The Reds, meanwhile, are finally hoping to wrap up Maxi Rodriguez’s move from Atletico Madrid now that Andrea Dossena has completed his £4.4m switch to Napoli.
Dossena arrived in Naples yesterday to undergo a medical and met his new team-mates before putting pen-to-paper on a four-and-a-half year contract.
Andriy Voronin was also expected to finalise his move to Dinamo Moscow last night but, as yet, the Reds have not heard any official word from the Russian capital to say that particular £2m deal has gone through.
Rodriguez has been waiting patiently to come to Merseyside and is understood to have told his Atletico team-mates that he simply could not reject Liverpool’s advances as he said his goodbyes in Spain yesterday.
Once all those deals are concluded, though, that is likely to be the end of Liverpool’s interest in the January transfer window.
While they are still trying to lure Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh to the club on a Bosman and believe they have a favourite‘s chance of winning that particular race against Arsenal, he would be a signing for next season.
As for Ryan Babel, he will not be sold to Birmingham, firstly because the £9m they initially offered was nowhere near Liverpool’s valuation of the player and, secondly, as any money they might recoup would not be reinvested in the squad.
What’s more, Babel’s form may be erratic but he still has the ability to produce special moments in games and Benitez is happy to keep him in the squad, in the hope he will have an influence at some point during the second half of the campaign.
