Playing For Keeps At LFC - Pepe Reina Or Jack Butland?

 There have been two fairly persistent rumours over the last month or so regarding Liverpool and goalkeepers. We’ve been linked with a bid for Birmingham City’s Jack Butland and Barcelona have been rumoured to be after our long term first choice ‘keeper Pepe Reina.

 Butland is young, English and highly rated, would not yet command massive wages and is apparently available for around £6million. This all fits perfectly into our current recruitment policy and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a player we were seriously considering. Moving from struggling Birmingham to Liverpool would surely appeal to the player and I think this transfer is one that could well happen, if not in January then maybe in the summer.

 Reina began his career at Barcelona, he was in goal for them in 2001 when Gary McAllister’s penalty at the Anfield Road end won the UEFA Cup semi final for us. The project going on at Liverpool right now is exciting and full of potential but Barcelona is about as close to the finished article as a football team can get and Reina isn’t getting any younger. Victor Valdes has said he won’t extend his contract at Barca (probably bored having nothing to do every week) beyond the end of next season so they are looking for a new ‘keeper and Reina fits the bill. I think this move would suit both parties so I think there’s likely to be a lot of truth in the rumours and it wouldn’t be a shock if it happened.

 Here’s where the problem lies – goalkeeper is unlike any other position on the pitch. A player in any other position can be brought on for the last fifteen minutes or so to gradually get used to high pressure first team football. And he has team mates to help him out with everything. A young ‘keeper will have to play from the start, and if he makes a mistake he loses the match, there’s no team mate that can chase the opponent and win the ball back. In recent times we’ve signed Chris Kirkland and Scott Carson, two promising young English goalkeepers and it hasn’t really worked out for them but for some reason I have more faith in the current management and training set up when it comes to aiding youth development than I have done in previous regimes.

 If we could bring in Butland for a reasonable fee and pay him initially a fairly low wage and move on Reina for a hefty price, also removing him from the wage bill it would free up funds to improve the squad elsewhere so from a business point of view the deals would make sense.

 Positionally Pepe plays quite high up the pitch for a goalkeeper and that allows the team to set up in a more attacking formation, essential for a side that wants to score goals. If he is replaced it can’t be with somebody who is purely a shot stopper, we need somebody who has a good command of the penalty area and can sweep up behind the defence. I’ve not seen enough of Butland to know what kind of ‘keeper he is but I’m sure our scouts will do their homework properly.

 Reina hasn’t been as good over the last couple of seasons as he was previously but he’s still a top ‘keeper, and he’s a big positive influence in the dressing room, and the supporters love him. If he did move on we’d be gutted to see him go but I think everybody would understand if he chose to go to Barcelona, as long as his replacement was capable of filling his gloves to the same standards he set from 2006 to 2009.