By Matthew Pace
Just saw this piece of interview tonight and actually couldn’t sleep because of it. I tried not to say anything but if anyone cares (which I don’t think so ) I’d like to share my honest views (like Pepe’s about the club) on the interview.
1) The timing of the interview is horrible. We got our a game against our biggest rival in two days and our goalkeeper which is so loved from us fans is not even ruling out going to them ( Please just don’t want to mention them by name you know who I’m referring to) which would be far worst then what Torres did in my opinion. So we got this game coming and he’s just opened a path for our opponents for the summer to come for him by putting himself in the window. It would have been better to concentrate on playing against them and just say you’re not sure you’d be at the club next season and fairly enough almost every fan would have accepted that.
2) The Spanish influence. Well yes, as he said most of our Spanish influence at the club has gone. If I’m not mistaking at the end of the interview he said that his place is not back in Spain but in England. What is this drama about the Spanish influence? What kind of Spanish influence does that team we’re playing against on Sunday have? What kind of Spanish influence do Arsenal have? Fabregas?! Which Pepe Reina himself promoted in the summer that as he said ‘EL FUTURO D’ ESPANA, EL FUTURO DEL BARCA’ (FUTURE OF SPAIN, FUTURE OF BARCA) on the World Cup party stage in Spain. So he himself knows that Fabregas is not going to stay at Arsenal. Almunia? Please don’t wanna even talk about him as if he wants to go to Arsenal because Almunia is Spanish then I don’t know what’s left on earth that would surprise me. Chelsea? Oh right now there’s Torres so I can accept that there can be a Spanish influence. But do Chelsea want him instead of Cech? Maybe an option can be Bolton as there is Xabi’s brother, it would be acceptable.
3) The backbone of a successful team are Mascherano, Torres, Alonso all gone? Right. I can agree with that. Apart from Xabi’s case which he left like a true gentleman, what was the reason from the other two apart from greed?! Mascherano did everything he can to leave to go to the most powerful team (at present in my opinion) to warm the bench and he has been linked with a summer switch already, but at least he can say he played (or was benched) at Barcelona, do you really think he actually did the right decision Mr. Reina? Torres? OK, some of us called him a mercenary which is a hard word to take I can understand that. But there are loads of teams in world football who would gladly had Torres on their ranks. Is Chelsea a big club? Sorry but no. I would even dare to say before Roman Abramovich’s money came along, I doubt many people knew about them. Are Chelsea better then us at the moment? Well, honestly I taught so, but looking at displays lately apart from that one off they had against THAT team, I don’t think we’re miles apart from Chelsea either. What am I saying? Torres was already a GREAT player at Atletico Madrid, but he was not A LETHAL WORLD CLASS FINISHER before he came to Liverpool. People worshiped him even making photos of him and King Kenny besides each other and that says a lot. Liverpool made him a WORLD CLASS PLAYER and all I pretended, as a fan which worshiped him, was that if he took a decision to stay in the summer, I at least pretended that he sees out the remainder of the season, see where we finish, and then give a judgment on whether he leaves or not. And Chelsea one of our main rivals? Give a little respect back to the club which helped you develop in what you are today. In the summer with the new Fifa Financial Fair Play Rules, it wouldn’t have been so hard for other clubs to buy him and he would have had loads more options that just Chelsea and I’m sure the club wouldn’t have made him hard for him to leave after what he gave us and even supporters would have accepted it. But calling Chelsea the light from the dark is a bit of a drama to me sorry.
4) Ambitions to win. I’m absolutely 100% with Mr. Reina on that one. If you don’t win in football, you’re no one. That’s a fact. It’s been sometime now from our last trophy. It’s still early days yes, but he also mentioned apart from everything else he has to see that the owners are ambitious. Didn’t the owners show ambition Mr. Reina? They sold an out of form Torres for 50million. Did they really want to sell Torres? They accepted it was far beyond them when your friend Torres PUT IN A TRANSFER REQUEST AFTER A BID HAD BEEN REJECTED if I’m not mistaking. So is it really down to ambition? If it was ambition and competitiveness you are seeking, I think the owners showed that by shelling out 35million on Andy Carroll and 22.5 million on Luis Suarez on the last day of a JANUARY transfer window. I wonder only one thing, why in an entire interview did not Mr. Reina praise or even showing hid disapproval at the two signings our owners made in January? Is it really ambition what matters? Or is it just an excuse to make you look a bit better in the eyes of many Liverpool fans which already have accepted you are leaving? Because in my opinion, getting 1 player which was on fire for 3 years and with few injuries, and getting one of England’s best young talents and already firing on his first year in the Premier League and creating big controversy on the amount paid for him in their first transfer window… Was that not ambitious enough?! Is Andy Carroll worth 35million? They didn’t care. They paid the fee. End of story. Quite ambitious to me. So apart from accepting the financial crises which Mr. Reina mentioned, the money they got from Mr. Torres which I point out again that they where FORCED to take that money, they didn’t care about the fees they had to pay for players which the Liverpool staff felt are necessary. So I really don’t think it’s about ambition as I think if it was about that in the interview Mr. Reina should have mentioned our January transfers. So please stop playing buddies because Torres was your friend and be honest on the matter. There are enough soap opera’s on the telly.
5) I’m 100% only on this one with Mr. Reina. Kenny Dalglish said no one is bigger then the club. Amen. So Mr. Reina, keep that message in mind please.