Chelsea to sell Sturridge to Liverpool

London: Chelsea will sell their forward Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool at the beginning of the January transfer window as Rafael Benitez looks to reshape and strengthen his squad.

The Chelsea interim manager will discuss transfer targets with the owner, Roman Abramovich, and the technical director, Michael Emenalo, once the side have returned from Wednesday night’s Capital One Cup quarter-final against Leeds United.

Sturridge, 23, has started only one Premier League game this season and is expected to cost Liverpool £12m after narrowly missing out on a switch to Anfield last summer. Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, hopes the former Manchester City striker will ease the attacking burden on Luis Suarez.

Benitez said of his plans to alter the squad: “My way to do things is go to the people in charge. They will know my ideas and after the club will decide. You don’t need to talk to the owner too much because he has people in between. I know what he likes, he knows what I like.

“I was talking with Michael Emenalo this morning. He likes to watch the training sessions, so it’s very easy to communicate. I think that we have time [to discuss names] before January. We have two or three days after this game.”

Frank Lampard has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge in the new year but the midfielder is not expected to leave the club he signed for in 2001 before the summer. “He’s fully committed, he’s an important player for us and he’s doing well in every training session and also in the games,” said Benitez.