Liverpool will not budge on their stance over Ryan Kent and the winger will not be allowed to join Rangers on loan.
Reports in Scotland suggested the 22-year-old, whose solitary first-team appearance for the Reds came in an FA Cup tie in January 2016, was prepared to try to force a move back to Ibrox, where he had a successful spell last season.
However, Liverpool’s position has been clear from the start of the summer in that they see no value for them or the player in allowing him to return on loan and that will not change.
The club’s preference is to sell last season’s Scottish young player of the year and they are looking for something in the region of £7million – a figure Rangers boss and former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard cannot meet.
Manager Jurgen Klopp last month outlined the Merseyside club’s reasoning, saying: “Going back? If Rangers can buy him. The time is over giving him on loan.
“At a specific age, a player needs to find a place to settle and stuff like this. A loan is not planned.”
The PA news agency understands, despite claims Kent may “down tools” at Liverpool to force through a move, that the winger’s behaviour has been exemplary.
Two other players who will also not be leaving on loan in this window are defender Dejan Lovren and youngster Bobby Duncan.
Lovren has fallen behind Joel Matip and Joe Gomez in the race to be Virgil Van Dijk’s central defensive partner and has been linked with a move away.
However, after the club pulled out of talks with AC Milan and, most recently, Roma, the expectation is that the Croatia international will now remain beyond next month’s European transfer deadline.
Despite reported interest from Bayer Leverkusen, there has been no approach, and Liverpool would not sanction a loan to the Bundesliga side of a player they value at £15million-£20million.
Neither will they do so for Duncan, a cousin of Gerrard, after interest from Danish side Nordsjaelland.
The club want the striker, an FA Youth Cup winner with the under-18s last season and who took part in the first team’s summer tour of the United States, to continue his progress with the under-23s in the coming campaign.
Meanwhile, new arrival and European Super Cup hero Adrian is keen to make the most of his limited opportunity at Anfield.
Just days after joining as a free agent, the Spaniard made his debut in the Premier League opener against Norwich after injury to first-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
Adrian, who slept with the Super Cup trophy the night they beat Chelsea on penalties, dedicated last week’s Istanbul win to Alisson.
But he knows the Brazil international’s calf injury will only sideline him for a few more weeks so he is relishing every minute of the experience, which has already brought him one piece of silverware.
“We are playing football to live these kind of moments, great moments,” he told liverpoolfc.com.
“Obviously, like life, you can have good and bad moments in your career. But we need to enjoy these kind of games and these kinds of moments.
“You need to enjoy it with your family, best friends, with fans, with the team-mates.
“And also change the mentality like, ‘Nothing is done, we need to keep playing’.”
Adrian’s introduction to life at Liverpool has been made easier playing behind a defence which was the best in the Premier League last season.
“I think, for me as a goalkeeper, they make easy decisions. Honestly, they defend everything like animals. They help me a lot,” he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here