Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has emphatically denied the English club’s intention of signing Real Madrid’s Netherlands striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy on the winter market.

“We’re not talking about players,” Benitez told the club’s website after last Saturday, the British newspaper The Sun published Benitez’s interest in signing the Netherlands Van Nistelrooy and Rafael van der Vaart.

But the coach admitted he is moving to find backup and said he has had some good conversations, “though its priority is to talk to their own players.

It is believed to be in the final stages of negotiation with Maxi Rodriguez, Atletico Madrid, and takes the spotlight Greek Torosidis Vasil.

Van Nistelrooy, the former Manchester United idol, ends his contract with Spanish club at the end of the season and, according to “The Sun”, the only detail that remained would be Liverpool or Madrid would pay the fees of some 158,000 euros the week that sees the player.