Soccer:Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers hopes to learn in the next 48 hours whether his next two transfer targets will be coming to Anfield.

The Northern Irishman has been strongly linked with loan deals for Barcelona winger Cristian Tello, 21, and Real Madrid midfielder Nuri Sahin, 23, in the last few days. He would not confirm those two were the players involved but expected news on two potential new arrivals very soon.

“I am hopeful we can bring in one or two more to help the group here,” said Rodgers, who added there was nothing imminent on players leaving, either on loan or permanently. “I’ll find out later. We hope in the next couple of days we’ll have one or two coming in.”

Since arriving in June to replace Kenny Dalglish, Rodgers had signed striker Fabio Borini and Swansea midfielder Joe Allen — both players he worked with previously. It was generally acknowledged Rodgers had plenty to do to turn around the fortunes of a side that finished eighth last season, despite winning the Carling Cup and reaching the final of the FA Cup.

However, the Reds boss said that would not be achieved by throwing cash at the team — mainly because he did not have the resources to do so. “These things take time. There has been a lot of great work going on behind the scenes enquiring about players but the reality is we didn’t have the money this year.

“We had a certain budget we had to work within and even to get those one or two players we had to move one or two out. That is something which doesn’t worry or frustrate me, it is the real world we are in here. It just means we have to be effective with the players we have.

“If we don’t have that money we have to be different in different ways and one way we can hopefully gain an edge is the way we play, controlling and dominating games. Everyone wants the money but you can’t always have the money.”