11 Dec 2012

Arsenal target LFC star as part of massive €62m transfer spree. Let him go...?

Last week, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insisted that Reds goalkeeper Pepe Reina is not for sale, but the speculation over his future persists, and Arsenal are reportedly preparing a January bid for the Spaniard.

According to one report today, the Gunners have 'already made moves' to bring Reina to Highbury:

"There is up to €75 million from existing cash resources available for the manager to use in January, which could result in €62m of new talent arriving at the club.

"The Gunners are looking to reinforce the goalkeeping...position and have already made moves to bring in some of their top targets, who include...Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina"


The Guardian and The Independent have also recently suggested that Reina is on the way out, and last week, The Mirror claimed the Gunners could be open to a swap deal:

"Pepe Reina is ready to leave Liverpool. His agent has been...testing the market among clubs who could afford to pay the Spanish keeper’s £100k-a-week wages. The goalkeeper could leave Anfield in January if the price is right, and Arsenal are the early front-runners".

Despite Brendan Rodgers' repeated public support, the writing is on the wall for Reina, and he probably knows that, which is why it makes sense that he may be looking for a way out of Anfield. Indeed, fans shouldn't put too much stock in Rodgers' public statements on players' futures. Prior to being shunted out to West Ham, Andy Carroll also got the dreaded vote of confidence from the manager:

"There is absolutely no chance of a loan deal. I would need to be a nutcase even to consider at this moment to let Carroll go out"

Like Rodgers' comments about Reina, this sounds like a pretty emphatic denial, but soon afterwards, Carroll left on loan!

Reina has been in the comfort zone for the last six years: guaranteed a place in the team as long as he remained fit; no real challengers for his position, and repeatedly picked despite incrementally poor performances.

Things have now changed though, and Reina's time as an automatic starter seems to be at an end. In recent weeks, Liverpool have been linked with a number of goalkeepers, including Jack Butland, Jason Steele, Ali Al Habsi, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, and I'm sure this will not have escaped the Spaniard's notice.

The question to consider is this: Is Reina absolutely integral to Liverpool's success? His spell on the sidelines recently (arguably) proved that he's not. The Reds can manage without him, and if that's the case, why not cash-in now whilst his value is at a decent level?

Reina has subtly threatened many times in the past to leave the club, and to be honest, I would have no problem if he left in January.

Theo Walcott is the obvious option for a swap deal, and although I'm not the 23-year old's biggest fan, the deal could make sense for Liverpool.

Jaimie Kanwar


50 comments:

  1. It feels like deja vu all over again. We wait till January to finally get in an additional striker and kickstart our season but to completely undermine that we sell our number one without anyone available to replace him. I can't see it happening. And what would Reina want to do at Arsenal? He'd only go there if he wants to avoid the riks of winning trophies which he does run at LFC.

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  2. Reina-Walcott swap, i would be happy with that but then we'll need to replace him with a top class goalkeeper, i'd like us to sign Ter Stegen.

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  3. The chances of Arsenal spending 62m on players this christmas or even next year are slim to none.. Never gonna happen.

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  4. Isn`t it emirates rather than highbury?

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  5. I agree. cash in now. For cash. not Walcott

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  6. Arsenal spent : €54m on players during the summer, so why are the chances of spending a similar amount 'slim to none'?

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  7. Would be sad to see Reina go...

    Ter Stegen? Been hearing alot about this guy... so who knows, maybe...

    I'd be happy to get Walcott... but very sad to see Reina go!

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  8. Why would Arsenal buy Reina when Shesney is a better keeper? All it does is undermine him and I cannot see Reina being prepared to sit on the bench. Shezzer would be put out if he was benched when he is Arsenal's future for the next 15 years.

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  9. Cazorla £11.6M + Podolski £10.3M + Giroud £9.6. Who else?

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  10. I thought they paid around £37 million which is about 46 million euros. This was also offset by the sale of RVP to united for £22 million.
    Therefore Arsenals net spend was around £15 million / 18.5 million euros.

