Liverpool have reached
agreement with Blackpool for the transfer of Scottish midfielder Charlie
Adam.
The Anfield club said Adam, 25, will now travel
to Merseyside for a medical and to discuss personal terms.
In the January transfer window the Reds had two
bids - the second worth £6.5m - rejected by the Seasiders, who were
reportedly holding out for £9m.
But Liverpool reopened talks at the end of the
season for a player who had only 12 months left on his contract.
Adam, who was on the shortlist for the PFA
Player of the Year award last season, joined Blackpool from Scottish
Premier League club Rangers for £500,000 in 2009.
He was close to joining Tottenham before time
ran out in the January transfer window earlier this year.
If Adam joins Liverpool, he will become boss
Kenny Dalglish's second signing since they finished sixth in the Premier
League last season.
Another midfielder, Jordan Henderson, arrived from Sunderland in
June for a reported £20m.
Roma's Brazilian goalkeeper Alexander Doni could
complete a move to Liverpool in the next 36 hours, according to his
agent Ovidio Colucci.
The clubs reached agreement over Doni's transfer
last month but the keeper could not agree personal terms.
"We just have to ratify certain details with
Roma," said Collucci. "If the deal is completed, Doni will join
Liverpool on a free transfer and will sign a two-year contract."
Liverpool had a
£15m bid for England winger Stewart Downing rejected by Premier League
rivals Aston Villa on Tuesday.
And while reports suggest Villa are holding out
for £20m, BBC Sport understands the club do not want to lose Downing at
any price.
Battling Murray
into semi-finals
Andy Murray says
he must be mentally strong and at his tactical best if he is to beat world
number one and five-time champion Rafael Nadal in Friday's French Open
semi-final.
Nadal has suffered just one defeat in
six visits to Roland Garros, racking up 43 victories and moving to within
one title of Bjorn Borg's record six French Open successes.
But Murray insisted: "I can definitely
win."
The British number one has battled his
way through to a first semi-final in Paris despite an ankle injury sustained
in the third round and admits he has not played at his best so far.
"I feel I can do it," said the
24-year-old Scot. "It's just making sure that, come Friday, I play my best
tennis. I have to play a very consistent match and I have to be mentally
strong. Tactically, I'm going to have to be very good."
The pair have met 14 times before, with
Nadal having won 10 times including their last match -
a dramatic
three-set semi-final at the ATP World Tour Finals in November.
Nadal, who turns 25 on Friday, has also
won all three of their matches on clay, although Murray will have taken
encouragement from his performance
in the recent
Monte Carlo semi-final, but taking on the Spaniard at Roland Garros is a
different test altogether.
Continue reading the main story
To play against
Andy always is a big challenge, because you know how good he is, and
his talent is difficult to compare with a lot of players, in my
opinion
Rafael
Nadal
"It's one of the best challenges in
tennis," said Murray. "Obviously his record here is, well, it's incredible.
Definitely I look forward to it. I understand obviously it's going to be an
incredibly difficult match for me."
He added: "I know Rafa will play
excellent tennis against me on Friday. Pretty much every time we've played
we've had some really good matches and he's always played well. Even in
practice he plays well against me, so I don't expect him to play badly on
Friday."
Murray has won two of their five Grand
Slam meetings, but it was the Briton's
recent narrow
defeat on clay by the seemingly unstoppable Novak Djokovic in Rome that
particularly caught Nadal's eye.
Djokovic remains unbeaten in 2011 but
Murray got as close as anyone to ending that run, at one point serving for
the match in the Italian capital.
"In Rome, I think he played a fantastic
match in the semi-finals against Djokovic," said Nadal. "He was the closest
player to beating him this year."
Murray, too, took heart from that
display, saying: "It was definitely one of the best clay‑court matches I
played. The tennis was very high level. For the most part, it was very good.
"And also my match with Rafa a couple
weeks before in Monte Carlo was a very high level, but I have to maintain
that for a long period. I'll have to play as well as I did for those days to
give myself a chance."
Nadal beat Robin Soderling to reach the semi-finals
Nadal openly spoke of his struggle for
form during the opening days of the tournament before impressing with a
straight-sets
win over fifth seed Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals, but he
expects fourth seed Murray to pose a real threat.
"I prefer playing against an easier
opponent, that's for sure," said Nadal.
"But to play against Andy always is a
big challenge, because you know how good he is, and his talent is difficult
to compare with a lot of players, in my opinion.
"He has all the shots. He can defend
very well; he can attack very well; he runs fantastic. The only way that you
can beat him is playing at very, very high level. It's not going to be
impossible. That's what I'm going to try."
And asked whether he expected Murray's
ankle injury to be a factor in the semi-final, Nadal said: "I believe that
Murray was able to play five‑setters lately and I don't believe the fact
that he has some pain in the ankle will limit his performance at all.
"It happened to me also to have some
pain. The issue is how you resist the pain. I believe that, as the
tournament goes on, you improve every day and you don't think about what you
feel.
"I think on Friday he will have no pain
anymore. He'll be 100%. He's a very special player; he has a lot of talent."
Source : BBC Sport
