Reds to jump in on Gunners interest over midfield star.
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Liverpool are set to make a £12m raid on Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Lars Bender from under the nose of Arsenal, according to German newspaper Bild.
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The Reds are already said to be close to agreeing a deal to sign young Bayern Munich star Xherdan Shaqiri, and should have the move sewn up later this week, but reports in Germany are now claiming that the Reds will return to the Bundesliga in a bid to frustrate their Premier League rivals for Bender.
The Gunners had been keeping an eye on the midfield string puller since the January transfer window, and were poised to make a move for him this summer as Arsene Wenger looks to add an out-and-out defensive midfielder to his books, and thus put the likes of Mikel Arteta out to pasture.
But Rodgers has his own concerns in the middle of the park too, and will look to add some significant quality to his engine room in the coming weeks.
Bender is rated highly at Leverkusen, even though he didn’t make it in to Germany’s World Cup squad, and he will likely cost any interested party somewhere in the region of £21m to land his services.
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