Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has claimed that the club's previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett scuppered a £20m move to Arsenal.
Writing in his new autobiography, the Spaniard insists that he reluctantly accepted a move to the Emirates last summer, but was then told a transfer would give the club a bad image for potential investors.
"Arsenal had made their determination to sign me clear by offering £20m, a phenomenal amount for a goalkeeper," he writes. "Part of me felt that I was well within my rights to consider my future even if I did so with a heavy heart.
"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."
Reina moved to Anfield in 2005 from Villarreal.
Jack Prescott
