Pepe Reina has revealed that he almost left Liverpool 3 times over the last three years, and had to be talked into staying at Anfield, once by his wife. Arsenal were one of the clubs who tried to sign the Spaniard, and according to Reina, they offered £20m for his services. Do you think the club should've accepted Arsenal's offer?
In his biography, Reina states:
“Arsenal had made their determination to sign me clear by offering £20m, a phenomenal amount for a goalkeeper. Part of me felt that I was well within my rights to consider my future even if I did so with a heavy heart. When Liverpool received the bid, they rejected it"
For me, there would have been no hesitation: I would've accepted the offer. As he's proved over the last few years, Reina has no real loyalty to Liverpool, and he himself has just admitted that he wanted to leave three times.
What is the point in keeping a player who always has one eye on the door? What happens if/when the club has another bad spell; Will Reina try and leave again?
Any player who has to be persuaded to stay at Liverpool FC doesn't deserve to wear the shirt in my opinion.
I've given my views on Reina many times over the last couple of years so I won't repeat myself any further here.
What do you think? Should Liverpool have sold him?
Jaimie Kanwar
In his biography, Reina states:
“Arsenal had made their determination to sign me clear by offering £20m, a phenomenal amount for a goalkeeper. Part of me felt that I was well within my rights to consider my future even if I did so with a heavy heart. When Liverpool received the bid, they rejected it"
For me, there would have been no hesitation: I would've accepted the offer. As he's proved over the last few years, Reina has no real loyalty to Liverpool, and he himself has just admitted that he wanted to leave three times.
What is the point in keeping a player who always has one eye on the door? What happens if/when the club has another bad spell; Will Reina try and leave again?
Any player who has to be persuaded to stay at Liverpool FC doesn't deserve to wear the shirt in my opinion.
I've given my views on Reina many times over the last couple of years so I won't repeat myself any further here.
What do you think? Should Liverpool have sold him?
Jaimie Kanwar
Stupid poll. If we want to be a big club again we can't sell all our best players. Tell me Jamie - you have aired your negative views on Reina, Gerrard and Suarez several times - who do you like who plays for the team?
ReplyDeleteIsaac - I'm not going to waste my time responding to such a pointless question. if you think the Poll is 'stupid' then don't visit this site; go elsewhere. If you can't hack criticism/evaluation/analysis of players then again, go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who doesn't follow the comment policy will be permanently banned. make your points, but do so in the right way.
Careful Issac you nearly had his tampon popping out there! Also the title is a bit misleading. Stupid poll from a usually high standard of article site.
ReplyDeleteI would like to say i agree 'ged rid' but who can you get in who's as good, good goalkeepers are hard to come by hence arsenal were willing to part with 20million and they never spend that amount
ReplyDeleteCould you blame him for wanting to leave...when he knew Torres ..Alonso ..Mascherano ..were all going to leave along with Rafa ..why would you want to stay when all the world class players we had were gonna leave one by one...
ReplyDeleteDo you think he will be excited playing with Carragher ..Adam ..Henderson and Carroll when he knows he is one of the best keepers in the world
top players will always want to be at top clubs and we havent been a top club over the last couple of years, pepe being the best goalkeeper around was well in his rights to entertain the idea of going elsewhere during that period, were on the up again now and our top players like pepe are happy here again end of story, lets not start bringing up stories from the dark hicks gillet era, its how he felt a year ago not how he feels now and lets be honest we all felt low back then, he stayed with us and the future is bright once more, pepe and liverpool 4ever, ynwa
ReplyDeleteJesus you are one lame person Jamie if you cannot even answer a question from one of your site visitors without threatening them with a ban. How can it be pointless when the question is right on topic?
ReplyDeleteDo we want to end up like arsenal and sell all our best players. gerrard wanted to go once to chelsea but he stayed. Does that mean we should sell him. It shows Reina is loyal cause he stayed he could have been like torres and hand in a transferr request.
ReplyDeleteMan, seriously what are you guys trying to achieve with all these idiotic polls? And please stop daydreaming that every players thinks about lfc 24/7, important is that they're committed to the club and give their 100% on the pitch, Pepe has never let us down on the pitch and that's what counts. And after all we trust in KK he does always what he thinks is best for the club and it's our job to support him and the players as good as we possibly can.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't suggest its a pointless question at all! Gerrard even handed in a transfer request, do u believe he doesn't want to play for lfc? This story relates to one of the darkest moments in recent history, not at the point of being newly crowned European champions!! (as was gerrards case) at the end of the day, football is his job an if someone is offering better working conditions in which to do it he would b a fool not to consider it.
