Liverpool Face Battle in Barca Starlet Hunt

Liverpool have suffered a blow in their pursuit of Barcelona prodigy Cristian Tello, after the player's agent revealed his client was close to signing a new deal at the Nou Camp.

Tello, 20, had been linked with a move to Anfield after he marked his Champions League debut with two goals against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday.

The Barcelona youngster is out of contract in the summer and it had been rumoured he was looking for a new challenge away from Catalonia, with Liverpool linked with a move for the youngster.

Tello has enjoyed an impressive start to his Barcelona career, scoring six goals in 12 games to date.

Nevertheless, the striker was reportedly unhappy at the limited opportunities he has been given under Pep Guardiola so far, with most of his appearances coming from the bench.

However, his agent, Jose Maria Orobitg, moved to play down reports linking Tello with a move to the Premier League and insists his client is happy to remain at Barcelona past the end of the season.

"Many European clubs are interested in the boy, but we are now in negotiations with Barca, Orobitg told O Jogo - via talkSPORT.

"There have been calls from England, Portugal, from everywhere, but still nothing is clear."

The news is unlikely to be of much concern for Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam who does not believe the club need a new striker to solve their current profligacy in front of goal.

Liverpool's strike force has scored just 30 goals this season, the sixth worst record in the Premier League this season.

"I believe that we can beat anyone on our day, we have enough match winners in our squad," Adam told the Liverpool Echo.

"We were in disbelief we never won that match but that's how it goes and it is now how we react at the weekend.

"We have Luis, Andy, Dirk and Craig. We have got enough players up there. It would be easy for us to make an excuse to say we need to buy this player and that player.

"But at the end of the day if the club felt they needed to buy a player they would have done it in January. They never bought anybody because the manager feels we already have good enough players to hurt teams."