Liverpool Transfer News: Latest Rumours on Dele Alli and Gabriel Barbosa

Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Alli has revealed how he came close to signing for Liverpool, but a meeting with Reds icon Steven Gerrard never took place because the then-Anfield skipper fell asleep.

Alli eventually signed for Spurs in 2015, but he told Football Focus (h/t MailOnline's Rory O'Callaghan) how things could have been different:

"

At the time when I was at MK there was contact with Liverpool before I signed for Tottenham but that was before we'd even spoke to Tottenham, I think it was six months before.

We went up there and I think they knew that Steven Gerrard was my hero so they said he was going to come down and meet me but when I got there he was asleep apparently.

I think he had a game the next day though so I understand.

"

Alli also made it clear how much he looked up to Gerrard as a player: "The way he was on the pitch, the way he was as a leader and a player, not just for Liverpool but for England—he was a player I really looked up to."

Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images

Alli's admiration of Gerrard makes sense of Liverpool's plan to arrange a meeting between the two. Ironically, Gerrard probably would have persuaded the teenage star to move to Merseyside.

Not signing Alli has to rate as a miss by Liverpool. After all, the 20-year-old is arguably the most dynamic attacking midfielder in England's top flight. He plays a game based on clever running off the ball, quality technique and a natural instinct for goal.

At the time, Alli would have been a good fit for the possession-based game then-manager Brendan Rodgers preached. O'Callaghan also relayed quotes from the current Celtic manager about missing out on Alli: "It was just then about getting the deal done with the club and unfortunately it never got done, but at that point, that Saturday evening, we thought we had him in, it was done."

Alli would even be a key figure in the current Liverpool team managed by Jurgen Klopp, despite the squad not being short of attack-minded midfield technicians. He'd fit Klopp's preference for pressing high up the pitch and combining passes between creative midfielders.

Jan Kruger/Getty Images

Liverpool could have signed Alli for £5 million back in 2015. Now he'll cost 20 times that, after Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy put a £100 million price tag on the midfielder, according to The Times (h/t Joel Watson of the Daily Star).

Reds Linked with Brazil Striker

One player Liverpool could still sign is Inter Milan's Gabriel Barbosa. The Brazilian striker is said to be unhappy with life in Serie A.

In fact, the player's agent, Wagner Ribeiro, recently spoke about his client's dissatisfaction with things at Inter to Radio Globo (h/t Joe Rimmer of the Liverpool Echo): “Why isn’t he playing? Not even Inter can answer that."

Ribeiro went on to make it clear the attacker, who only joined Inter in the summer, won't settle for languishing on the bench for long: “We’ll resolve this situation in January, he has a five-year contract, but that doesn’t mean anything if he isn’t playing. He’s unhappy right now.”

However, Liverpool perhaps shouldn't get too excited about seeing the player who helped Brazil win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics arrive at Anfield any time soon. Rimmer, for one, is not buying into this particular rumour: "Where do Liverpool come in? Quite simply, they don't. Somebody somewhere along the line has, using Liverpool's signing of Philippe Coutinho, put two and two together to make 100—and that has resulted in the Reds being named as a suitor."

The credentials of this rumour may be doubted, but it's tougher to doubt Liverpool's need for another natural striker. Injury issues have robbed Klopp of both Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings. 

The German usually relies on Brazilian playmaker Roberto Firmino as a sort of false striker. Lately, though, Klopp has turned to Dicok Origi. Yet there are few options aside from the Belgian powerhouse, after injury issues have robbed Klopp of both Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings.

Liverpool aren't finding goals hard to come by, but adding a classy finisher to their ranks at centre-forward would boost their challenge for this season's Premier League title.