Liverpool back for Morientes

Liverpool are exploring the possibilities of reviving a deal for Fernando Morientes, Real Madrid’s unsettled Spanish striker.

Rafael Benitez had wanted to bring the Spanish international striker to Anfield as part of the £8-million deal that saw Michael Owen move to the Bernabeu, but instead got the now-injured Antonio Nunez, but Liverpool are continuing to have regular discussions with Real.

Benitez has also been encouraged to learn that Morientes would gladly move to England.

Madrid are willing to sell but the one possible stumbling block is Liverpool’s lack of transfer funds, meaning they may have to look for a loan deal or postpone a permanent transfer until the end of the season.

One certainty is that Morientes is agitating for a move. ‘He is not happy because he is not playing,” said his agent Gines Carvajal, who was in the stands for Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Deportivo la Coruna on Tuesday. ‘He accepted the fact that he didn’t particularly have a big chance of being in the starting XI every week, but he did expect to play now and again.

‘If he hadn’t been at Real Madrid already they would have been pulling out all the stops to sign him as a galactico. But as they already had him at the club they do not count him as such.”

In a thinly veiled reference to Owen, scorer of Real’s winner against Dynamo Kiev in his European debut, Carvajal added: ‘It’s easier to give an opportunity to someone from outside than it is to someone who is already at the club.”

Publicly, Benitez has faith in the £14,1-million Djibril Cissé and Milan Baros as a front pairing.

‘I am sure Milan and Djibril can work well together in time,” he admitted. ‘They did well at Fulham and for 70

minutes against Deportivo. They just didn’t score, that’s all.”

But his interest in Morientes indicates he needs another source of goals. In last Saturday’s game at Fulham, where Liverpool came from 2-0 down to win 4-2, Cissé was switched during the action to a right-sided attacking role and it worked well. —