Pepe Reina - Once a Red Always a Red

[dorgie]

Farewell and best of luck Pepe. What a man.

 

http://pepereina25.com/en/2014/08/08/once-a-red-always-a-red/

 

Around this time last year, I wrote a letter to say goodbye to Liverpool and the fans after I joined Napoli. Some people asked why I was doing it when I was only going on loan for a season and would be back within twelve months but the reality was that it was already clear to me that my time at Anfield was over. Liverpool had signed Simon Mignolet to be their new number one and I was being allowed to go out on loan so I wanted to take the opportunity to offer my thanks and bid farewell because I knew that I would not be back.

 

I suppose this is a bit of an update now that my departure has been confirmed and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone at Liverpool – and I mean everyone – for everything that they have done for me over years. Last time, some of my words were misinterpreted and taken out of the context in which they were meant but it would never be my intention to leave Liverpool on anything but good terms so hopefully this will put that right once and for all.

 

I have been extremely fortunate to spend so many years at what I consider to be one of the greatest clubs in world football. It has been an honour and a privilege. The memories I have of Anfield, my team mates, the supporters and the people of Liverpool will stay with me forever. I am disappointed that I am leaving but only in the sense that I enjoyed being at the club so much and it is always difficult to say goodbye to something that is special to you. I will always be grateful to have played for Liverpool and my time at the club was always going to come to an end so we move on with no hard feelings.

 

All I can do now is look forward to a new adventure at Bayern Munich and being reunited with Pep Guardiola, who was my first captain at Barcelona. Hopefully I will enjoy being with them as much as I enjoyed being with Liverpool and again, I am fortunate to be going from one great club to another. I will return to at Anfield some time soon, though, only next time it will be as a fan rather than a player and I hope that when I do come back Liverpool will be challenging for the biggest trophies like they always should.

 

The final thing for me to do is to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me in any way since I joined Liverpool in 2005 – all of the managers who I have played under, all of the players who I shared a dressing room with, all of the staff who helped me in so many ways and every single one of the fans who gave the team and myself the kind of backing that others can only dream of. I count myself as a Liverpudlian and I will be one for life.

 

You’ll Never Walk Alone,

 

Pepe

 

[Dan]

Good man.

[lfc003]

Farewell Pepe

[£440,000]

Yep, good man.

[heighway]

That's a great farewell letter. Respect to you Pepe.

[Tones]

Nice letter. He's a good lad pepe.

[Leo No.8]

Fantastic that, really classy from Pepe. He has righted a few little wrongs there, especially regarding BR.

 

Wish him all the best. Always welcome back.

[Rory Fitzgerald]

I'd love to go for a jar with Pepe and Didi

[Earl Hafler]

Cheers, Pepe. You were f***ing great.

[Cam]

Fantastic that, really classy from Pepe. He has righted a few little wrongs there, especially regarding BR.

If you copy & paste the letter into Word, change font to Calibri 14 bold and full justify it you'll find that the first letter of each line spells out "Rodgers is a bad spoofer", "I love Roy" and "Just sign a leftback ffs."

 

Or something.

[New York Red]

Good man Pepe. I like that a lot.

[Billy Dane]

Nice letter, wish him well.

[Benzo-13]

YNWA Pepe

[guernseygareth]

He earns respect for speaking out when many didn't. And he was quite special when betwixt the sticks for a while. So I'll gladly count him as one of us. YNWA.

[5InIstanbul]

Im sad for him. Sad that he has now chosen the path he has. Almost like he has lost faith in himself to be a no. 1 somewhere.

 

But a good bloke deep down who lost his way and never quite got it back. When he was boss, he really was boss.

 

Wish him all the best.

[DPD1973]

thanks for the great years, all the best, see you next time brother!

 

All the best etc but we move on.

[Ombudsam]

Bye Pepe. I'll miss you.

[Nerik]

The best keeper we've had since Ray. YNWA Pepe.

[McBain]

Fantastic player for us and a top bloke

 

Good luck Pepe. I'm sure you're reading this

[Drexl]

The best keeper we've had since Ray. YNWA Pepe.

Yes he was. That makes retiring at 32 very weird.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Legend

 

Just gutted we didn't win that EC with him

[aka Dus]

Better than being Bayern's sub goalie.

 

I am sad we don't get a few more years out of him. Grateful for the great years.