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  11. You forgot about the €20 million for Song!

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  12. Most credible sources (Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Mail etc) have Cazorla's fee at £16m, Podolski at 11m and Grioud at 12m. That is roughly 39m, which = €48 (I had Cazorla's fee wrong before, my bad).

    Granted, the figures have not been confirmed on Arsenal's website, but it's still a shedload of money.

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  13. Arsenal also have money from transfers over the last 5 years that hasn't been spend.

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  14. you have to remember that every penny that was spent by them was recouped by the sales of van persie reportedly £24 mil and song to barcelona for a reported £16 mil so in a way they made a million pound profit in the summer before that it was the same story they sold fabregas ad nasri and use funds from those sales so unless somebody leaves for a large fee it look unlikely that they will be spending as they have been using the sell before you buy stratergy for years now

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  15. Arsenal are garbage and will finish behind Liverpool.

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  16. ^ Arsenal Net Spend:
    39M - {23M (RVP) + 15M (Song)} = 1M
    I doubt they'll spend 50M

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  17. lol szczesny a better keeper thats why arsenal are actively looking to sign pepe for the last 2 seasons they have to young keepers that have no where near enough experience thats why they have failed to challenge in the current team the keeper is a huge liability

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  18. If he wants to leave and we get a good offer, AND have someone lined up then yea. But if he doesnt want to leave then we should keep him. Regardless of his slight form dip, he is still much better than what we have, and we have all seen how teams struggle to replace top goal keepers.
    There is no point in letting top players go if they dont want to.

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  19. There's something really wrong with you kanwaarr, same stories every few days only worded slightly differently

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  20. Type your comment here.
    .

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  21. Insightful, yet understated. You sir are a wizard with words.

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  22. History proves arsenal don't spend big. The story is drivel.

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  23. And also far more intelligent than anything JK writes!

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  24. More like Reina Walcott + 10 million swap. With Walcott out of contract in the summer, he will not command such a high fee that it would equal Reina's current value on the market. I think valuing Walcott at 5 million and Reina at 15 million is still very generous by the way.

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  25. Question is, how much is Wenger willing to pay for Reina, 20 to 30mil? That would be ample to replace him but like Will says, only if we have somebody else lined up to replace Reina then let him go.

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  26. Arsenal will spend big money when their Stadium is paid for in full. Until then, they won't change too much.

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  27. and a cash plus Walcott deal would not be a bad idea either.

    I honestly feel that Reina will stay though but if we do not make it into the CL by next season then he will pack his things and leave so we have the chance to cash in now!

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  28. Rodgers wants his keeper to be able to act like an outfield player as far as receving the ball switching feet and short passing to either one of the centre backs (out wide) or Lucas (dropping). Essentially the keeper is acting almost like a sweeper.

    Reina is probably the best in the league at executing this role, as he was taught this way in the Barca academy from a young age and is actually one of few goal keepers that are not bad as an outfield player.

    Reina's distrubution is also second to none, he may be on 100k per week but he is so for a reason. Like Lucas, and agger Reina is essential to the teams possession based play from the back. Jones although a good shot stopper is not a sweeper keeper (a 12th outfield player if you will). There are few around...Reina is therefore going no where soon.

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  29. Thank you, thank you, you're far too kind...

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  30. brad friedel was bad at liverpool but class at blackburn and spurs and how many keepers have done well at anfield dudek and pepe in the last 20 years we have enough probs without needing a keeper

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  31. Langerak from Borussia would be a great pick up. Cheap and young. Dominated in his first match against Bayern.

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  32. http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/arsenal-fc/transfers/verein_11.html arsenal got 12m to spare from the last transfer window. let's say they splash out another 20m so they got at least 32m to spend. if a swap deal reina - walcott (maybe even szczesny) is going to happen they won't spend big on reina so they still got enough money left for other reinforcements.

