Rodgers: Lucas Leiva will not leave Liverpool in January

It appears that Liverpool have successfully rebuffed Inter's advances for midfielder Lucas Leiva. While Roberto Mancini had repeatedly emphasized that he would be keen to get the Brazilian international to the San Siro, Inter never made an official offer and now Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has slammed the door shut on a possible Leiva move away from Anfield in January.

Leiva has recently begun to see regular first-team playing time under Rodgers, and the manager has expressed his desire to keep Leiva until at least the end of the current campaign, saying:

"Lucas is not one that we would want to lose in January. Of course at the end of the season everything is looked at again, but the team is in a good momentum. The team is in a good flow, we are starting to find our feet and players are starting to adapt and work really well so I don't need to disrupt them."

Clearly, Rodgers sees Leiva's performance as vital to his team's success this season in achieving a top-four finish, especially with the Reds' newly-rigged midfield which has made the side more compact and which has seen Leiva flourish.

Inter will now turn their attention to other defensive midfield talent, including the heavily-linked Tino-Sven Susic as well as newly-linked Stephane Mbia (Sevilla). Each would be available for the Nerazzurri at a much cheaper price, and either would seem to be a logical choice in light of the recent Financial Fair Play scrutiny facing Inter.