14 Feb 2013

'We've watched him' - Unzue confirms Barca want £15m LFC star. Time to sell...?

A few weeks ago, Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes confirmed publicly that he plans to leave the Catalan club in the summer, prompting speculation that Liverpool stopper could be the man to replace him at the Nou Camp. Various reports in Spain and the UK have linked Reina with a summer move, and now, Barcelona's former goalkeeping coach has confirmed that the Euro giants have the Reds' goalkeeper.

In January, Valdes released a statement via Spanish national news agency Efe, which read:

"The agents of Victor Valdes have communicated to Barcelona in a meeting held this afternoon the irrevocable decision of the player to not renew his contract"

In an interview last night Juan Carlos Unzue - who spent eight years at Barca's goalkeeping coach before leaving in 2012 - confirmed that Barcelona have watched 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."

A recent report in the Daily Mail claimed:

"Barcelona are expected to move to sign Liverpool's Pepe Reina in the summer. Barca want to recruit a new goalkeeper in June [and] believe Liverpool would consider a bid for Reina, with manager Brendan Rodgers aware that he will have to sell key players to raise money to rebuild the current side"

In January, Reina's father Miguel publicly urged his son to join Barcelona. He told Reporters:

"Pepe has shown to everyone how good a goalkeeper he is. Right now, he's at the height of his career. And he'd be the ideal goalkeeper for Barcelona."

Addressing the speculation in early February, Reina dismissed his father's comments, but remained full of praise for the Spanish giants. He told ESPN:

"I was surprised because Victor is with the best team in the world. Barcelona is the best club in the world. I know what it means because I trained there as a player and as a person. When I sign a contract, I fulfil it and I have signed with Liverpool until 2016"

Liverpool seem to be actively looking for a goalkeeper, and in recent months, the likes of Jack Butland, Asmir Begovic, Jason Steele, and Ali Al Habsi have all been touted as replacements for £15m-rated Reina, who is also reportedly wanted by Manchester United.

The Spaniard's reliability between the sticks continues to fade, and after costing Liverpool three points against Man City last week, Reina put in another shaky performance during Monday's 2-0 defeat to West Brom.



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21 comments:

  1. 15 million, not bad money. I like Pep but if he wants to go and we can get decent money he can be replaced. I'm just happy Butland has gone to Stoke so that danger is gone. I don't think the guy has caught a ball in his life and he keeps punching it into the path of attackers. Getting a win at Stoke should be much easier next year.

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  2. Anthing over about £12 million would be good. But who would we replace him with?
    Ive always been a fan on Ben Foster. We should have gone for Butland though.

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  3. £15 million for Pepe would be a great price to get for him but I don't believe Barca will pay anywhere near that price. They'll probably offer something like £5m and then after we reject that offer someone will have a word with him behind the scenes urging Pepe to start making waves and push for the transfer, maybe even refuse to play. Just like they did with Mascharano and Fabregas. It seems to me that Barca haven't got that much money so that's how they go about their business. Using the status as the worlds best team as a way to get the player to become unsettled and actively push for the transfer.

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  4. Glad to see the back of him

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  5. i believe there is a good chance of this happening if they are indeed interested in him.
    The mascherano situation is something alot of people tend to leave out when they say how good he is, This is a guy who refused to play for us and i hope we dont have that same situation with reina

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  6. Wish we had De Gea. My opinion has changed about him drastically recently.

    He is such a natural shot stopper, I think he would kept out a large number of the shots that have beaten Reina this season

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  7. this again, YAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNN

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  8. Reina didn't have a poor performance against West Brom.  What would you have liked him to do differently on the 2 goals?

    Additionally, I thought Valdes' contract ran until the 2014 summer?

    If we could get 15m for Pepe, I'd probably go for it because we wouldn't get a higher bid.  That being said, I have trouble believing we'd get 15m for him considering that he hasn't exactly lit it up in the last 3 years.

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  9. as long as we get a good replacement and not another down grade

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  10.  and how does this information help us as LFC fans

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  11.  sell , he has single handedly cost us a lot of games...some people argue that he is the best keeper in creating attacks , but i believe we wouldn't be impressed if the postman delivers groceries n leaves the letters at home. he is employed to keep the balls out of his post and i will be pleased if he did that best.anything else is secondary.

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  12. He's been a great servant to the club and has & still is a fantastic keeper despite the well publicised mistakes he has made in the last couple of seasons. I would like to see us go for Jason Steele of middlesborough who is already a great keeper for the here and now as well as a good prospect for the future

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  13. pepe reina is class and since 2010 he has seen the team go from rafa and and when had him being trained by a oap thats ok if its zoff or clem. but some gobshite and then kenny came in done the bizz and got a 3yr deal then because of andy carroll smashing 2 in against city we went with youth and fsg appionted comolli to haggle the list kenny gave him we all know that kenny the canny scotsman never needed it at blackburn or to replace rush be he was back were he belonged and we start season good in league cup and lucas go's off at chelsea then fergie started a war from strength over kenny ,1 question why didnt evra compain to the ref fergie did it, but we  carry on playing good but unlucky cups apart but kenny knew daime would replace lucas from bench or play with lucas so at the end of that season kenny setup theo(14m) and diame free but FSG and Fools got brendover rodgers and pepe lost the plot and the club is divided again

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  14. id be sad to see him go, must be depressing for him having 2 incompetent centre backs in front of him in agger and skrtel.
    his head is down and has been since rafa went, broken promises and the club has gone backwards regardless of hicks and gillet nearly ruined us.
    he will be harder to replace more than people realise, if reina is happy he will get back to his best, he only feels how we do I believe , no excuse ie money and wearing the shirt, but were all desperate for seeing better players at the club and it must be disheartening when all he has seen is inconsistent layers coming and going, or staying!!
    I hope the yanks go shit or bust this summer (so to speak)
    whether that's with brendon or not who knows

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  15. I hope we bring in ter Stegen he is doing brilliantly for mogengladbach and he is young

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  16. R lad we need to keep him I like is name

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  17. Very clear state of mind u got there !!!
    Spot on Zulu !!! Not related to Shaka Zulu by any chance ?
     ;.)

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  18. So we support him by behind yes ???

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  19. Sell to get better stopper and a CB urgently !!! We adress the front and ignored the back that had caused us points against Arsenal, Man City , Oldham n Zenit .... in quick succession !!!

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  20. I'll be the first to admit when Reina has played poorly..

    But Against West Brom .. No way, not having that one...

    Gloss over the 3 or 4 top class saves last night that kept us, by the skin of our teeth, in the tie against Zenit why don't you ??

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