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  33. I wouldn't mind even if we just swap them without any money involved because Walcott would be still worth it. Reina's value has dipped considerably, considering his poor form for past few seasons but in last few games Reina has looked good and maybe he is coming back to his best, it could be that being out of team for so long has inspired him again to do better. But i would still take Walcott over him because when Reina was out we didn't miss him at all and that was the period Liverpool started improving their form but if we could get Walcott for around 10-15m without involving Reina that would be ideal for us.

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  34. ive been scared shitless whole season when reina desides to come out from his line for crosses. whole last season he seemed rather halfhearted with his displays for the club. This season i think his shot stopping has improved, but if a good offer comes for him im sure Liverpool could survive losing him. to be quite honest there isnt a position that couldnt be strenghtened in the team at the moment. good, young, -Hungry- keeper to either challenge Reina or place him should we sell wouldnt be a bad option. Its pretty clear message from board this season that we need to sell in order to buy. we might get a kitty of 20-30m at max (and i am hopefull with those numbers), with reina going off 15+-20 m (im also hopefull with those numbers). it makes a hell of a big difference. If reina stays i hope he realises how privilidged he is to play LFC and discover that fire to put out top performances again. it might be a low point for the club at the moment, but LFC is internationally one of biggest football clubs, and i have no doubt that LFC will be up with the best again in 5-10 years. sooner if we have 2 successfull transfer windows in row.

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  35. yes let him go, and don't replace with any one, where have i seen that done before?

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  36. hardly our top performer this season, or last. with the form reina is in i can easily think atleast 5 keepers in Premierleague only who would be suitable replacements.

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  37. i also think of many strikers who we could..no...should have replaced carroll with, but we didn't. i think you may have read too much into my post above.

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  38. I wouldn't let Reina go at all! He has played for 8 years and this is the first time that we're questioning his performances because he had a little dip in form. Should we put Stevie on the chopping block cause he's dipped in form? Of course not cause we know he's still got enough left to contribute. Pepe is 30 and is just hitting his goalkeeping prime (29-32) so what's the panic about? We're also not talking about any keeper, we're talking about one of the best to play in this league. He came in and won the golden glove three years on the trot. He's helped progress and win cup finals with his penalty saving abilities. He is one of the best around to pick out a pass for the counter attack (how many liverpool goals have been scored off an initial pepe distribution?). I remember when Petr had a tough year at Chelsea and the fans were calling for his head. He was even benched a couple of times in his career because of his form. But look today and tell me that any chelsea fan would imagine another keeper in his place. Petr is immense and Pepe is in the same league. Pepe's having a dip in form but I believe the injury and the treat of his position has reignited him and he's done much better since coming back into the team. Also don't forget he's a HUGE voice in the locker room and in a team that doesn't have as many leaders as we used to with the likes of Bella and Torres gone, we need his kind of leadership if we want to rebuild. Sometimes as fans we forget what certain players have done for our club and pepe's been one of those who has saved Liverpool more times than we can remember. Give him time and he'll show us once again why he's been starting for 8 years and again,at 28 he hasnt even hit his goalkeeping prime so imagine how much more he can offer! IMO, there is no suitable replacement as we've already got one of the best around
    I wouldn't let Reina go at all! He has played for 6 years and this is the first time that we're questioning his performances because he had a little dip in form. Should we put Stevie on the chopping block cause he's dipped in form? Of course not cause we know he's still got enough left to contribute. Pepe is 30 and hasn't hit his goalkeeping prime so what's the panic about? We're also not talking about any keeper, we're talking about one of the best to play in this league. He came in and won the golden glove three years on the trot. He's helped progress and win cup finals with his penalty saving abilities. He is one of the best around to pick out a pass for the counter attack (how many liverpool goals have been scored off an initial pepe distribution?). I remember when Petr had a tough year at Chelsea and the fans were calling for his head. He was even benched a couple of times in his career because of his form. But look today and tell me that any chelsea fan would imagine another keeper in his place. Petr is immense and Pepe is in the same league. Pepe's having a dip in form but I believe the injury and the treat of his position has reignited him and he's done much better since coming back into the team. Also don't forget he's a HUGE voice in the locker room and in a team that doesn't have as many leaders as we used to with the likes of Bella and Torres gone, we need his kind of leadership if we want to rebuild. Sometimes as fans we forget what certain players have done for our club and pepe's been one of those who has saved Liverpool more times than we can remember. Give him time and he'll show us once again why he's been starting for 6 years and again,at 28 he hasnt even hit his goalkeeping prime so imagine how much more he can offer! IMO, there is no suitable replacement as we've already got one of the best

