Rodgers: More exciting signings will come

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is confident that the club’s supporters will be excited by further signings ahead of the new season.

Rodgers has worked hard to bolster his squad in the close-season, signing Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, Spanish attackers Luis Alberto and Iago Aspas, and Ivorian defender Kolo Toure.

Liverpool, who have not finished in the top five of the Premier League table for the last four years, are gunning to return to the UEFA Champions League and Rodgers knows further bodies are needed.

And the Anfield boss revealed that lots of time is being spent on transfers behind the scenes.

“Nothing is close but plenty of work is going on,” Rodgers told the Liverpool Echo.

“How near or far we are, I will find out in Melbourne. There is daily dialogue going on but I am confident that we will get the one or two players who will really excite and complete the jigsaw.

“It was great to make the four signings so early on but we have still got some more work to do to strengthen the team.”

Liverpool were close to signing Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan but lost out to German giants Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund, who lost the Champions League final to Bayern Munich to last term, were able to offer the 24-year-old football in Europe’s premier club competition.

And Rodgers feels that made all the difference.

“If you are not in the Champions League, that naturally makes it tougher,” he said.

“We all have the same objective. We all want to be there. If you are a manager or player, you want to be at that level.

“That is always the case when you are going for good players. But I’m sure good players still want to come to this club.

“There has been lots of players linked but the fact is we really only had one (top target) and unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to speak to that player before he moved from Shakhtar.

“We had spoken to Shakhtar, we had got permission to speak to him but unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to sit down in front of him.

“It was already in place with Dortmund so that was disappointing. I always feel that if I can get in front of the player, I can sell the club and what our project is here.

“Hopefully that is exciting for the players. So (missing out on Mkhitaryan) is the only disappointment. I believe there will be others.”

Liverpool are in Indonesia to start their pre-season tour, which will also include matches in Australia and Thailand.