rediff.com
News APP

NewsApp (Free)

Read news as it happens
Download NewsApp

Available on  gplay

Rediff.com  » Sports » Exiting Reina tells Liverpool fans: Disappointed with club management
This article was first published 11 years ago

Exiting Reina tells Liverpool fans: Disappointed with club management

July 29, 2013 18:13 IST

Image: Jose Pepe Reina
Photographs: Michael Regan/Getty Images

Spain international goalkeeper Pepe Reina has left Liverpool for a season-long loan at Serie A club Napoli, but said in an open letter to fans of the five-times European champions it was not his decision to leave Anfield.

Reina, 30, who joined Liverpool in 2005, said he wanted to extend his contract at Anfield and was not consulted before the loan move was agreed.

"Although it was not my decision to leave I will accept it.

"If I have one regret, it is the way that I am leaving," wrote Reina, who made nearly 400 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions and has played 28 times for Spain.

"It is only natural that I would be disappointed that the Liverpool management agreed to loan me to Napoli without telling me first.

"I thought that I deserved better than that even though I understand that difficult decisions have to be taken in football."

'Benitez best manager I've worked with'

Image: Jose Pepe Reina with Rafa Benitez
Photographs: Phil Noble/Reuters

Reina, the first choice at Liverpool until last season, might well have found himself on the bench for much of the coming campaign following the signing of Simon Mignolet from Sunderland.

The Spaniard said he was looking forward to the Napoli challenge and linking up again with his former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.

"I have to look forward to a new challenge with Rafa Benitez, who I consider to be the best manager I have worked with, and I am fortunate to be going from one great club to another," he wrote.

"Napoli remind me in many ways of the Liverpool I found in 2005, in all the affection they have shown me on my arrival, in having an ambitious project, even in coinciding and working with Benitez again."

Source: REUTERS
© Copyright 2024 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.