Dane does think Spain star will settle for being Mignolet’s back up.
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Former Liverpool star Jan Molby believes that current Reds No 1 Jose Manuel Reina will leave Anfield this summer if he is forced to be new arrival Simon Mignolet’s understudy next season, reports the Daily Star.
Liverpool head coach Brendan Rodgers recently signed the young Belgium international from Sunderland for a free of just £9 million, with the Northern Irishman claiming that the 25-year-0ld was brought to Merseyside so as to provide some much-needed competition for Reina.
However, the one-time Reds midfield player does not see it that way and feels that Mignolet has been bought to go straight in as the club’s new first-choice shot stopper from day one of the new campaign.
And if that is the case, then Molby says that there is absolutely no way that the experienced Spain international, who has kept an impressive 176 clean sheets in his 394 matches since arriving at Liverpool in the summer of 2005, will remain with the Reds next season.
“I’d be very surprised if both of them were there on September 1,” said Molby.
“In the first three or four years Pepe was here he was as good as the club’s ever had.
“He hasn’t quite been the same in the last couple of years but I think he’s a great keeper. Possibly the time has come for him to move on.”
Reina, 30, has a contract with Liverpool that runs until June 30 2016 and has been heavily linked all year long with a move back to his boyhood club FC Barcelona to replace compatriot Victor Valdes in goal for the Liga champions.