Liverpool’s Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina has revealed he’s so happy at Anfield that he’s hoping to start talks next year on extending his current deal, which still has three years left to run.
Back with the Liverpool squad again after a busy summer he says he and his new wife are loving life in the North West: “Next year we’ll start talking about another deal. I am so settled – I recharged my batteries on holiday in Majorca and Ibiza with my wife after we got married on May 19. We are both happy in Liverpool and would love to stay longer.”
One of the reasons he’s so happy with life in this country is because he’s happy with the club he’s playing his football for – and the manager is turning that team into something special according to Reina: “For me, Benítez does not need money to make a champion team. He builds teams without spending a fortune. He did it at Valencia and now he is doing it at Liverpool.”
He reveals how people in his homeland just didn’t expect Rafa to have such success: “It was a big shock to everyone in Spain when Valencia won the title, because they did not have as much money as Barcelona and Real Madrid. He took a normal team and made it into the best in the country. There is a lot of belief at Liverpool that he can do the same again. The advantage we have is Rafa Benítez. He’s one of the best managers in football.”
Pepe picked up his second winners medal since joining the Reds after he’d helped the team to a penalty shoot-out win over West Ham in Cardiff, but he wants bigger prizes now: “Winning the FA Cup was a good achievement, but this time we have to win the most important titles – the Premiership or the Champions League.”
To win that title of course means overtaking Chelsea and Manchester United to improve on last season’s third place, something Pepe feels can be done: “It was impossible to compete with Chelsea last season because they had almost two teams. But we closed the gap last season and this time we believe it is possible to catch them and beat them.”