Rumour: Liverpool line up £40m swoop for Southampton’s Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren

Liverpool planning a double swoop down South?

Liverpool’s preparation for life in the Champions League is starting to take shape with the Mirror reporting that Southampton duo Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren are top of Brendan Rodgers’ shopping list.

Lallana, 26, and Lovren 24, have both been integral parts of Southampton’s successful season and Lallana is reportedly prepared to hand in a transfer request to push through a move to Liverpool.

The paper reports that the Anfield club believe a joint bid of £40 million will be enough to persuade Southampton to part with their prize assets. Lallana has been with Southampton since their time in League 1 but this season he has shone as one of the most creative English players in the league.

This form has led to an England call-up and rather than just making up the numbers he is now seen as an integral part of England’s World Cup team. He will be joined in Brazil by team-mates Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert with the former another Southampton player who is under intense transfer speculation.

Croatian defender Lovren, who will also be at the World Cup, arrived under a banner of doubt with a lot of French observers stating that he would fail to adapt to life in the Premier League.

However the centre-back has produced a series of impressive displays to dispel the doubters and prove himself to be one of the signings of the season.