Liverpool preparing £6.5m bid for West Ham United defender Winston Reid

Liverpool are reportedly planning a deadline day £6.5m bid for West Ham United defender Winston Reid.

According to the Mirror, Brendan Rodgers is keen to strengthen his defence and will try and tempt the Hammers with an offer for the New Zealand international.

Reid is on the final six months of his contract and has rejected an offer of an extension to stay at Upton Park, and now the club are willing to sell him now rather than lose him for nothing in the summer.

The report claims that Sam Allardyce is looking to get around £7m for the defender and the Reds are willing to match their asking price to land the defender in January.

Liverpool have struggled to keep clean sheets this season, and summer signing Dejan Lovren has failed to settle leaving Rodgers with just three centre-backs in Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel and Mahamadou Sakho.

The New Zealand defender has been impressive for West Ham this season and has contributed significantly to the club's phenomenal start to the season that sees them fighting the big guns for a place in Europe.

Apart from Liverpool, Premier League rivals Arsenal and Tottenham were also heavily linked with a move for Reid.

The Gunners were said to be interested but were unwilling to meet the east London club's demands in terms of fees for a player with just six months to run on his contract. But arch rivals Spurs were willing to meet the player's demands and reports suggested that they were close to agreeing a free transfer, which was to take place during the summer transfer window.

However, it looks like Liverpool could beat their domestic rivals and land the defender before the end of the ongoing January transfer window.

West Ham have targeted former Tottenham defender Vedran Corluka as a replacement for Reid, if he departs the club in the next two days.

But Allardyce will face competition from West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, who are also monitoring the Spartak Moscow defender, who is reportedly available for a fee in the region of £4.5m.