Is the time right for Liverpool to cash-in on their £10m man?

What happens when you lose your number one goalkeeper? If you’re Barcelona, you go out and buy three more.

According to The Mirror, Barca have now resigned themselves to the fact that they are going to lose their current number one, Victor Valdes. The Spaniard has made it clear that he’s not going to sign a new contract any time soon.

It makes sense that they should start weighing up their options and drawing up a list of potential targets.

One of these targets is thought to be Liverpool’s sensational Spanish stopper, Pepe Reina. The Mirror claims that Tito Vilanova, club president Sandro Rosll and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta recently held a ‘crunch meeting’ to attempt to decide how to respond to the goalkeeping situation at the Nou Camp.

The answer, they claim is to attempt to bring Pepe Reina back home, in a £10m deal. They’ve also included Borussia Monchengladbach’s young keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Villarreal’s Adrian Ortola on their watch-list.

Reina, as you may well know, played for Barca before he moved on to Villarreal. Indeed, he was with the club from 1999-2002.

Barcelona are always very keen to invite ex-players back into the fold. Just ask Arsenal fans, who had to put up with years worth of speculation regarding their Barca-boy, Cesc Fabregas. If the Catalan-based club suspects Pepe Reina has ‘Barca DNA’, I’m sure they’ll launch one of their extended media campaigns to bring him back to their club.

When Cesc left Arsenal, it was a big deal. The Gunners lost a player who was about to enter his prime. I’m not sure that’s the case with Pepe Reina.

Whilst I’ve enjoyed watching the sprightly Spanish keeper patrol his penalty area since 2005, I think his best days are behind him.

The 30-year-old shot-stopper has been steadily declining in form over the last couple of seasons and I think it’s got to the stage where Liverpool should go out and bring in somebody new.

It’s painful watching a man who was once one of the best keepers in the Premier League make mistakes and concede sloppy goals. But that’s the reality of it. Liverpool are giving Reina a big pay-check every week and it’s difficult to argue that he’s earned his pay this year.

I would argue that the time is right for him to move on. If Barcelona cough up £10m, Brendan Rodgers should sell.

What’s your take? Can Liverpool now do better than Pepe Reina?

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