Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Pepe Reina Tells Teammates To Ignore Transfer Rumours

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has told his team-mates to ignore any talk of new signings and to concentrate on matters on the field.

Following the takeover of the Anfield club by American group New England Sports Ventures (NESV), there have been reports that significant investment will be made to upgrade the squad in the near future.

Despite the potential for new arrivals, Reina has reminded the club’s players that such matters are out of their hands and to instead focus on upcoming matches.

"I am always talking about these things and I don't want to be annoying saying the same things," he said, as quoted by the Press Association.

"We all expect Liverpool to be one of the top clubs and it is on the manager and the new owners to level up that but all we can do is play football and do as well as we can.

"We know anyone can beat anyone and it has happened so many times this season so we have to be consistent and find that balance which makes us stay up there and fight to be as high as possible.

Liverpool earned their fourth consecutive Premier League home victory with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday and Reina believes that the side is starting to improve after their poor start to the season.

"We are 10 points adrift of the leaders [Arsenal] but it is just some space,” he said.

"Knowing the ideas and keeping the shape and philosophy we have to find ourselves playing with more confidence now and aim a bit higher.

"We are happy just because we have shown, especially in the first halves, better performances and the team has been more consistent and more focused from the first minute.

"That is something which the team lacked in the first 10 matches and now we have found ourselves better from the first minute we have to keep that."

Reina revealed that the team was well aware that their start to the season would be difficult as they adjusted to life under new manager Roy Hodgson following former boss Rafael Benitez’s departure.

However, the 28-year-old believes that the side can start to set their sights higher if they successfully negotiate the upcoming festive period.

“We said when we played Birmingham - the fourth league fixture - we knew it was going to take a while with a new manager, new players coming in and new ideas," he said.

"Hopefully we can once again build from a good home win [against Villa].

"There is never an easy game - we lost to Blackpool at home and we have to play them in Blackpool - and we know the Christmas period is vital, crucial.

"After those four games [up to Bolton on January 1] we can start talking about where the team is going to aim."

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