Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has confirmed that Arsenal lodged a formal £20 million bid for his services in the aftermath of the 2010 World Cup only for Anfield’s then owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks to reject the offer.
The approach, which Arsenal legend Bob Wilson has repeatedly spoken about in the last 18 months, came at a time when Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski were vying for the number one jersey at the Emirates and before Wojciech Szczesny came to the fore.
Writing in his new autobiography Reina explained how the joy of signing a new six year contract in April 2010 quickly turned sour when it became obvious that promises made to him by the Liverpool’s hierarchy were not going to be fulfilled.
“I went from elation one minute to depression the next as the realisation dawned that Liverpool were going nowhere fast,” writes the Spaniard.
“When I signed my contract in April 2010 I hoped that better times were just around the corner, a feeling that was fuelled by the promises of improvement from people at the club.
“It didn’t take me long to feel that their promises were hollow. I felt betrayed. Our owners were at war with each other, the club’s debts were spiralling out of control and a change in manager had failed to dispel the feeling that we were on the road to nowhere.
“Arsenal had made their determination to sign me clear by offering £20m, a phenomenal amount for a goalkeeper. Part of me felt that I was well within my rights to consider my future even if I did so with a heavy heart.
“When Liverpool received the bid, they rejected it. This was not because I had been told that I was too good a keeper to leave. The reason I was given was quite different – and it left me feeling down. I was told that my continued presence was crucial to the sale of the club. I was simply a bargaining chip in the sales process.
“I still don’t know what to think of Purslow because I understand he was there to look for new owners and to try to sell the club but ultimately he was making big football decisions that he was not qualified to make.”
Had Arsenal had a £20 million bid accepted, it would have made Reina the club’s record signing by quite some margin. That he dropped a complete clanger against the Gunners in his first competitive fixture after the bid at least ensured we got something from the whole ordeal even if he never appeared in Arsene Wenger’s starting line-up.
All in all, Arseblog News aren’t that fussed about this story. For a start we now have a Szczoldier in goal and secondly Reina is still regarded in these parts as something of a turd for his part in this ridiculous vignette.
Meh. SZCZ will be the best keeper in the world, not second fiddle to the current best in the world.
Yeah rigt! And we almost signed Ronaldo too!
We did almost sign Ronaldo before Sporting agreed to be a feeder club to Manure and the deal was they got first pick of all players at the same price that was offered.
I heard we backed out of a deal because it would have “killed szczesny’s career”
I’m glad.
Great decision since he now will feel important and will grow to love the club.
Else he’d have done a Vito Mannone and seriously consider leaving. What a sad life it would have been this season if he had left.
Yeah screw you Reina. After deliberately putting a barca shirt on Cesc after the world cup you became just as much of a cunt as Xavi the DNA obsessed warlord. Enjoy the rest of your career with those scouse mugs because I guarantee we win a trophy sooner then your lot. SZCZ IS NUMBER 1 NOW.
Meh, SZCZ is our best player, he’s like Jens Lehmann with a software upgrade.
Hah!
Spot on.
He reminds me of all the good bits of a young Schmeichel, with a dash ( but not too much) of Jens bonkers-ness to keep it interesting. As long as he avoids doing ads for the Pork Board he’ll do just fine.
meh, to all those wankers who were thinking arsene is blind and stupid to continue with alumunia/fabianski last sczezon. Until the emergence of real fabianski and sczesney almost all of u were abusing Arsene.
Would have been a good buy.
Glad we never signed that fat Spanish waiter.
Reina is a top class keeper, no doubt. And at the time, we were in Keeper Crisis, if you all recall. But in the end, we ended up with the Szeszinator, who destroys all that come before him.
I for one am pleased to hear that Arsene was willing to spend such a sum when it was clear we needed to fix the keeper position. He IS willing to spend big when he sees the talent is available.
Disagree about the Quality of Reina. JUst my opinion of course, but I feel he’s very overrated. Seen him make some good saves, but he has had some shocking moments that tend to be ignored a lot..
I simply believe we never offered £20m to anyone let alone Reina
Ya I kind if agree with you. I doubt it too. But then here comes the real brain teaser…………………. After pool told arsene to fuck off, how come he didn’t take the 29 mil and find another keeper? That doesn’t make any sense. I smell bullshit
*20 mil
Agreed. Offer £20m for Reina but then not go to £4m for Schwarzer? Doesn’t stack up.
Thank fuck we did’ent scze would have left and reina a wanker anyway for putting the cuntalona jersey on cesc
wankers!!!…huh..
The smell of BS is strong here.
Szczoldier. Shit I think I’m going to start calling him that now
Yo Blogs,
This is completely off subject but I have to ask, when’s the next Arsecast? When something happens worth talking about, I presume? Which would be fair enough. Being on t’other side of the world, I can easily avoid all the bollocks from Sky and the British press, as the podcasts from you and the crew over at the OG fanzine are keeping me up to date with the truth
Totally agree SZCZ is the best outcome. Can’t help think that our other 2 keepers must be scratching there heads when they were both dropped for a few mistakes and SZCZ comes along and has shipped more goals than all but 2 premier league keepers and everyone loves him.
This story is really important. It proves that we DID have money available last year for quality signings but Wenger wouldn’t spend it. The defence of all those Wenger-lovers that ‘we just don’t have the money’ has now been exposed as bullshit. If we could afford to bid 20 million for Reina then why didn’t we buy the top-quality centre-half that we desperately needed? Or the world-class second striker to complement Van Persie? Incompetent penny-pinching cost us the title last year. I’m glad that we didn’t buy Reina: Chez is a better keeper. But if money is available then it… Read more »
You do know it’s the board that agree to release funds and that Wenger hasn’t got a debit card to just go out and spend freely…. If the board agreed 20m that’s one thing but then they could sit down and decided that it wasn’t worth it thus reeling back on the money available. Also, any money available also has to be used on wages as well as just the transfer fee
[…] news of a bid for Reina being rejected comes out, it gives me a clear sign that Arsenal was willing to splash the cash out last season. I mean, […]