Liverpool's Spanish goalkeeper Jose Reina has become the latest player to
commit his long-term future to the club.
Empics
Jose Reina has been Liverpool's hero.
Reina, who has been away on international duty with his country this week, has
now signed a new five-year contract, following hot on the heels of Steven
Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, who penned new four-year deals on Monday.
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez returned from holiday today and was at the
club's Melwood training ground to oversee the conclusion of the deal which was
conducted by fax to Reina's Spanish home.
Reina, along with club-mate Xavi Alonso, played in Spain's Euro 2008
qualifying victory over Liechtenstein in Vaduz on Wednesday.
But while Benitez was delighted to secured the 25 year-old's future at
Anfield, his number one transfer target - Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o - was
making it clear that he does not want to leave the Catalan club.
And Benitez will now turn his attention to securing Alonso on a new deal,
despite the constant speculation that the midfielder is wanted by Barcelona.
Alonso's only words about his own future after the international were: 'Now
I am going on holiday, returning to my house in San Sebastian. I am going to
enjoy the beach, see friends of the family, and disconnect.'
Benitez has returned to Liverpool intent on tying up deals for his current
stars and accelerating the chase for new players.
He has been frustrated by the lack of activity while he has been on his break,
particularly over Lyon winger Florent Malouda, who he wants to spend £10m on.
But Malouda, despite saying he would be interested in a move to Merseyside, is
now the subject of a late bid from Arsenal, and that could mean his French club
being happy to allow an auction to take place.
The chase for Eto'o is equally clouded in uncertainty, with his agent Jose
Maria Mesalles insisting that the Cameroon striker has no intention of quitting
the Nou Camp, despite interest from Chelsea, Liverpool and AC Milan.
And Mesalles even had to deny claims that Eto' o and Benitez had met for
dinner earlier in the week.
Mesalles, in an interview in the Spanish newspaper
Sport, said: 'Talk of a
meeting is just a huge lie.
'Eto'o was in Belgium with the Cameroon squad on Monday night when the
meeting was supposed to have taken place. We do not understand why these false
stories keep appearing.
'The club knows all too well that he is very happy at Barcelona and wants to
stay. He has a very good contract and wants to comply with that.'
He added: 'We are not going to listen to any offers. The club will be the
one that receives the offers, we never hear about them first.
'It is clear that he wants to stay. It is not about a club meeting a clause
in his contract, Eto'o wants to play for Barca for many years to come and that
is that.'
So with so many of his transfer targets becoming difficult to tie down,
Benitez will be delighted that Madrid-born Reina's new deal has been concluded.
Reina joined from Villareal in 2005 and was described by Benitez then as 'the
best goalkeeper in Spain' a tag he has found hard to live up to as he failed to
claim the number one shirt in the national side.
He also had a shaky start to his Anfield career, but has since set a club
record of successive clean sheets, and has underlined his ability as a penalty
save expert, producing outstanding shoot-out displays in the FA Cup final to
beat West Ham two seasons ago, and in this term's Champions League semi-final
win over Chelsea.
Reina said: 'I am very happy with this contract. It was always my wish to
sign a new deal because this is a good club which is looking forward to a very
ambitious and attractive project.
'The details of the contract were very straightforward. Rick Parry (chief
executive) and the American owners (Tom Hicks and George Gillett) made
everything easy and in the end it was a good solution for the club and a good
solution for me.
'I spoke with Rafa (Benitez) and his thoughts for the future really excited
me. He has ambitions for the team which I want to be part of and I'm sure the
other players feel the same.'
He added: 'The idea now for all of us is to keep winning matches and to
challenge for titles. That's what we'll be looking for from the start of next
season.
'Our fans deserve the league title and that's what we'll be looking for.
Seventeen years without winning it is far too long for this club and that's why
our biggest target next year has to be the Premiership.'
