Rodgers Personally Scouts Highly-Rated £45m Arsenal Target – Report

Brendan Rodgers has travelled across Europe in order to personally scout Julian Draxler with the Liverpool manager believed to be considering trying to steal a march on Arsenal for the German youngster.

Draxler has long been a target for the Gunners and recently he spoke of being frustrated with being played out of position at current side Schalke, who have been disappointing in the Bundesliga this season, sitting in sixth place in the table.

Chelsea are also believed to be monitoring the 20 year old's situation and the Daily Mail claims that Rodgers flew to Germany to watch him in action in Schalke's last Champions League group stage match with Basel.

The side were able to seal qualification for the next round as a result of a 2-0 win over the Swiss outfit but £45m-rated Draxler has been public over his wishes to make the move to a big European club, and despite Liverpool not being able to offer immediate Champions League football like Arsenal, they are hoping to be in the mix for qualification at the end of the season.

The paper claims that Rodgers sees Draxler as a possible long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard and despite the youngster having a contract with Schalke until 2018 the manager believes he can convince the youngster to push for a move.

Having broken into the Germany national side game time will no doubt be important for the playmaker and Liverpool could find an edge in this factor over Arsenal.

The Gunners' current midfield set-up is working wonders with summer signing Mesut Ozil and Arsene Wenger will likely hope to convince Draxler to follow his international teammates to the Emirates as the manager continues to build a German core in his squad.