Liverpool FC Forum

[bunglemark2]

according to Tony Barrett of the times this loan deal is purely for financial reasons

Really? No sh1t, Sherlock.....

[lakes10]

I am happy and yet worried .
I dont think his mind has been on the game for a few years. I do feel one reson  for the club miving on is that carr will not be tgere to say to him keep your eyes on the ball.
But I am worried that the new guy is on to a hiding to nothing.  One mistake and a few fans will be jumping for his head and themmanager's

[maypaxvobiscum]

The wages Reina earns here are nothing compared to what many other players earn at bigger clubs. Shows how far Liverpool has fallen, and no wonder top players like Suarez wants to leave. The ambition of the club has to be called into question here. And why loan? Napoli has loads of money to spend after the Cavani sale.

[Penguins]

Why?
It's called leverage and we had none.
The club needed to get rid this wondow and Napoli offered the lowest they had to to get him and the club had to say yes.

[maypaxvobiscum]

Reina's contract ends in 2016. If this loan move really is the first step of an eventual transfer to Barcelona to replace Valdes, the transfer fee Liverpool receives would be very much less than what it could have been if he was sold now.

He is just 30 and a top keeper. He is capable to playing for another 4 years at least. Furthermore, it would be better to have 2 top keepers competing for the first team, just like Manure has got De Gea and Lindergaard.

And as we've lost Carragher, who else apart from Gerrard and Agger have we got who can lead the team? Reina, seems to be one of those characters who keep the dressing room together.

[Penguins]

I don't think the owners understand the concept of "leadership" as you can't value it in money.
And we are not in the financial position(according to our owners), like manure, to have 2 top class keepers taking in big wages.
Which means once Mignolet was bought the club was actively looking to get rid of Reina.

[friendlyguy33]

Even though I understand why Reina has gone on loan for a year I'm a bit perplexed as to why we bought Mignolet in the first place.

Reina had one or two dodgy moments last season but no more than in any other season. As has been said he's still only 30 still with probably up to another five good years left at the top level.

I'm not really sure why we went out and bought another keeper. As goes the saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.

[Benny The Noon]

We bought Mignolet because he will more than likely be on a smaller wage than Pepe was. Possibly Pepe had told the club he was looking to leave ? Or maybe BR decided he wanted to make a change ?

It's another step backwards in ability IMO

Mignolet whilst decent is nowhere near as good a gk than Pepe - as well as all the things that Pepe brings to the club. Agger possibly the next to leave

[aCe']

What a waste of time and money this whole GK thing turned out to be. We're worse off on the pitch and we wasted 9 mill we could have spent or added towards a player in a position that needs it.

The whole transfer window so far has been a clusterf*ck as far as I'm concerned and this is Mignolet/Reina deal is the exclamation point.

[Greavesie]

What a waste of time and money this whole GK thing turned out to be. We're worse off on the pitch and we wasted 9 mill we could have spent or added towards a player in a position that needs it.

The whole transfer window so far has been a clusterf*ck as far as I'm concerned and this is Mignolet/Reina deal is the exclamation point.

I'm guessing this is a wind up? Mignolet was better than Reina last season, personally he should have been in the team of the year over De Gea. He's already made noises about wanting to leave and hasn't been at his best for some time now. I honestly think Mignolet will be a great investment

Reina WAS class, there's no guarantee he'll get back to his best. He wants to be at the WC as does Mignolet and they both need to be playing to get there. Competition is always healthy but neither will want it if it sacrafices their spot at the next WC

[mart]

Cant say that i'm convinced that Mignolet will be an improvement over Reina but he is a good keeper.

[JC_81]

Bottom line is that Reina is not worth the 110k weekly salary he is reportedly on.  Nowhere near it, not judging by his performances over the last 3 seasons.

We have obviously looked at it and decided we can get a player just as good if not better for around half the wages.  Whether you agree Mignolet is the right choice at 9mil is another matter.

Also the fact that clubs don't appear to be queuing up for Reina despite the fact he's blatantly available says it all in terms of his current standing.

It also looks like Reina was all set for Barce this summer until Valdes did a U-turn, so he's clearly not going to be part of Rodgers' rebuilding process in the longterm.

He was a great keeper, one of our best signings of the Rafa era and one of the best keepers in our history, but there's no room for sentiment here.

Personally I'd have kept him on for a season and replaced next summer as I feel the squad has a look of inexperience about it presently, but I certainly don't think it's an awful decision to move him on either.

[red till i die!!]

What a waste of time and money this whole GK thing turned out to be. We're worse off on the pitch and we wasted 9 mill we could have spent or added towards a player in a position that needs it.

The whole transfer window so far has been a clusterf*ck as far as I'm concerned and this is Mignolet/Reina deal is the exclamation point.

I'm guessing this is a wind up? Mignolet was better than Reina last season

are you basing that on saves?.
he had around 150 saves more than pepe but has played 8 or 9 more games. he conceeded more goals, had less clean sheets and saved no penalties to pepe's 1.
its no surprise that he had more saves either considering sunderland almost got relegated so obviously he was the busier of the 2.
mignolet is a good keeper and in time im sure he could be better than pepe but not at the min, imo.

[red till i die!!]

