Suárez himself has shown no inclination for giving up on inspiring the Merseyside club back into the top four and Liverpool will be confident any January move is doomed to fail. Indeed, the club's priority remains trying to recruit new players when the transfer window reopens.
Rodgers, for his part, reiterated Liverpool's hard-line stance last weekend. "At this moment in time I'm safe in the knowledge that Luis had the chance to go in the summer," he said. "There was probably no better time for him to do that with a new manager coming in.
"He could have had an excuse to go, but having spoken to him at length he committed to staying here. He gave us that opportunity to see how it was going to work. It's up to us as a club to add players that can help support him and move us on."
Mancini's determination to test the resolve of Liverpool and their talisman perhaps reveal more about his frustration with strikers Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, both of whom appear to be available for the right price. Balotelli was left out of the squad to face Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and has been at the centre of several disciplinary problems. He has also failed to score a Premier League goal all season.
In contrast, Dzeko is City's leading goalscorer in the league with six goals, but he appears to have lost the confidence of his manager, who has started him just three times. The Bosnia-Herzegovina international has aired his frustrations at being used mainly from the substitutes' bench and it would be no great surprise for him to be moved on before the start of next season.
With even the normally reliable Argentine duo of Carlos Tevez and Sergio Agüero struggling for form, City and their new director of football, Txiki Begiristain, are prepared to enter the market in the new year, but directors have made it known to Mancini they must embrace new Financial Fair Play rules, making astronomical transfer fees less likely in future.
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