Liverpool FC News

The 30-year-old has been tipped to replace Victor Valdes at Camp Nou this summer, but insists he is happy to stay at Liverpool despite an indifferent season

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina admits he is flattered by reports linking him with a move to Barcelona but insists he is happy to remain at Anfield.

The 30-year-old is among a number of candidates tipped to replace Victor Valdes, who has told the Spanish champions he wants to leave this summer.

Reina, whose contract expires in 2016, maintains he is unaware if Barcelona have made an official approach but claims he is content with his current situation with the Reds.

“I have three more years with Liverpool. I’m satisfied, comfortable and my family are very happy,” Reina told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

“Rumours are difficult to control but it’s flattering when a club like Barca are interested in you.

“I don’t know if there has been contact between the clubs or with my agent. At the moment I don’t think there’s anything serious.”

Reina began his career in Barcelona’s youth system before leaving for Villarreal in 2002, but the goalkeeper is adamant he has no bad feelings towards the club.

“The years I was at Barcelona were very good, I don’t have any bad feelings about not succeeding there,” he added.

“I played more than 50 games, when I was less than 20, it helped me grow a lot.

“I would’ve liked to have played there more, of course, but there’s no need to over-dramatise things.”

The Brazilian has made a dazzling start to life in the Premier League since his arrival from Inter in January, and his manager believes there is even more to come

Brendan Rodgers admits he is surprised at how quickly Liverpool new-boy Philippe Coutinho has adapted to the Premier League, and predicts he will get even better next season.

The young Brazilian has scored three goals and wowed Reds fans and neutrals alike with some stunningly incisive passing since his £8.5 million arrival from Inter in January.

And Rodgers believes the prodigious 20-year-old possesses all the attributes to be a key part of his plans for years to come.

“When you bring somebody in during January you hope they can make an impact,” the Liverpool boss told reporters.

“You are also looking at it as a six-month adaptation period before you get the best out of them from pre-season onwards.

“We are all pleasantly pleased and surprised by how well he has done. His numbers tell you the story in terms of goals and assists.

“At the minute, you can’t ask any more. The key thing is that he works his socks off as well. He is a real team player.

“He has genuine man strength. He’s 20 years of age but he’s not a boy. He can look after himself. His body work is great, he is small in stature. The best players very rarely get tackled because they are so bright and clever.

“You can see he can use his body if needs be, but he has to become adapted to the physical game here as the Premier League is very physical.

“He’s been a real find for us in terms of the price we paid. Hopefully his value will be much greater than the cost in the coming years.”

After three previous hearings the case against the England starlet has been abandoned after the prosecutor’s witness failed to turn up at Liverpool magistrates’ court on Monday

Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling has had his assault charge dropped after a witness failed to show up at court.

The 18-year-old did not have to appear at Liverpool magistrates’ court after the prosecution was unable to offer any evidence at the hearing on Monday morning.

Sterling denied accusations of assaulting a woman in Toxteth in Liverpool last November and the court heard that the taxpayer will cover the footballer’s legal costs.

This was the fourth occasion the case has been before the court in Liverpool, and the winger has not attended any of them.

It is believed he waited in a car around the corner from the court as the 10am hearing got underway, along with his agent, Reds manager Brendan Rodgers and other club officials.

Prosecutor Rob Jones waited until 10:45 before he abandoned the case when his witness had still failed to attend court.

The court heard that it was not in the public interest to force alleged victims and witnesses to attend court for an allegation of minor common assault.

According to the Press Association, Liverpool FC have declined to make any comment on the case.

A frenzy of tears, salutes and send-offs have marked the finale of the campaign of goodbyes as the Premier League draws a line under its first defining generation

COMMENT
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent

How the send-offs have piled up, like cars in a Bank Holiday traffic jam.

Some enjoyed grander departures than others. Sir Alex Ferguson led the way, as he has done for the majority of his glorious 39-year managerial career, with the kind of red-carpeted farewell that not even David Beckham, the most famous footballer of his era, could match.

Paul Scholes, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Phil Neville exited the stage to head for the broadcasters’ sofa or a waiting training-ground tracksuit with ovations ringing in their ears.

The frenzy of retirements was matched by an equally dizzying number of sackings and appointments as the perpetual Premier League news factory went into late-season overdrive.

David Moyes left Everton for one of the most demanding assignments of all with his head held high and a tear in the eye.

Others were not so fortunate. Rafael Benitez shuffled out of Stamford Bridge with his managerial reputation restored but with barely a nod of thanks from the Chelsea faithful, while the last that Manchester City supporters saw of Roberto Mancini was him being smuggled into a chauffeur-driven car.

With the three best teams all changing the name on the template in their manager’s club parking space and half the central constituents of the ‘Golden Generation’ waving goodbye, a line has not so much been drawn in the sand as permanently etched to the accompaniment of flashing neon lightbulbs.

Yet there is little time to pause for breath and reflect. Agents are already busy pushing their own men for the Everton and Newcastle jobs as the traditional post-season managerial merry-go-round gathers pace.

Moreover, the Premier League transfer window opened when the clock struck midnight on Sunday, ushering in even more lucrative pay days for those players lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when the new £5.4 billion broadcasting deal starts to be carved up.  

What larks for those in the businesses of pumping out football news, selling souvenirs, or, most profitably of all, being a beneficiary of those multi-million-pound player contracts.

