Players will be lining up to come, and not just because of the CL (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

While we have to wait a little longer for Liverpool’s Premier League title fate to be decided, one thing we already know for certain is that the Reds will return to next season’s Champions League after a four year absence.

Brendan Rodgers will clearly need to strengthen his squad to be able to cope with the demands of competing on more than one front, but after the season Liverpool have had -- irrespective of whether it ends with a title or not -- he’ll be in a much stronger position to be able to attract the quality of players that he needs to do it.

Liverpool found it tough to secure their prime transfer targets last summer, with the lack of Champions League football cited as the main stumbling block in persuading players to choose Anfield over other destinations.

The most disappointing snub came from talented Armenian midfielder, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who opted for Champions League football with last season’s beaten finalists Borussia Dortmund instead of a move to Merseyside.

Dortmund haven’t quite lived up to expectations this season and currently lie 19 points off already crowned Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich, while Liverpool have been flying and playing the kind of football that attacking players dream of being a part of.

Mkhitaryan was quoted recently saying he would not rule out a move to Anfield in the future. Only time will tell on that, but one thing certain is that the Reds will be shopping much closer to the top end of the market this summer than they were able to a year ago, and they would not expect to be losing targets to Dortmund this time around.

If Champions League football is Liverpool’s main selling point to potential new recruits this summer, then their brand of football runs it a very close second. Adam Lallana has been strongly linked with above away from Southampton and it has been claimed this week that he favours a switch to Anfield.

I recently wrote that the elegant Lallana would be a perfect fit for Liverpool and would thrive under Rodgers, and it’s easy to see why he would quite fancy linking up with the rest of Liverpool’s England contingent.

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