KOP News # 1406

Rodgers' transfer hope

9th Jul 2012 - Latest News

Brendan Rodgers today revealed he is hopeful of bringing in his first signing as Liverpool manager before embarking on this summer's pre-season tour.

The Reds will depart for North America next week and the boss is optimistic he will have completed his first piece of incoming transfer business at Anfield before then.

Asked whether he was confident of adding to his squad before the Standard Chartered-presented tour, Rodgers told reporters at a press conference: "We hope so, but there certainly won't be as many (signings) as what's being labelled out there.

"For players to be associated with Liverpool is great, but the reality is we've only made three or four enquires about players and we hopefully can close out one deal this week, maybe two.

"We're certainly hopeful we can do one and then look to add to it over the course of the pre-season.

"I will never speak about targets and possible players. It's not something I like to do. All I will say is there has been a whole raft of players linked with coming to Liverpool, and there are very, very few of them that are actually real targets for us."

Rodgers added: "Initially, it's just about assessing the group, the squad and looking at the strengths, which you never know entirely until you come in. The pre-season is a little bit broken this year because of players being away for the championships and recovering.

"But certainly, come the beginning of the season I hope to have the squad that we can take through. Obviously after August, that's it through until January. It'll be a case of piecing it together through until then and building a squad that can hopefully compete at the top end of the league. That's ideally what I want to do."

Rodgers was also quizzed by reporters about the possibility of players leaving the club over the coming weeks.

On newspaper speculation that has linked Andy Carroll with a loan move to AC Milan, the manager said: "He's a good player, Andy, so he'll always be linked whether he's here or not.

"I've spoken to Andy on his holidays. He knows exactly where he stands. I've had the chance to speak to a lot of the players.

"He is a very good young player and, like I said, he will be linked with clubs because he is such a good player.

"I haven't had anything (enquiries) from them (AC Milan) at all."

Meanwhile, asked about the future of Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani, both of whom spent the 2011-12 season out on loan, Rodgers said: "Both players are back. I had a good chat with Alberto the other day.

"He's a good guy. It obviously hasn't really worked out for him as of yet, but he's a player who's got the quality in terms of technical and tactical ability to play.

"But what's going to be important for every player is that they have the steel and mindset to play. It will be very important and that's something I'll find out over the course of pre-season about all the players."

Craig Bellamy has also been the subject of transfer rumours - and Rodgers confirmed he has held talks with the striker.

"I had a good meeting with Craig, last Monday, and was just getting the feel for where he was at," he said. "I've known Craig for a little while and we had a good open conversation.

"He's 33 later this week and so he knows he's pushing on in age a little bit, but he's fine. He looks after himself well.

"I'll speak with him over the course of the summer and we'll take it from there."