Liverpool, an highly successful club, have found it difficult to win any major trophies as of late. Jurgen Klopp’s time as the club manager has been fruitful, but they are still yet to regain their status of being one of the biggest club in the world.
Liverpool’s record is rich with a number of world class players; the likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher are homegrown while the likes of Xabi Alonso and Fernand Torres were signed from another club. While some like Gerrard and Carragher came to the final point of their career at Anfield, some other players left the Reds to continue elsewhere. Here are two of such players the club made the mistake of selling in recent times:
Pepe Reina
It remains quite a mystery as to why Liverpool sold Pepe Reina when they did. He was linked with a number of clubs and in the end , he moved to Napoli and Liverpool brought in Simon Mignolet to take up his position.
Reina moved to Anfield in the summer of 2005 from Villareal when Rafael Benitez was in charge of the Reds and moved up the ladder to become the club’s No.1. The Spaniard made 394 appearances for the Reds before he joined Benitez at Napoli on loan in 2013. After his loan spell at the Serie A club he moved on to Bayern Munich permanently in the summer of 2014. After just a season at Bayern, he moved back to Napoli.
At 34, Reina is still good at what he does, putting up amazing performance for the Italian side. Liverpool on the other hand have had issues in the goalkeeping department with Mignolet and Loris Karius incompetency. Reina still had a lot to offer and he could have been exceptional under Jurgen Klopp.
Luis Suarez
Believed to be the best striker in the game presently, Luis Suarez was the brain behind Liverpool winning the Premier League title in the 2013-14 season. He moved to Anfield as a replacement for Fernando Torres. He was Liverpool’s player of the year for three years.
Suarez has been a source of controversy throughout his career. He was at a time accused of biting Branislav Ivanovic on the pitch, he was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, but all this have not deterred him from being the best. Liverpool decided to sell him to Barcelona when he bit defender Giorgio Chiellini of Italy at the 2014 FIFA World Cup
Suarez agreed to join the Catalan outfit on a five-year contract for a fee of £64.98 million after he netted 82 goals in 133 appearances for the Reds. Although, it would have been difficult for them to refuse an offer from a club like Barcelona, but if the Uruguayan was still playing at the Merseyside club, they would not be at the point they are now.