Bottom line is that Reina is not worth the 110k weekly salary he is reportedly on.  Nowhere near it, not judging by his performances over the last 3 seasons.

We have obviously looked at it and decided we can get a player just as good if not better for around half the wages.  Whether you agree Mignolet is the right choice at 9mil is another matter.

Also the fact that clubs don't appear to be queuing up for Reina despite the fact he's blatantly available says it all in terms of his current standing.

It also looks like Reina was all set for Barce this summer until Valdes did a U-turn, so he's clearly not going to be part of Rodgers' rebuilding process in the longterm.

He was a great keeper, one of our best signings of the Rafa era and one of the best keepers in our history, but there's no room for sentiment here.

Personally I'd have kept him on for a season and replaced next summer as I feel the squad has a look of inexperience about it presently, but I certainly don't think it's an awful decision to move him on either.

given that reina is an experienced keeper, a world cup and european championship winner and also been here 8 years, £110k is well worth it. he didnt arrive here on that money and earned it over successive contracts so he has earned it.
would you really think that mignolet isnt going to want a payrise when he signs extensions to his contract or will be happy to be still earning the same salary in 8 years time.

[Redman in wales]

I've read with interest both sides of the arguement, but the best post I've seen on this subject comes from TBT via StevenLFC on RAWK.

Pepe Reina: Why a Loan Makes Sense

Until Victor Valdes decided to stay at Barcelona for another year, it looked for all the money that Pepe Reina would leave Liverpool to join the Catalan giants. According to Jonathan Northcroft, who spoke to us on TBT Talks, Reina hadn’t put in a formal transfer request but he’d made it known that he’d welcome a move abroad. That is perfectly understandable, Reina has strong ties to Barcelona and it would have been wrong for the club to stand in his way. Also, – and I’ll whisper this to avoid the inevitable abuse – Reina hadn’t been playing that well for a couple of seasons.

Liverpool accepted that they would lose their ‘keeper, and proactively went and explored new goalkeeping options, which should be applauded. They decided to sign another very good goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet and set the wheels in motion for a potential move.

In the meantime, Victor Valdes decided to have another year at Barcelona, which that I’m guessing Reina hadn’t put into the equation. Liverpool decided to complete the Mignolet deal anyway and from that moment it was clear that Reina was surplus to requirements. There was no way on Earth that the club would pay £9m for a goalkeeper to provide competition. Furthermore, I’m sure Mignolet would not have joined us to fight for a starting role, especially as he was guaranteed to start for Sunderland, and with this season proceeding a World Cup where he is vying to be his country’s number one.

So now a problem became apparent. It looks from the outside that Reina didn’t want to leave for anyone else other than Barcelona, and Liverpool didn’t want him to stay, after all, there is no justification for paying a back up ‘keeper £100,000 a week. Despite all he’s done for the club, and that is a lot, in fact he’s the best goalkeeper I’ve ever seen play for Liverpool, there is no way that the club could justify paying Reina’s high wage just to warm the bench. That’s just bad business. The only way to resolve this, bar persuading Barca to make a bid, was to loan Reina out for a season. The club had done this before with big earners, Joe Cole and Andy Carroll being the best examples. The club tried to sell both, and when they couldn’t find a deal, they allowed both to go on loan. This put them both in the shop window, lessened the load on the wage bill and eventfully earned both moves away.

I raised this point on Twitter when news of the loan deal broke and a few people asked me “Why don’t we just sell him?” Well, in an ideal world that would have happened. However, it looks like Reina has his heart set on Barcelona, so even if we did get some potential interest in him, he could just refuse the transfer, knowing that he could potentially get his dream move next season.

I was as big a Pepe Reina fan as anyone else, I still am, but to criticise the club for this loan move is naive and thoughtless. The club have made plenty of mistakes in the past, but this move makes sense 100% both in terms of on the field as Mignolet now knows he is the established number one, which I think is vital for a goalkeeper, and also in a business sense. A year playing at Napoli will mean Reina’s value shouldn’t depreciate too much, unless he plays poorly. Had he sat on our bench for a season, the fee we’d receive next season would be minimal. Also, the club will receive a loan fee which will pay for most of his wages.

I may be being naive, but had Reina not winked back when Barcelona eyed him up from across the bar then I’m not sure the club would have signed Simon Mignolet. Some people have mentioned that this might be a straight football decision and that Brendan Rodgers simply thinks Mignolet is an upgrade on Reina, and that may well be the case, it’s certainly not inconceivable. However, I’m not sure if Rodgers would have made the move away from Reina this summer if he was 100% convinced that Reina was going to stay. He lost a key member of his defence when Jamie Carragher retired, and it looks like there will be more comings and goings in terms of other defenders, so I’d think the manager would have liked a bit of continuity, which keeping Reina would have brought.

Whether it was a simple football decision, a financial decision or even a reaction to Barcelona’s apparently flirtation with Pepe Reina, Liverpool have handled this transition of goalkeepers fairly well. It could be said that not finding a buyer for Reina this summer left the club in an unwelcome and difficult situation, and I’d agree. I’m sure the club would have liked to have sold him. However turing that hope into reality seemingly wasn’t available, I think the club have handled said situation they were left with really well and for that they should be applauded.