New Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is confident his vision for the club will persuade his star players to remain at Anfield.
Despite the Northern Irishman conceding that a lack of Champions League football could mean the Reds lose players, he felt that the future he had envisioned for the Merseysiders would be enough to soothe any doubts some may harbour.
“I am very confident in relation to the conversations I have had,” he told Sky Sports News.
“You can only sell the dream going forward. The reality is there is a lot of nostalgia about this club, and I have seen that in my early time here, but what is important is going forward.
“Of course, the club isn't in the Champions League and the top players want to play at that level, but hopefully in the next coming years we can strive to get towards that.
“If that is not enough for a player then they will go, it is as simple as that.”
The former Swansea City boss also shed some light on the situation around Gylfi Sigurdsson’s move to Tottenham Hotspur after it appeared he was close to a Liverpool switch.
The Iceland international was on loan at Swansea last season under Rodgers, and was impressive while scoring seven goals in 19 games for the Welsh side.
However, Rodgers admitted he was mistaken in thinking the guarantee of playing regular football would be persuade Sigurdsson to make the move to Anfield after pulling out of a switch to the Swans due to Rodgers’ departure.
The 39-year-old coach hinted that the price asked for the player by his former club Hoffenheim was increased once the move to Liverpool became a possibility, and Rodgers refused to pay over the figure previously agreed.
“Gylfi did fantastic for me at Swansea last season. He wasn't playing at Hoffenheim, I brought him to Swansea and he did very well for me there, scored seven goals in 19 games and was very, very good,” Rodgers told the official Liverpool website.
“He and I both sat and spoke and believed that playing football was going to be the most important aspect for him.
“But obviously it was important financially so we agreed a deal for him to go to Swansea and that was wrapped up.
“I then became the Liverpool manager, and that then wasn't something that was going to happen at Swansea. So he then had a choice of where he wanted to go. I knew what the market was and I wasn't prepared to pay anything over what I had known was agreed before.”
One player he is sure of keeping is star forward Luis Suarez, who has been linked with a move away from Merseyside.
Rodgers said the pair had spoken about the future and felt good about hanging on to the Uruguay international.
“I have spoken to him but focused very much on the future in terms of what I believe he can bring to how we are going to play,” he added on Sky Sports.
“He was fantastic, very open, and I think he was impressed with how we played last season.”
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