Yet the industry’s capacity for setting agendas and stealing headlines cannot hide the awkward truth that the 21st season of the Premier League was a fairly mediocre one. Manchester United’s stress-free stroll to their 13th modern league coronation – and 20th in total – was a reward for relentless ambition and drive rather than any consistent brilliance.

Other notable achievements included Swansea City’s Capital One Cup triumph and all-round improvement under Michael Laudrup, Everton’s consistent overachieving and Tottenham’s advancement, if only marginally in points terms, under the shrewd guidance of Andre Villas-Boas, who has proved that he is not so dogmatic as to refuse to learn from his mistakes.

Yet other high-water marks were less visible. The giant leap forward that Wigan made in downing hot favourites Manchester City in the FA Cup final to win the first trophy in their 91-year history was extinguished by relegation.

Chelsea gave their demanding supporters another memorable night by winning the Europa League, the 11th major trophy of the Roman Abramovich era, but this merely provided hastily added polish to a poisonous campaign.

Elsewhere, Newcastle nosedived, the middling clubs remained the middling clubs, Arsenal treaded water before claiming Champions League qualification by the skin of their teeth and Liverpool made baby steps under Brendan Rodgers without answering the questions about whether or not they can overcome opponents when the chips are down.

Even last-day drama was thin on the ground, bar a Hawthorns goalfest that provided a fittingly exciting way for Ferguson to bow out. The relegation struggle had already been settled, leaving Arsenal and Tottenham’s fight for a minimum £25m Champions League handout to be elevated to top billing.

Gareth Bale’s sensational post-Christmas form saw him deservedly walk away with all the individual gongs to secure his status as the Premier League’s outstanding performer. The likes of Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie, Michael Carrick, Juan Mata and Pablo Zabaleta had outstanding seasons, while those in the level just below, like Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley s, Asmir Begovic, Jan Vertonghen, Santi Cazorla and Sascha Riether, maintained lofty standards week in, week out.

Nevertheless, there was less individual stardust than in the days when Arsenal were invincible and Cristiano Ronaldo was the free-wheeling leading light in Ferguson’s third great United team.

The Premier League’s new financial fair play rules, which combine wage restraints with a cap on club losses, come into effect next season but this will not stop the stampede from the continent into the English top flight.

With big-spending newcomer BT Vision providing the most credible threat yet to the hegemony of BSkyB, TV cash will flow into club coffers like never before, to the extent that it is only a matter of time before the era of the £300,000-a-week footballer begins.

The leading Spanish and Portugese-speaking players who cannot make the Real Madrid and Barcelona first-team squads continue to flutter their eyelashes in the direction of the most eagerly followed league in the globe. Even the top Italian and German players, traditionally far less enthusiastic about moving to England than northern Europeans, might regard a season or two aboard the Premier League gravy train as time well spent.

The new era will be most conspicuous by the fresh faces in the United, City, Chelsea and Everton dugouts, with the headline writers salivating at the impending comeback of Jose Mourinho, if not the likely arrival of Manuel Pellegrini.

How the three best-resourced Premier League clubs each cope with their individual upheaval will surely determine the destination of next season’s trophy. It is hard to see it heading anywhere other than Old Trafford, the Etihad Stadium or Stamford Bridge, unless perhaps Arsene Wenger spends the near-£100 million kitty at his disposal and transforms an efficient squad into an excellent one.

The English game remains unhealthily dependent upon foreign technique, continental coaching wisdom and overseas investors.

Despite all this wealth and dugout sophistication, the season of 2012-13 will not be remembered as a vintage one.

It is now time to look forward to fresh beginnings, with most sets of fans hoping that the end of the Ferguson era will narrow the gap between the champions and the rest.

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The 35-year-old was sad to realise that Sunday’s 1-0 victory over QPR will be the last time that he plays competitvely at Anfield as he officially retires from football

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher admits that he got “emotional” during his 737th and last game for the club.

The 35-year-old was substituted to a rousing reception after 85 minutes of Sunday’s 1-0 victory over relegated QPR, in which Philippe Coutinho scored the only goal.

“I’m not the type to get too emotional but it is emotional,” Carragher told the club’s official website after the match. “I’ve got friends and family in the stand. I just wanted to concentrate on the game, we got the win that we wanted and I’ll go and enjoy myself now.”

The defender almost marked his final game with a goal, rattling the woodwork with a spectacular long-range drive. “I’ll have to watch it again,” he noted. “I thought it was in but it’s one of those things – it gives everyone something to talk about.”

“I’ve been playing here a long time and it’s sad to think that I’ll never be playing here again in a competitive game but it has to come to an end at some stage and I’ve got some great memories.”

Manager Brendan Rodgers was glowing in his praise for the defender, enthusing: “He’s been incredible, every word since the day he said he was going to retire that’s been said about him, what we wanted to make sure is that we finished him off with a win because he’s a winner.”

“He’s a colossus player for this club and he nearly got a goal which is incredible, so it’s a good day all round.

“We finish the season with seven wins, four draws and a defeat, so hopefully we can continue with that consistency next season.

“It’s been a difficult season for the supporters,” Rodgers conceded. “There’s been some disappointments but a lot of delight on the way as well but today we got the win and this was a day about Carra and we wanted to send him off with a win, so we’re absolutely delighted.”