SUN in the sky, wood on willow, yells of ‘Howzzzatt’, Googlies, stroking to Fine Leg (behave); all common terminology associated with summer, and for once it is largely enjoyable from an English perspective, particularly if remembered with the torment of Warne’s, Waugh’s and Macgrath’s.
When I started writing for Live4Liverpool, never did I think the masters of the red balls (again, please behave) would feature in an opening paragraph of mine, but here we are! Are you ready for a strenuous link? Can you handle it? Wait, wait, please don’t give up yet, it will be worth it, even if just for the shocking revelation I will provide at the end!
The connection I want to make is between this much-maligned current Australian Ashes team and our once own Pepe Reina.
As I alluded too, in my lifetime I have witnessed one of the greatest cricketing sides ever to grace the game, as well as witnessing in my opinion one of the best goalkeepers in Liverpool history.
I want to start with the latter and pay praise to him as he heads off like Michael Caine to his own Italian Job, reuniting with another great! Goalkeeping is a tough life; you are the very last line of defence and usually any mistake made results in a goal as rarely there is anyone left to bail you out.
Competition is also tough, whereas a midfielder can find themselves put anywhere on the park, unless your manager is Stuart Pearce, you will compete for one position (anyone remember David James being put up front?).
Whilst we have had some memorable chaps between the sticks, Scott, Clemence, Grobbelaar, we have also had some less memorable chaps, Itandje, Hooper, Luzi, Padelli. Even those with a greater pedigree such as Westerveld, Carson, Kirkland have struggled.
In 2005, a handsome Spaniard arrived and started a love affair with the Kop. Reina is clearly a top goalkeeper, his awards during his time in the Premier League are testament to that, and his comfort with the ball at his feet suited our style of play (apart from under Hodgson) and what we as fans want to see.
Those goals we scored on the counter when Reina claimed an opposition corner and started off a move at pace were beautiful. More so than his talent, his personality and character is what made our bond with him so strong.
His celebrations (running full length to celebrate in front of the Kop), his passion, his clear positive influence in the dressing room and the clear love his team mates have for him (Didi even gave him a golden shower! Now that is love) always made up for the errors that can creep into anyone’s game. I for one will be very sad to see him leave. Loved him as a player and as a character and wish him all the best at Napoli.
Now I have got that off my chest, back to the point.
Australia was dominant in world cricket for years, a fact which is made more and more unbelievable with each DRS fail and wicket tumble. What happened? Why can such dominance turn into such averageness?
Simple: failing to prepare for the future.
In sport, you have to constantly be looking two steps ahead of where you are; standing still and living in the now is tantamount to success-suicide unless you have a Russian with a few bob!
Could Reina have done a job for us this season? Of course he could! Arguably he, as a keeper, is in the midst of his prime, so keeping him was never out of the question footballing wise. Yet at 31, with a nagging question over sustained form the club had to be looking towards the future and preparing (we also don’t know what has been said behind closed doors in terms of Barcelona, for example).
What the club identified was a younger (roughly the same age as when Pepe joined), highly rated keeper and an opportunity to bring him to the club which they took, and to some extent this has to be applauded.
Australia overly relied on their aging stars for too long, leaving a huge void when they actually left. Whether you are a fan of FSG or not, they have taken positive action to avoid a similar fallout in the goalkeeping department at Anfield.
It is a tough decision to make because of the man involved, and only time will tell how the young Belgian gets on replacing him, but it is a nod to the future where we must be looking to. In an ideal world Reina stays for at least a year and provides competition for that starting berth, but outside of Chelsea and Manchester I’m not sure any club can operate on having a player on £110k a week who is not going to be a regular starter.
Talk of asset-stripping is a nonsense with no basis in truth in my eyes (might even get an article out of it) and separating my head from my heart it actually seems a sensible decision.
I love Reina, the handsome son of a gun, and thank him for everything he has given and done at this club, but I can wave him off fondly knowing that now is the right time to say Arrivederci. ‘Leave them wanting more’ Bobby Womack once said. It’s why we only see Ricky Gervais do two seasons of The Office and Extras; better that people ask for more rather than eager to be rid.
If you made it this far, then thank you! My shocking revelation? New Girl is a wonderfully funny comedy I enjoy more and more! So what!?
