There was a lot made in the press today about comments made by Pepe Reina in an interview where he spoke about his LFC future.
A few sensationalist headlines made even myself worry we were on the very brink of losing a legend and stalwart. However, as with many stories about LFC, we have to take these latest ones with a pinch of salt.
The following quotations can be found in an article by the Echo;
“I signed a six-year deal seven months ago and I’m happy at the club, but every footballer wants to be competing for trophies and winning things.
“I will stay at Liverpool at least until the end of the season.
“I know there are rumours about me leaving but I want to make it clear that I have no intention of going back to Spain.”
Pepe Reina is not a want away disenchanted disillusioned footballer, openly admitting to wanting to abandon his team. Unfortunately, this is what has been portrayed by the press – another example of shoddy journalism at it’s very best.
In the simplest of senses this is just an incident where an employee is admitting that he will be partaking in some self assessment at the end of his working year. Something which is a fundamental right of every individual in any walk of life and something we can all definitely relate to.
Let us put it this way. At the end of every year in a job or business, we sit down and evaluate our successes, failures and potential to improve. We owe it to ourselves to assess if we are were we want to be, if we are being taken seriously and if there is a chance for us to take the next step upwards.
Now, whether you are a boxer, baker businessman or accountant, when you sit down and make your choice to stay or leave, it is your fundamental right to do so.
Therefore, for Pepe Reina to be labeled as a want away simply for admitting that at the end of his working year, he will sit down and assess himself, is a massive disservice to him. Not just as a footballer, but as a human being.
When Pepe Reina sits down at the end of the year, I pray he will see that it is at LFC that his heart lies and that it is at LFC that he sees potential for his own improvement.
Pepe Reina is one of the squad’s most influential individuals. He is a great motivator who leads by example and his buoyant character and bubbly personality have made him a Kop favourite. Oh and he is a damn good goalkeeper too, having pipped Petr Cech to the Golden Gloves 4 times already! Pepe is charisma personified and without a doubt one of the players around whom the future of LFC should be built.
So. Whether Pepe leaves or stays and I sincerely hope it is the latter, I will respect him for being true to himself and for being the honest individual that he is. Honesty and integrity are two traits very nearly extinct in the world of football, but in Pepe Reina we have a player honest enough to stand up for what he believes. Chapeau Pepe.
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