straight he won the Golden Gloves, is the fastest goalkeeper in our history to make it to 50 clean sheets. Yes his form hasn't been up to his standard for a couple of seasons, pretty much since Hodgson took over, and he will be the first to admit that, in fact he has, but this also coincides with Gerrard's run of substandard (for him) form as well and there are not calls for Gerrard to be sold. Reina is getting his form back, remember he has been injured a couple of times already this season, as it is, with his bad form, he is the 5th or 6th best keeper in the league, when his form returns, which it will, he will once again be the top keeper in the league

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  57. How has Reina looked like he has his heart set on a move away for some time now? He has constantly been stating that he wants to stay at Liverpool, earlier this season, he came out and said that he has been having a tough couple of seasons form wise and he recently started a new fitness regime to get back to his best, this to me states that he has his heart set on getting back to his best at Liverpool. You would believe the media over him? 

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  58. Isn't supporting a club all about being 'emotionally' involved ?

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  59. I agree that if you are going to write a story on Reina leaving that his very recent quotes would have merited an inclusion in the article.

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  60. He's a professional football player. They tend to leave as soon as they receive an offer from a club which is more likely to win trophies. How many players move on every year after claiming that they wouldn't just weeks earlier? You wouldn't expect Reina to come out in the middle of the season and claim that he seeks a transfer, would you? But rest assured that should he move to Barcelona, he'll state in one of his first interview for the new club that as soon as he heard of the rumours, he had made his mind up.

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  61. You use part of a quote from C.G. Jung as your user name, but don't show any sign of a capacity to analyse. Sad.

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  62. He hasn't been on top form the third season running. That's quite worrying, isn't it.

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  63. Al-Habsi is a great shot stopper, one of the best in the league, but isn't a good enough all-round 'keeper to be good enough for a side trying to get back into Europe. I'd rather try and get Reina back on form than try and get Al-Habsi up to scratch.

    Our best bet would be to sell Reina for more than £10mil and then wait for QPR to get relegated, and buy Julio Cesar for less than £10mil. Our growing contingent of South Americans should help.

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  64. I think if we get a good offer for Pepe we should sale him, his form hasn't been the same since 09 and has done a lot of mistakes which have cost us quite a few points over the last few seasons. Now a days whenever I see his name on the team sheet I don't feel as confident like I use to as he isn't as reliable anymore and I feel that he will just do another mistake and cost us more points. The only keeper I would want us to sign to replace him is Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

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