AC Milan warn Liverpool even a €80m offer will not tempt them into Suso deal

AC Milan have warned even a bid of €80m (£71m, $98m) from Liverpool for their former player Suso will be rejected by the Serie A giants.

Suso, who arrived on Merseyside as a 16-year-old from Cadiz in 2010, made 21 appearances for Liverpool before leaving Anfield in 2015 to sign for the Rossoneri. While the 24-year-old Spaniard was briefly linked with a return to English football last summer when Tottenham Hotspur were interested in him, he instead chose to sign a new deal with Milan that keeps him at the club until 2022.

On Sunday (14 January), Italian publication Tuttosport claimed Jurgen Klopp had identified Suso as his next big-money signing and will try to bring the player back to Anfield to serve as a replacement for Philippe Coutinho, who left the club to join Barcelona for £142m earlier this month.

Milan have moved quickly to dismiss those claims, however. In a feature on the club's official website designed to tackle transfer rumours, the club commented: "Milan were very clear with Suso in the summer. We are not selling you even for €80m. That was how the Spanish champion was convinced in September to sign a new contract in what was a very important operation for Milan.

"All the Rossoneri players mentioned today as potential transfer targets are absolutely part of the project, from [Lucas] Biglia, [Nikola] Kalinic and [Manuel] Locatelli."

Liverpool are flush with cash after Coutinho's sale but their immediate priority appears to be to try and bring Naby Keita to the club ahead of schedule. The Reds struck a deal with RB Leipzig for the midfielder last summer with the player set to arrive on 1 July, but they hope to convince the German club to green light his exit earlier than planned.