That Pepe Reina is leaving Liverpool will come as no shock to the majority of fans, the only surprise being the destination and nature of the move - a 12 month loan to Napoli reuniting Reina with Rafa Benitez rather than the much anticipated permanent move to Barcelona.
For me the Reina affair serves as a microcosm of how modern day transfer dealings are conducted, perhaps it's always been this way but is becoming more obvious with the increase in media coverage, rumour and conjecture.
I have to say from the start, I'm not an insider, I have nobody passing me confidential details, I do not claim to be 'in the know'. All that follows will be conjecture and speculation but I think it's a fairly obvious interpretation of the way that the whole move has unfolded.
The key to Pepe Reina's leaving of Liverpool has not been the man himself but rather one if his compatriots.
Victor Valdes had seemingly been very open and very intent on his decision to leave Barcelona this summer; seeing out the remaining one year of his contract was apparently not an option. From an outsiders perspective it seems fairly obvious that Valdes has been making moves toward a profitable move to Monaco, a big payout, a tax haven, set for life.
At the point that it seemed final that Valdes would move then either Barca started fluttering their eyelashes in Reina's direction or Reina started fluttering his in their direction; probably a combination of the two, with agents and representatives scuttling back and forth between Spain and Merseyside.
Realising that Liverpool were about to lose their keeper the club's transfer committee acted to ensure a replacement was on board as soon as possible. In keeping with their excellent work at the start of the transfer window, Simon Mignolet was signed as (as is fairly obvious) Reina's replacement.
Enter Victor Valdes once again. Something has happened here. Possibly a 'golden handshake' clause fell through, possibly the combination of transfer fee, signing on fee and wages wasn't as profitable to either club or player as a straightforward signing on fee next summer; whatever, Valdes performed a 'volte-face' and announced that he would see out the final year of his contract at the Nou Camp.
Which left Liverpool and Pepe Reina with a problem. Liverpool effectively now had two first choice keepers; the incoming Mignolet who must have signed with assurances that he would be our new first choice keeper as he will clearly need game time at a high level in order to attempt to usurp the outstanding Thibaut Courtois as Belgian number one in a World Cup year and Reina, current custodian and a major figure in the dressing room.
You can't pay £9m for a goalkeeper to go on the bench. Nor can you pay £100,000 for your current 'keeper to spend his time as an unused substitute. For all Brendan Rodgers' talk of having two top class goalkeepers in order to provide competition for each other there was no way that Liverpool wouldn't be looking to move Reina on.
The problem here is that the arrival of the new 'keeper brought obvious questions from the media which, with no deal for Reina in place, Rodgers has had to fudge with talk of competition and keeping the players on their toes and all the other statements that now look transparently like excuses and misdirection. Somewhere between Reina, Barca and Valdes, Brenda Rodgers has been put in a position where he's had to say something but hasn't been able to tell the fans the truth.
As is evinced in what The Liverpool Echo today reports Rodgers as having said on the matter;
"Financially it was something that we needed to look at. That would be the reason (to move Reina) as you wouldn't move on a top goalkeeper. It (the situation) reared its head over the last couple of months and I had to prepare by bringing in another keeper."
And there's the key; it's financial, it's something that reared its head in the last couple of months, he had to prepare by bringing in a new keeper.
Or to put it another way; everything that I said above.
Sometimes 2+2 does equal 4.
I don't blame Pepe Reina for any of this; he thought he was on the edge of a dream move to Barcelona. I don't blame Victor Valdes for changing his mind, he may be just as much a victim in all this. There's no winners, there's no losers, it's just all been a bit of a mess.
I wish Reina well, he's had 18 months or so where he hadn't met his previous high standards but to be close to recapturing his best form in the latter half of last season; he's been a magnificent servant who coold have left for Champions League football two years ago but didnt. Nobody wold be surprised if he ended his loan season at Napoli with a permanent move to Barca and that's probably what he deserves.
It's just a shame that nobody feels able to tell the fans what seems so blatantly obvious to everybody.
Latest Forum Discussion