Pepe Reina Says Goodbye to Liverpool

Brendan Rodgers may have feigned ignorance earlier this week on the subject of Pepe Reina's pending loan to Napoli, but the after passing a medical the goalkeeper took to his Twitter account to make the indirect announcement himself.

Thanks everybody for the support!!really appreciate it..in the next few days I'll say good bye like I wanted to

— Pepe Reina (@PReina25) July 24, 2013

Proper goodbyes are a privilege afforded to the few players who have earned both the respect of fans and a decent send off, and despite any criticisms of his form in the past few years — insert stats here — Reina's professionalism, leadership, and longevity at Liverpool have many lamenting the lack of closure for both fans and the player in saying goodbye to the place he called home for the past eight seasons.

While there may be some ruthless logic to the whole loan, the likelihood of Reina returning to Barcelona instead of Liverpool at the end of his season in Napoli is uncomfortably high. Certainly nothing is set in stone regarding Reina's post-Napoli plans, but by his own admission he seems very clear that after nearly four hundred matches and four trophies with the club, his time on Merseyside is drawing to a close.

Reina may have his own plans to say goodbye in a few days time, but instead of wringing our hands and weeping profusely, for now we'll just say thank you and that we'll miss such a long serving, shirt swapping, captain kissing, Aussie hugging, ear gnawing, cake judging, haunted house visiting, fashion forward player between the sticks. Gracias, Pepe!