ReplyDeletejamie every player is open to better offers, at the end of the day we (fans) tend to forget that it's a job for them. Selling Reina would have been a big mistake as we would have never managed to get a replacement.
ReplyDeleteRight, so Reina is irreplaceable? Liverpool would collapse and die without him? Come on, get real. Putting players on pedestals like that is dangerous. Reina is easily replaceable, and if he left, Liverpool would not suffer.
ReplyDeleteSo you are saying Gerrard dosent deserve to wear the red shirt ? As he wanted out, Carra said he may have to look at options two years ago if he is not playing.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, Pepe is an honest pro and should have handed in a transfer request during the turmoil.
At the time (2004-5), when Gerrard put in a transfer request then no, he was just as bad as Reina, and indeed anyone else who does the same thing. Gerrard was captain of his home-town club, and was only 24 years old, yet he wanted to leave. Unacceptable IMO.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Gerrard has proven his loyalty since then, and looks like he'll stay with the club for the rest of his career.
Re Carra - when a player has been at a club for as long as he has, you can't begrudge him wanting to try something else. It's totally different to the Reina situation anyway; Carra hasn't made veiled threats in the press about leaving.
Reina has wanted to leave three times, despite endlessly professing his love for the club. The third time he wanted to leave was only a few months after signing a big fat contract.
Basically, when the going gets tough, Reina wants to bail.
Jamie have you even heard of a rumour of another club ever coming in for carragher ..so how could Carra threaten to leave when no one has ever shown interest in him .
ReplyDeleteSome people will have you believe that if Carragher doesn't play for us our club will be relegated. guess what the club is bigger than Carra .
As for Reina wanting to leave ..can you blame him when the club invests heavily on new players and yet the players signed are at best second rate for the money paid..yes the money paid ..the only players you can say are top class purchased are Suarez and Enrique ..
So now including Gerrard ..Suarez and Reina we have four world class players ..when in reality with 110million investment we have only added 1 world class player to our club ...what confidence will that give to him ..
If Gerrard was 3years younger i think he would have packed his bags and left..because this squad will not win anything major in the next 3yrs
Reina the quickest Liverpool keeper to 100 clean sheets?
ReplyDeleteHow many keepers did Man U go through before they replaced Schemical
De Gea struggling 20 million??
Arsenal struggling for a keeper?
Spurs brought 40 year old to replace Ghomes?
Are you sure he would be easily replaced??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I can understand him wanting to leave, i think sometimes people are too quick to jump on players backs if they say ive considered my options, we were a team going no where and reina felt that he had a chance to further his career, now however, he is happy and we are a team going somewhere, selling our best players is a stupid idea, especially if they are the best keeper in the premier league, there are no keepers id rather have than pepe reina.
ReplyDeleteWell done for Reina for not going on strike,refusing to play or showing any dip in performances!
ReplyDeletewhat a laod of bollocks this site is, oh bummer that will be me banned now
ReplyDeleteHere's what I find ironic Jamie: when a player like Alonso wants to leave the club you seemingly rest the blame on "The Benitez Effect". However when Reina wants to leave the club (but ultimately doesn't) and cites "The Hicks & Gillett Effect" he gets no empathy. This hackneyed 'total loyalty' schtick that you have only appears to be in effect for those close to Benitez. Those who have left or threatened to leave partly due to his "effect" are seemingly spared your venom. Are you against blind faith and fawning loyalty or not? Because for me, to spend your incredible talent and short career at the whim of Hicks and Gillett are the very definition of that.
ReplyDeleteThe last three years have not been great for Liverpool by an stretch of the imagination and I can fully understand any player who had thoughts of getting out, especially when Arsenal came calling. Before the start of this season they looked like a team that just needed one or two signings to realistically challenge for the league.
ReplyDeletePlayers thrive on success and want to play at the clubs that offer them the best chance. Liverpool have not been that club for a while now and for a few seasons it looked like we were simply slipping further down the pecking order.
