Atletico To Hijack Arsenal and Liverpool's Plans For Manquillo and Moreno

Liverpool and Arsenal have been warned to act quickly in their respective purtuits for Alberto Moreno and Javier Manquillo after reports in Spain claimed Atletico Madrid have launched a £12m bid to secure the Sevilla left-back - with the Gunners target included as part of the deal.

Brendan Rodgers earmarked Moreno as his top priority to bolster his left-back resources earlier this summer but after weeks of negotiations the Reds have failed to agree terms with Sevilla over his signing.

Though Liverpool are considering other alternatives such as Swansea's Ben Davies, recent reports claimed the Merseyside club had renewed their efforts to sign Moreno – taking advantage of their recent negotiations which saw Iago Aspas move on loan to the La Liga side.

Indeed, Sevilla boss Unai Emery claimed the club were considering other alterantives should they sell the left-back to Liverpool.

"If something comes up during the transfer market, we are prepared for any eventuality. I see him as a Sevillista, and hopefully he will stay at Sevilla We count on him, I hope to improve Alberto, he took a major leap and we have to work with him to help him to continue to improve," Emery said.

Meanwhile, IBTimes UK reported last week that even though Arsenal are on the verge of completing the signing of right-back Mathieu Debuchy they were also in advance negotiations with Atletico Madrid for Manquillo – with Arsene Wenger's demand for an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the season the only stumbling block.

Sources to the negotiations have confirmed to IBTimes UK that Manquillo is still likely to move to Arsenal.

However, Spanish newspaper AS reports a new problem for both Arsenal and Liverpool in their summer transfer plans.

According to the Spanish newspaper, Atletico Madrid have indeed earmarked the signing of Alberto Moreno as a top priority to replace Filipe Luis – even though they have also signed Guilleme Siqueira.

AS claims Atletico and Sevilla have been negotiating the terms of the agreement in the last couple of days – with the La Liga winners hoping to close the deal with a £12m bid, including Manquillo and Leo Baptistao.

In this case, both Liverpool and Arsenal will have to look somewhere else for reinceforments as Wenger wants an understudy to Debuchy while Rodgers is desperately looking for a left-back.