The big Liverpool transfer rumour in the Mirror today says that Rafael Benitez has made the Holland star Eljero Elia his top target this January, despite the fact that he only joined Hamburg this summer.

The Mirror reckons that Benitez will sell Andrea Dossena and Ryan Babel to fund the deal, and he will want a profit on the £19m he paid for the pair 18 months ago.

Hamburg paid £8m for Elia in the summer and they will need a nice profit on that if they are to be persuaded to part with the new man that earned two Man-of-the-Match awards in his first three games in the Bundesliga.

Dossena has made no secret of the fact he wants to move back to Italy, but they also say that Benitez has run out of patience with Babel, who has only be used sparingly since his arrival, but Babel himself said yesterday that he intended to stay and fight for his place in the team.

“The Holland coach van Marwijk wants players to be playing at their club to get a chance to go to the World Cup so that’s also for me what I try to reach and work every day very hard,” Babel said.

“Liverpool are a very good team, everybody knows that, and I am proud to be part of Liverpool.”

You could read into that that Babel wants regular first-team football, and if he can’t get that at Liverpool with all their current injuries then he may as well look elsewhere.