Pepe Reina: Luis Suarez can be better for Liverpool than Fernando Torres

Posted Saturday, November 19, 2011 by The Sun

SU GOOD ... Torres' replacement Luis

PEPE REINA reckons selling Fernando Torres was a real masterstroke for Liverpool because they replaced him with an even bigger star.

The Spanish striker for Chelsea in January after a £50million move which stunned the football world.

But Luis Suarez, who arrived from Ajax for less than half that fee, has proved such a smash that the Reds have hardly noticed the loss of Torres.

Kop keeper Reina counts Torres as one of his closest pals but, as sad as he was to see his mate leave, he reckons it was a sensational deal for Liverpool.

He said: "From a personal point of view, it is never nice to lose a friend from the dressing room.

"But all you can do is wish them well and hope their replacement will be just as good or even better.

"And Luis showed how good he can be from the very first game he played for us when he scored in front of the Kop against Stoke.

"He has shown already he can be one of the best forwards in the world. He has so much talent and potential there is no reason why he cannot become a great player.

"Luis is just as good if not better than Fernando. You don't find players like that very often."

Reina, writing in his autobiography Pepe, added: "Sooner or later Luis will be up there with the greats of the game.

"I am just happy that we have him in our team because he must be horrible to play against.

"And his arrival also proved that Liverpool can still attract the kind of players every club would want."

Suarez has scored 11 goals in 27 games for Liverpool, while his predecessor has hit five in 30 appearances for Chelsea.

And Torres can expect to be booed by the Liverpool fans tomorrow as they have never forgiven him for his sudden departure.

But Reina knows exactly why his pal left. The keeper said: "As much as it hurt the supporters to see him go, I can understand his reasons. The only thing that surprised me was the timing. I had thought he would leave straight after the World Cup.

"From the conversations I had with him I did not believe he would start the season with us, but he did. The reason was the same as I was given — he was told he had to stay even though it was an open secret he was unhappy.

"But all they did was delay the inevitable and I was sad for him in the way it happened. He did not like the way it ended.

"He never got the goodbye he deserved and the Liverpool fans never got the goodbye they deserved from him.

"But, for me, the only cause for regret is during the last four months he wasn't himself. It wasn't the Fernando we knew who put the fear of God into defenders.

"The supporters were angry about that but this was a tighter Fernando, a sad Fernando, a betrayed Fernando.

"He was a special player and gave an awful lot to Liverpool. If the fans do not recognise this I accept that, but I don't agree with them.

"Fernando is one of my best friends in football and I know he was really angry because he felt he had been betrayed by Liverpool before he left.

"There had been plenty of lies and promises which hadn't been kept and, in the two years before he left, it became clear the Liverpool we were at was not the one we'd joined.

"When Fernando signed we'd just been to a second Champions League final in three years. But when he left the only double we did was losing twice to Blackpool in a matter of months.

"After leaving, he said he'd been in a dark place and I know what he means. At the end of the day, it was better for Fernando and the club that they parted ways."