The simple fact is that he's a Liverpool player and has consistently been one of our best players regardless of the off-field dramas that have gripped us in recent times.
In answer to your question, No we shouldn't have sold him.
ReplyDeleteAnd heres why:
Reina states:
'When Liverpool received the bid, they rejected it. This was not because I had been told that I was too good a keeper to leave. The reason I was given was quite different - and it left me feeling down. I was told that my continued presence was crucial to the sale of the club. I was simply a bargaining chip in the sales process.
For this reason Alone we are lucky to still have the boy. Purslow has always remined me of Hugh Grant and I've never been able to take him seriously. I can imagine Purslow awkawardly telling Reina Hugh Grant style
Purslow: Sorry.. look. Sorry, sorry. I just, ehm, well, this is a very stupid question and... , particularly in view of our recent shopping excursion, but I just wondered, by any chance, ehm, eh, I mean obviously not because I guess I've only slept with 9 people, but-but I-I just wondered... ehh. I really feel, ehh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with The partridge Family, eh, "YOUR continued presence was crucial to the sale of the club. You were simply a bargaining chip in the sales process.
Reina continued
'I still don't know what to think of Purslow because I understand he was there to look for new owners and to try to sell the club but ultimately he was making big football decisions that he was not qualified to make.'
the mail online states that
'Reina also campaigned against the appointment of Roy Hodgson to replace Rafa Benitez'
A voice of reason then. Any player who could see that replacing Benitez (although he did need to be replaced) with Hodgson was a joke gets my vote.
On the whole 20m is more than a fair price for Reina. If kenny ever receives a bid for him again in the same region we'll probably accept it and then make a £40 million bid for Joe Hart. From this point every 'genuine' Liverpool fan will be falling over themselves trying to justify this very justifiable outlay.
well said
ReplyDeleteGood points. Theres only one Genuine world class player in history who was happy to play alongside mediocrity and his name was Matthew Le Tisser. On Average the best want to play against the best and alongside the best.
ReplyDeleteStevie was never going to leave, it was a ruse and the club panicked
ReplyDeleteReina would essentially be irreplacable. As pointed out above, United struggled for years to replace Schmeichel
To expect undying loyalty from a "stranger" with no real ties to the club is naiive
I like my job, and do my best for the company i work for, but if we start to drop and / or senior management start cocking up, I'll drop CV's around like mad
When Rafa left the heart and soul was ripped out the club.Rafa stood up to the Yanks and so did Reina,Kuyt,Torres and Mascherrano and Lucas all great players who new the value of Rafa to the club.whereas Gerrard and Carragher didnt say a thing and kept quiet.Carraghers contract was winding down and he obviously had this on his mind.Then Purslow speaks to a couple of players and everything changed.I wonder who the couple of players were,let me guess Carragher and Gerrard.At the time Carragher was running to the press saying he wouldnt think twice about playing for another club as Rafa hadnt yet offered him a new deal.Then what Rafa sacked,first thing Hodgson does before anything else is gives Carragher a new 2 year contract.Carraghers happy again hes got his deal,the club is in freefall and will never challenge for top honours again but hey Gerrards got his mate Dalglish in the top job,Carraghers got a few more seasons at anfield,weve got rid of all our best players apart from Lucas,Kuyt and Reina and Dalglish has wasted over £100m.When rafa was winning champions league and reaching finals and getting second in premiership all on a shoestring Carra and Gerrard wanted the premiership because we were challenging,now because Rafa has left the great days under Rafa will never ever ever return to this club ever.Everyone can see this even diehard Dalglish fans are saying even though hes spent £130m in 6 months 4th will be an unbelievable achievement,yet under Rafa with him never being handed £130m on a plate only winning the premiership was acceptable to the same fans who now say 4 th under Dalglish is fine.Reina signed solely for Rafa if Reina wants to go I would say go Reina you owe LFC nothing the way Rafa was treated same as Masch and Torres they couldnt wait to get out the door as soon as Rafa was fired,i dont blame them.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? Hopefully Rafa gets a job soon and then you can support that team. Heart and soul ripped out of the club my arse. I love the guy and think he was a great manager for us but puhlease. If this club can survive Shankly leaving then.. ah forget it. I've written more than your post deserves.
ReplyDelete