EXCLUSIVE! Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina told Eurosport that if manager Rafael Benitez was to leave the club he would think about joining him elsewhere - but he is not ready to return to Spain just yet.

Benitez has been linked with a move away from Merseyside after learning that the club secretly approached soon-to-be-Bayern boss Juergen Klinsmann about the possibility of him taking over at Anfield.

Spanish goalie Reina indicated that the club owes a lot to the Spanish manager who signed him from Villarreal in 2005 and is looking to take Liverpool to a third Champions League final in four seasons.

"The Liverpool project is based upon the way of working of the coach," he told us. "Rafa is building something that is growing each year - and the results are there. We will have reached three finals in four years if we are lucky against Chelsea, which is very impressive.

"Every year we have a better team and are more competitive. With an idea and philosophy of the game he has tried to find the best players. It is a project for the medium or long term.

"My contract is with Liverpool, not Rafa Benitez, but I owe a lot to Rafa because he was the one who trusted me at that moment, brought me to Liverpool and supported me, and of course the mutual affection is there. We will have to wait [and see what happens].

"Like you say, my contract is with Liverpool, but if the coach moves and there is the possibility of me joining him, if he coaches another team - of course I would think about that.

"[But] I am very happy: my family are settled and the football here is wonderful. We have plenty of time to return to Spain."

Reina said that the Champions League semi-final clash against Chelsea, the third time they have met the Blues in four seasons at the last-four stage, would prove the most difficult of all the meetings.

The first leg is at Anfield on Tuesday evening, while the other semi-final will be contested between Barcelona and the Reds' fierce rivals Manchester United on Wednesday.

"We know them [Chelsea] well," he continued. "We have played them in knockout competitions in recent years and fortunately they have all been favourable outcomes for us, but perhaps for this reason this one will be the most difficult one yet.

"The statistics say that you cannot always win, but we will have to see. The second leg this time is at Stamford Bridge, which will be more difficult, but we are aware that with a good result at Anfield we can take our chance. We are confident.

"For the sake of Spanish football I prefer to play Barca [in the final], but a Liverpool-Manchester final would be the biggest match in English football. It would give us great pride to be European champions ahead of Manchester."

One player that has caught the eye this season is another Spaniard, international striker Fernando Torres, who arrived from boyhood club Atletico Madrid in the summer and scored a cracker to help the team beat Arsenal in the quarter-finals.

"I think he has been a complete success and completely merited what he has done," Reina added. "He had plenty of desire to learn and has listened continuously to advice.

"To score 30 goals in a new league, in a new country, involves many difficulties."

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José Manuel Tallada / Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport