LIVERPOOL are closing in on a £8m deal to sign Leeds starlet Sam Byram.
The England under-20 wing back has emerged as one of the hottest prospects outside the top flight this season.
Leeds rejected a £4.5m bid from Southampton for him last summer but boss Ronald Koeman remains interested along with Sunderland.
The Black Cats have spent the last eight months keeping tabs on Byram along with the Reds.
Brendan Rodgers has sent scouts to watch him in action more than six times, while the Reds boss also ran the rule over Byram himself last month.
Starsport understands the Premier League giants are now in pole position to lure Byram to Anfield in the summer.
The 20-year-old made his Leeds debut in 2012 and has gone on to make more than 100 league appearances for the Championship outfit.
In May 2013 he was called into the England under-20 squad for the FIFA under-20 World Cup in Turkey but was forced to withdraw due to a hip problem.
Byram has been likened to Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale when it comes to his style of play.
His running power from full back and ability to be creative as a wing back has alerted Rodgers, who is desperate to strengthen his defence in the close season.
He is convinced Byram can be moulded into one of the best wing backs in the top flight and would suit his side's attacking formation.
Suspended Leeds president Massimo Cellino values Byram in the £10m bracket.
But it is understood the controversial Italian is willing to reach a compromise with Reds bosses in order to strike a deal.
Meanwhile Rodgers has warned Dejan Loveren he faces a fight to win his place back.
The 25-year-old Croatia defender could get a chance to prove his worth against Blackburn in the Reds' FA Cup quarter-final replay tomorrow.
But Kop boss Rodgers had highlighted the attributes that made him name veteran Kolo Toure in the 4-1 hammering by Arsenal on Saturday with Martin Skrtel suspended and Lovren on the bench.
Rodgers said: "The thing with Kolo is he gives me everything every single day so I know what I was going to get with him.
"Dejan was someone who was obviously out over the international break, now he is fighting well and looking strong.
"He will be in contention for the Cup game."
Rodgers' side have lost back-to-back Premier League games against top-four rivals Manchester United and Arsenal to effectively kill off their hopes of Champions League qualification.
But the Irishman is not planning to rip up his formation again.
Rodgers switched to a 3-4-3 style earlier in the campaign when their season threatened to go down the pan.
It sparked a 13-game unbeaten run in the league, but he has no intention to overhaul it again.
He said: "It's finding what suits the players. We have obviously got a number of players out now and when we changed the system it suited them.
"We are always looking to find a way.
"Our possession just hasn't been good enough, that has been the key to it.
"I don't think it was anything to do with the system, whatever system we were playing, we just didn't pass the ball quick enough in recent games."
“Our possession just hasn't been good enough, that has been the key to it”
Brendan Rodgers
Rodgers denies reports of crisis meeting
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has refuted reports that he held an angry meeting with his players in the aftermath of their 4-1 thrashing at Arsenal.
It was suggested some members of Liverpool's squad reacted indignantly to Rodgers accusing them of not playing for him during crisis talks at the club's Melwood training ground on Monday.
Liverpool are now seven points adrift of the Premier League's top four, leaving them in severe danger of missing out on a place in next season's Champions League.
But, with Liverpool due to travel to Championship side Blackburn in an FA Cup quarter-final replay on Wednesday, Rodgers was keen to put Saturday's loss behind him and he rejected the allegations of a row with his players, insisting there was nothing out of the ordinary in the post-match debrief.
"I've heard that this morning. It is something you can't help," he said.
"We have lots of meetings here in terms of analysing performance and it was no different to a whole host of meetings we have all year.
"Those meetings helped us recover from the bad start we had to win 10 games out of 13.
"It was nothing really; it was just analysing performance, analysing where we are at and then feeding forward to the players.
"With seven games to go and an FA Cup quarter-final the objectives we can clearly achieve between now and the end of the season.
"It is just unfortunate something else was made up.
"I have a great bunch of players here who tirelessly every single day give me everything and you can see that in how we play.
"We might be short in terms of several elements but in terms of the commitment and work ethic that is pretty clear and has been since I've been here."
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