Pepe Reina: A Tribute

Whilst his compatriot friends did.

 

Makes me cry when a player like Pepe, is reduced to bench warming, when we are stuck with Mignolet and no serious competition behind him. This is Ridger's biggest ****-up to date, instead of not making it personal, he cuts the clubs nose off to spite our face. The thick pikey batard.

 

I disagree.

Reina was all set to join Barca, but we could not allow the deals competition until a new keeper was in, so we signed Mignolet. Reina's transfer the fell through. It was to expensive to keep both so Reina was loaned, Reina then caused some trouble and damaged his relationship with the club.

Rodgers had no choice.

Barca also said they would do the deal again this summer but chose to sign some one else. So Rodgers would have still expected Reina to move to Barca. Barca have been really awkward here.

 

Best one was the 90 yard sprint from goal to celebrate with N'gog when he scored against the Mancs in the last minute

 

Or he's thinking 100k to sit on the bench... or use that £100k to reinvest in a 1st team forward who can make the difference.

 

You've got that the wrong way round.

Mignolet was bought long before the murmurings from Valdes about leaving Barca, which in turn started the murmurings from Reina! At the time of Mignolet's signing, Rodgers was talking about Reina having competition for his place so it's actually no wonder he wanted to look elsewhere. I really think there's been some bad blood between the two of them with neither prepared to back down and there's only ever going to be one winner in those situations - the one who picks the team!

 

The talk of Reina to Barca was going on before the season even ended. It looked certain.

 

I'm with FF here, Johnsonsbaby, the talk of Reina going preceded the signing of Mig.

 

I had conversation at the time it was happening and I posted links that showed Mignolet had signed before any Reina talk about Barca - I don't know if I can find them again but I'm 100% certain that Mignolet was signed before any hints from Reina about a Barca exit. I think BR wanted another keeper to challenge Reina who wasn't performing at his best and it was that that got Reina's itchy feet about a move.

 

Mignolet was a pretty expensive signing though. I doubt we'd spend that amount on competition in goal.

 

Maybe nothing "official" was said about Reina going but Valdes was talking about leaving at the end of that season etc and "rumours" were rife that Reina was going to be the replacement they had lined up. I just don't think we could have taken the risk knowing that he would have gone had Barca made an offer leaving us in a situation looking desperately for a new keeper.

 

Rodgers stated at the time that his signing was for competition - “Pepe Reina and I went out for a meal a couple of months before the end of the season and I told him exactly what we were going to do, which was to provide real competition in that area.

He was fully aware of my intention of the course of the last few months. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to Pepe."

I don't see it that way but I respect your point of view. It was sad to see Reina on the US tour joining in the training and nights out with the lads etc but not even on the bench for a single game - Rodgers kept hold of the feelings he had from Reina's 'first' leaving letter to the fans, and that kind of stubbornness could be his downfall!

 

I think the writing was on the wall. We couldn't leave him behind from the US tour but it was obvious he didn't want to stay (knowing he wouldn't be first choice) and we couldn't afford him to stay on his wages. As such, the sensible thing was done which was give Jones who is going to be 2nd choice, the chance to get some pre-season games under his belt so if something were to happen he was ready. Would have been nice to see Pepe play, but long term wouldn't have helped LFC this season.

 

That is a just a classic line that managers use.

 

Well it's a classic line because it's sentiment is true.

Managers sign players all the time for competition for a spot, except .................... goalkeepers! I think that's unheard of, so it's not a line to trot out when talking about replacement keepers. Big mistake by Rodgers I think, an underperforming Reina is still better than Mignolet at present - granted he can and should improve but we've just lost a superb servant to the club over what seems like neither wanting to step down on pride.

A stat from last season -

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Anyway mate, looking forward to the new season

 

Only thing with that table is... Reina played in a team managed by Benitez... hardly the most attacking of managers. What constitutes a "big chance"? Maybe the Big Chances mig faced were a lot more clean cut than the ones Reina faced?

I don't think anyone is saying Mig isn't a top shot stopper, but looking at that table it suggests he is. Where he is let down is coming off his line, his distribution and from crosses (although he improved the last bit as the season went on).

 

Its because most keepers want to play every game and keepers need to be in the team consistently to perform, so rotation doesnt work. Its also expensive.

Keepers who dont play turn bad.

Rafa tried it with Dudek and Carson.

City have signed another decent keeper though.

 

Benitez and goalie coach Valero always got the best out of Reina so no surprise it happened when he joined up with them again at Napoli. Surely you don't need an explanation of 'big chance' .....

It's universally accepted that keepers play every game [except giving the number 2 keeper cup games and covering for injuries obviously] so rotation doesn't work, actually it's probably never been tried. The second keeper is as good as a team can afford and never viewed as a real interchangeable alternative, just a very decent back-up - which in my view is what Mignolet should have been.

You're right Rafa bought Carson as back up for Dudek but it wasn't the same scenario because Carson was 19 and his only first team experience up to joining us was 3 games for Leeds!

 

I have one example.

When Brad Jones was at Boro him and another keeper were tried in rotation but both struggled due to lack of consistency.

 

That's really interesting. Proves your point about rotation not working

I seriously believe we would have won the league last year with Reina but that's all if's and maybe's now. The problem we have at present is what happens if Migs is injured, do we have a good enough back up in Jones? That's a real worry going forward ....