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  39. i like pepe and joking aside i would be disappointed if he left. i don't see why he would go to arsenal other than the champions lge, though this season, there is a danger they may not get there. domestically, they have fallen away, so he may aswell stay with us, after all 100k a week is a nice little incentive.

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  40. if he wants to really stay. then i dont object him staying. but if he wants to go and pushes for transfer. like he has subtly hinted in past, then i dont see the point in keeping him if he isnt fully committed.

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  41. Not my first time questioning his performance, not been a fan of his form for the last two or three seasons at least. So not a 'little dip', imo. If we can get good money for him, than I wouldn't be against selling him.

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  42. It might not have been spent on players but could have been spent on wages, agent fees, stadium, training ground, etc, as well as future potential costs such as dividends to old Stan & co. I think we will see the true extent of Arsenal's cards when FFP comes into full effect, as this is one of main clubs that has set itself up for being a ideally run club under FFP in the future. They do have a big wad of cash in cash reserves, partially due to the Emirates deal but I don't see them committing to a big net spend until next summer at the earliest. Some of the cash reserves I bet is set aside for the possible financial complication from not qualifying for CL in the future. Maybe, just maybe, in tandem with FFP, they could reduce tickets prices sometime down the line but I don't see them happening. With a club like Arsenal, with the finances regarding stadium & FFP, its too complicated to be too hopeful about them spending big anytime soon.

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  43. Arsenal will not spend £62m in January. Prices are always inflated in January and they would wait until the summer plus Wenger does not like shelling out money at the best of times. I'm willing to bet they don't spend over £25m at the very most and even that is very optimistic.

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  44. I mean, every player has their price but I still think he has more to offer the club and loyalty has to factor in as well. In my recent memory, correct me if im wrong, only Hyypia (10) has had more seasons as a foreign player and I think its somewhat of a rarity in the game. Idk, if Arsenal want to spend upwards of £15-20M on him then I wouldn't be too upset as we would be able to get someone else as good to replace him. But anything lower than £15M would be on the cheap imo (and I know its an inflated price, but it should be since there isn't a pletheora of top proven keepers on the market at the moment)

    PS: These reports of us replacing him with these poor premiership keepers is apalling. If we let him go, we need a top replacement: Fernando Muslera from Galatasaray or Rene Adler from HSV. Two of the best who we can realistically sign but I still rate Reina over both

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  45. NOOOOOOOO! terrible decsion there are no other goalkeeper that will move to liverpool that is either as good or better than reina so why we meant to be strengthing liverpool squad not make it weaker

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  46. Personally think pepe has been on the wane the last couple if years, the guy worries me constantly during games, ive seen so many games where teams have had 1 or 2 shots on target yet always seem to score, wouldnt be gutted to lose him

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  47. I'm not saying we need to get rid of Pepe, but if we do I have always thought Amir Begovic is very under-rated. Stoke got him on the cheap from Pompey and it shouldn't break the bank to sign him. He is a big lad and an excellent shot-stopper. I think he could get even better at a bigger club like ours.

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  48. Sorry, should be Asmir. Further to that point. Despite being only ninth in the league, Stoke have conceded the fewest goals in the league with 12 _ almost twice as few as United. I think they may have the most clean sheets as well. Shawcross and Huth are decent defenders in front of Begovic, but if they were better than that then they would be playing elsewhere. I think Begovic may be one of the best stories in the Premier League that is yet to be told.

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  49. My favorite thing to do is Hide the Liverpool-Kop publications, you click on it hold down and let go on "HIDE PUBLICATION"
    Jamie Kanwar is a Man U fan and a school drop out!

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