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LoginReds reject Inter bid for Gerrard
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LIVERPOOL have turned down a £25million Inter Milan bid for Steven Gerrard.
The Italian giants want to make him their main signing as they begin their centenary celebrations.
A top Inter official confirmed: “We need to make a big signing for next season and Gerrard was at the centre of our thoughts.
"Liverpool gave us the most emphatic response he was not for sale.
“We have drawn up a list of alternatives. But if Liverpool decide to sell, Gerrard is our top priority.”
It is not the first time Inter have tried to snatch the England midfielder.
Preliminary contact for the Kop skipper, 27, who has two years left on his current contract, was made during the Champions League second-round tie between the sides in February.
Juventus will make a £15m bid to tempt Xabi Alonso from Anfield this summer.
But they could face a battle with Barcelona, now Alonso fan Josep Guardiola has been confirmed as Nou Camp manager in place of axed Frank Rijkaard.
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RAFA BENITEZ will clear the decks this summer in a bid to bring the Premier League crown to Anfield.
Wednesday’s Champions League KO at Chelsea has blown his chance of an added £30million transfer jackpot to help fund a close-season spending spree.
Now the Liverpool boss must generate some of his own funds to bring in Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry, Borussia Dortmund full-back Philipp Degen and Wigan winger Antonio Valencia.
And that will see the likes of Peter Crouch, Jermaine Pennant, John Arne Riise and even Xabi Alonso heading for pastures new.
Villa boss Martin O’Neill is a big fan of England hitman Crouch, 27, and would be willing to let England midfield ace Barry head for Merseyside in part-exchange.
Norwegian Riise, 27 — whose last-gasp own goal gifted Chelsea a precious first-leg equaliser at Anfield — has also been linked with a move to Villa Park.
Benitez has made no secret of the fact that he is very keen on bringing in a new left-back.
Pennant, 25, has failed to hold down a regular starting slot and is another who could be offloaded to help pay for Benitez’s targets, with Newcastle and Spurs both interested.
Reserve winger Sebastian Leto will be the first out and is set to rejoin Paco Herrera at Espanyol, where the former Anfield coach is now director of football.
Harry Kewell’s stop-start Liverpool career will also finally come to a halt, and the injury-hit Aussie winger, 29, will not be offered a new deal.
That alone would save around £70,000 a week in wages, paying a large chunk of a top-line star’s salary.
Alonso, 26, has fought his way back into the team after a spell in the cold but Benitez knows he is one man who could bring in a hefty fee.
If Barcelona or Real Madrid follow up tentative interest earlier in the season, the playmaker would be allowed to go back to La Liga and boost the transfer kitty by around £12m.
Ironically, Benitez thought this would be a summer of stability, with the need for tweaking rather than wholesale changes.Early in the campaign he claimed he would only have to bring in a couple of new faces to add to the squad, yet now around half-a-dozen are likely to be heading out.
Last term they finished 21 points behind champions Manchester United, while this season the worst they can expect is to be four points closer. Yet their guaranteed fourth place is one slot lower than 12 months ago.
And the manager knows there is still much work to be done to bring a first Premier League title to Merseyside.
Despite that, the Stamford Bridge defeat will not send Benitez himself close to the edge and the ownership chaos at Anfield actually means he is still in a position of great strength.
Tom Hicks has spent the past two months insisting he is fully behind the Kop boss and the Spanish coach admitted he has already been given the thumbs up concerning his transfer targets.
Hicks’ broken relationship with co-owner George Gillett also means Benitez is safe, simply because the two Americans cannot agree on anything at the moment.
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