Agree with anything I said? Disagree? Let me know, leave a comment, find me on twitter @timdibs
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Pepe is a top keeper, Mingolet isn’t. It will just take his first mistake to make Rodgers decision look stupid. Rodgers’ comments about ‘competition’ then revealing ‘money’ was at the heart of Mingolet’s signing have undermined what little credibility Rodgers had. If we are not careful, Rodgers might come out with guff about Liverpool signing top ‘exciting’ players and then buy nobody – oh, he did.
Very sad to see Pepe go. Stupid decision imo since we have no idea how mignolet will do. Plenty of keepers have come with big reputations and failed. Should have kept both and at least seen who’d be the best.
What a rambling rubbish article. Boring and made no sense . As for Pepe I agree with Fred
Thanks for reading though
Good read and I agree with your views. Pepe is and always be a legend to us all and I wish him all the best as he rejoins Rafa for a fresh challenge.
Good read and I agree with your views. Pepe is and always will be a legend to us all and I wish him all the best as he rejoins Rafa for a fresh challenge.
Im with hayley on this dumb dumb article
Thanks for reading. Would like your constructive feedback
Many thanks for your loyal service to Liverpool . You are indeed a true legend. May you continue to shine where ever you go. YNWA .
Tim, I think the best analogy here might be between the aussi team of yesteryear and the Liverpool team of yesteryear. Once dominant, rarely defeated teams that weren’t regenerated effectively and are still paying the price.
Also very true! A lot of mismanagement in both leading to shadows of our former selves
Reina due make silly mistakes on a goal post.let him go…especially liverpool vs mancity reina blunder is undeletable in my memory. Let alone arsenal match that he parm ball into his own net….what a suck..
Finally I have imagined a reasonable ‘reason’ why this Tim always blinded himself and praising BR and FSG no matter how illogical the things are. Tim maybe trying to seek a job from FSG in LFC. Tim maybe looking for a spin doctor job at LFC PR department. I have seen many absolutely blinded (e.g. supporting racist, sexist and discriminatory policies) pro-government bloggers eventually ended up in high government posts.
No. He is just full of sh!t
Not true Tommy, I’m regular as clockwork thanks
Makes me chuckle that as your opinion differs from mine I must clearly be sucking up to FSG for a job!
Clearly taken time to compose a response to the article you have read, just a shame it doesn’t address how your opinions differ!
People are forgetting Reina is going on loan, so Mignolet has a chance to show what he can do, then, if all else fails, Reina comes back next season (if he doesn’t go to Barca) and regains his no1 spot, simple!
If Reina did want to stay, he won’t want to now after being jettisoned by Rodgers. Even I’d he doesn’t go to Barca he’ll never extend his stay so we’ll have to sell him to someone next season. Gutted.
Hey Tim, another very good opinion I reckon mate… although did you really say “sun in the sky”? I guess it’s there 24/7, for whatever that’s worth!!
There will always be your sceptics & cynics who shout “LFC”, especially in your archetype Corporate League here in the UK. But what is as plain as the nose on your face, is that FSG are very clearly trying to increase the value of our beloved Club. That is what they are here for, nothing else
Excellent article, I am a bit sad to see Pepe go, but lets see why Mignolet has to offer.
Hi Tim, great piece again and it’s makes perfect sense to me. Ultimately as with all Managers Brendan will live and die by his transfer dealings and this deal for Reina makes sense no matter what way you look at it. He isn’t as good as he was 2-3 years ago and every team needs freshening up at some point. I Love Pepe and am sad to see him go but we just do not pay 100k a week on wages anymore and no matter how much Pepe loves the club he’s hardly going to take a 50% wage cut. Oh, I’ll have a look at New Girl also. Cheers
Tim, A good article when you eventually got to the point. But why did it take seven paragraphs to get talking about what we were waiting for??
Thank you! I guess I like to ramble!! Haha
Depending on how any1 might look at it. I still believe keeping reina was gonna be a gud idea cos competition betw d’sticks is healthy going forward. However its a foolish thing to keep a £10m player on d’bench while a £110k a week player at 30 gets nod.mignolet is absolutely a decent keeper from wat av seen and culd get even better with age.lets not forget that reina was just like him when he got here and today we are reluctant to let him go. In any case, whats done is done and nothing any1 can do to change it. Reina is a napoli player now and i dnt see him coming back…lets not forget barca position is open by end of the next summer. We ll definitely miss reina and his influence on his teammates but looking positive ahead is the best we can do now. As for aussies, am not a fan of cricket so i dnt know where theyve been and where they are now. Ciao
Real sad to see him go to Napoli. Wishing him all the best. YNWA.