Pepe Reina

[Scratch]

As far as I'm concerned, Pepe was a great player for the club, but his willingness (by his own admission) to leave the club if Barca came in left us with a gap to fill, so we filled it at the earliest opportunity.

It is just tough luck for Pepe, but Mignolet would have been signed with the assurance that he would be number 1, as we expected Pepe to be off.

This would have left Pepe on the bench, earning his 100k a week. The club had to find a solution that was agreable to both parties, and a loan move for a year seems ideal.

I really don't understand why Reina would have been upset by this....Pepe, we've accepted a bid from Napoli for you to go on loan for a year, what say you??....he can say no, or he can discuss it. Seems like he was willing to discuss it, based on his twitter timeline.

To be honest, his willingness to leave for Barca led to his own removal from the club, and I have little sympathy with that. If Pepe had not indicated a desire to leave, he would still be number 1 at the club. We had to put our own interests first.

There is also no comparison between this and the Suarez case, with regards to loyalty, they are two completely differenct issues. I don't recall Reina besmirching the club in the same way that Suarez has done, and yet the club has stood by Suarez despite all the negativity it has brought, and now Suarez is trying his hardest to leave, for any club he can...no comparison there at all.

[Marina]

Lovely letter. Very sad to see Reina go. He was always a good one, and I think he could have left much earlier if he had truly agitated for a move. He was a good and loyal servant.

With respect to the more sour parts of the letter: it's sad to know he feels that way. I'm more inclined to wear my rose-tinted glasses rather than criticise the club though. Perhaps that's foolish but blaming the club for everything only sets us back as a fan base, imo.

edit: just realised that calling him a good and loyal servant makes the scenario sound awfully aristocratic, oops

[Neil Young]

Vwoosh!

I wasn't insinuating we broke any rules you daft pillock, just that if we had have told him, as he wanted, it would be just doing what the tapping up rules are there to prevent.

i.e., whilst not against any rules, it would be a silly thing to do.

You didn't whoosh me, you clearly don't get that the tapping up rules are simply to protect the selling club.

There is nothing wrong with him wanting to know about the interest from Napoli. And more to the point there is nothing wrong with him wanting to know the club were willing to consider it. There's nothing silly about the club telling the player if they wanted to.

The tapping up rules are entirely irrelevant.

And quite frankly there's enough spurious nonsense in this thread without you dragging more into it.

[MrMichael]

So let me get this right, Reina wanted to stay at Liverpool IF a better offer didn't come along. That's called having your cake and eating it - no problem really with it from him, but also fair enough for the club to look for someone else.

And then this "not telling him about the loan" thing. So Napoli contact the club and say they want Reina. We agree then inform him - isn't that like exactly how transfers / loans are supposed to work? Maybe I'm missing something here but like he could still have said he wasn't going. What were we supposed to do instead? Seriously confused by what we're supposed to have done wrong?

Pepe was a great servant who had some very good years at the club, and some not so hot ones, I wish him all the best and its great to see that he apparently holds the fans etc in such high regard, but other than that I just don't get the problem here

[Neil Young]

He doesn't want to leave, that's his problem.

[Kenneth]

He doesn't want to leave, that's his problem.

Unless its to Barca seemingly. And maybe he would knowing he would be on the bench for a year, which is presumably why Rodgers was happy to let him go. Accepting the loan offer would seem to suggest that's true.

[Sarb]

He doesn't want to leave, that's his problem.

He does want to leave, but only to a club of his choice. Even then, he looked pretty happy walking in to having his medical at Napoli

[EwarWoo]

You didn't whoosh me, you clearly don't get that the tapping up rules are simply to protect the selling club.

Precisely. By telling him beforehand you're turning down that protection.

We chose to keep that protection. We made sure it suited us before informing him. I don't see that as being disloyal.

At no point have I said we would be breaking rules by telling him, you just incorrectly inferred that.

And quite frankly there's enough spurious nonsense in this thread without you dragging more into it.

