Daily Mail: Liverpool eye Barcelona starlet

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.

Liverpool have been linked with a move for Barcelona starlet Cristian Tello.

The 20-year-old Spain youth international is out of contract at the end of next season and has been targeted by several clubs, including Valencia, Malaga and Benfica.

Pep Guardiola has tried to convince the forward that he has a future at the Nou Camp by promoting him from the B team and giving him eight appearances in the last three months.

Tello scored just nine minutes into his only La Liga start three weeks ago and has already notched four goals in the league and cup despite most of his appearances coming from the bench.

Barcelona are seeing an increasing number of foreign scouts at their Barcelona B and youth games as rival clubs try to poach talent from the famous La Masia academy.

Young forward Isaac Cuenca recently resisted interest from Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to sign a first-team contract with Barca, but the Catalans fear that some of their youngsters will leave for better opportunities to play first-team football.

Barca were powerless to stop Jon Toral leaving for Arsenal a year ago as he under 17 and ineligible for a full contract in Spain.

But they have more protection with the older Tello. Barca may consider an offer that included a buy-back option, similar to the deals which took Oriol Romeu to Chelsea and Bojan to Roma.

Source: Daily Mail

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.