Mignolet awaits Liverpool medical with Reina summer move still on

Although Pepe Reina cannot be held directly accountable for Liverpool finishing a lowly seventh in the Premier League last season, some statistics do suggest that he was responsible for costing them 14 points.

An extra 14 points would have seen Liverpool finish in the top four and so individual defensive and goalkeeping errors will need to be reduced if Liverpool are to get closer to challenging for a Champions League spot in the next campaign.

It is 2/1 that Liverpool do finish in the top four this season and their striking ranks have already been bolstered with the arrivals of Luis Alberto and Iago Aspas.

Now, a new goalkeeping arrival is imminent, with Simon Mignolet waiting to complete a medical ahead of a move from Sunderland for a reported £9m.

This will ask questions over the future of Pepe Reina and much will hinge over the summer plans of Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

Valdes is pretty much guaranteed to leave Barcelona next summer at the latest, but there remains the possibility that he could depart before the start of the upcoming campaign, with Monaco keen to continue their spate of big-name acquisitions.

Nothing will be decided until the end of the Confederations Cup in relation to Valdes’ future, while Barcelona also have to decide who their number one goalkeeping target is.

Borussia Monchengladbach’s Marc-Andre ter Stegen is another to be linked in the close season, although there is every possibility that he could be loaned back to his current German club for one or two years if the Catalan giants do decide to sign the 21-year-old.

The other option for Reina would be a reunion with Rafa Benitez at Napoli, especially if speculation linking their current goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis with Inter Milan has any substance to it.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.