[Neil Young]

Oh right, sorry, I thought you were the first to mention tapping up. I now realise you never said it.

[dizzycat]

So let me get this right, Reina wanted to stay at Liverpool IF a better offer didn't come along. That's called having your cake and eating it - no problem really with it from him, but also fair enough for the club to look for someone else.

And then this "not telling him about the loan" thing. So Napoli contact the club and say they want Reina. We agree then inform him - isn't that like exactly how transfers / loans are supposed to work? Maybe I'm missing something here but like he could still have said he wasn't going. What were we supposed to do instead? Seriously confused by what we're supposed to have done wrong?

Pepe was a great servant who had some very good years at the club, and some not so hot ones, I wish him all the best and its great to see that he apparently holds the fans etc in such high regard, but other than that I just don't get the problem here

Exactly, as soon as soon as someone publicly says they would go elsewhere plans are made to move on without them. Same with Suarez he can go, but it will be on the clubs terms. That's life and I wish him all the best for the future.

[5europeancups]

He doesn't want to leave, that's his problem.

He doesn't wabnt to go to napoli, but he would go to Barca at the drop of a hat.

[Kenneth]

He doesn't wabnt to go to napoli, but he would go to Barca at the drop of a hat.

He clearly does now ahead of the alternative, hence agreeing to go on loan.

What a tedious discussion this is. Bye bye Pepe, good luck at Napoli.

And I'm sure Ayre will get over Arn's cyber hatred of him.

[rodo]

brendan was on the anfield wrap and said he had been informed that the club should expect an offer from barca for reina so they went for mignolet as to he was "not getting stung again" sorry pepe but you have been flirting with barca for the last few years not our fault they still fancy valdes

[Neil Young]

Unless its to Barca seemingly. And maybe he would knowing he would be on the bench for a year, which is presumably why Rodgers was happy to let him go. Accepting the loan offer would seem to suggest that's true.

Yes, I realise that. And I think it has already been mentioned.

My reply to MrM's question was to try to explain why Reina has made the comment he did about leaving. He's not entirely happy (although according to Sarb he's clearly delirious about it because he has been caught smiling at least once since being told the club wanted him to leave).

It's the usual mountain out of a volehill. He's unhappy at leaving and has made a critical comment about the manner of his departure. Everyone here jumps on it and seems to feel a need to take sides, most risibly in the desire to shoot Ian Ayre seemingly because he's Ian Ayre.

Actually most of us probably feel much the same - sad to see him go, a tinge of regret that it wasn't all handled a bit better but all things must pass and it's not a tragedy for anyone really.

He does want to leave, but only to a club of his choice. Even then, he looked pretty happy walking in to having his medical at Napoli

Unbelievable. That's almost Arnic in its stupidity.

[James P]

Some people need to take a deep breath.

We all love Pepe, and he has been a brilliant player for this club, and seems like a great guy. Leaving aside entirely any debate about his recent form, the facts here seem pretty straightforward. He made it clear that if a return to Barca was possible, he would have accepted it, but that if it didn't happen he would have extended his contract. The club have therefore done the only thing that they could do, which is to plan for the worst case scenario and buy another top class keeper, to avoid us having to panic buy if he left at the end of the transfer window, when we'd likely pay well over the odds for our third or fourth choice.

Once Mignolet was signed, it was highly unlikely that we'd keep two expensive high-earning keepers on the books, and so Pepe was always going to be the victim of that scenario. I agree entirely that it sounds as though the communcation was a bit ****. On the face of it, though, this option works all round: he gets to play more games, for a manager that he knows well, for a team in the Champions League. In a year's time Valdes leaves and then potentially Pepe makes the dream return to Barca, or he comes back to Liverpool and we decide what to do next.

If Pepe had never expressed a desire to go back to Barca, I doubt that any of this would have happened. He did, and we had to make alternative arrangements regardless. I'm glad we didn't **** about for the whole window deciding whether we should do something or not, to be honest.