LIVERPOOL STOPPER PEPE REINA has claimed that Anfield bosses blocked a £20m move to Arsenal last summer for fear that a “fire-sale” of their stars would scare off investors.

In his new memoir, Pepe: My Autobiography, Reina reveals that he was targeted by the Gunners at a time when Liverpool were suffering under the debilitating ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

The Spaniard moved to Merseyside from Villareal in the summer of 2005, reluctantly putting pen to paper on a contract extension in April 2010 despite the club’s off-field turmoil.

Shortly after agreeing the deal however, he realised that the board’s ambitious promises would never be realised, prompting him to re-examine his future with the Reds.

“It didn’t take me long to feel that their promises were hollow. I felt betrayed, ” Reina wrote.

Our owners were at war with each other, the club’s debts were spiralling out of control and a change in manager had failed to dispel the feeling that we were on the road to nowhere.

With an offer from Arsenal on the table that summer, Liverpool flat out refused to enter into negotiations in case an exodus of their top talent spooked prospective buyers. The club’s blunt pragmatism stung, Reina admits.

“When Liverpool received the bid, they rejected it. This was not because I had been told that I was too good a keeper to leave. The reason I was given was quite different – and it left me feeling down.

I was told that my continued presence was crucial to the sale of the club. I was simply a bargaining chip in the sales process.

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