Kenny Dalglish
Dalglish has lost out on his first potential 2012 signing. REUTERS

Liverpool look to have lost their battle to sign Irish youngster Rory Donnelly, with Swansea confirming that the striker will have a medical with hopes of moving to the Welsh club in January.

In 49 appearances for Cliftonville FC, Donnelly has scored 20 goals, and the 19 year old is said to be an up and coming classic number nine, drawing the attention of numerous Premier League clubs.

Swansea have been watching Donnelly since November, but Liverpool checked in with Cliftonville manager Gerard Lawlor for the starlet this month, and Lawlor admitted he was stunned to receive a personal phone call from Kenny Dalglish himself.

"It's not every day you get Kenny Dalglish ringing you and asking how the Reds got on at the weekend," he said at the time.

"Unsurprisingly, his main reason for phoning was to declare an interest in Rory Donnelly. He made it clear that Liverpool want to sign him and that they would be back in touch."

Dalglish joked that he had hoped to keep the interest quiet, and thanked Lawlor for telling the press, but now the Reds have lost out on the hitman all together, with Swansea confirming that Donnelly is receiving a medical with the club and working out the finer details of a deal.

"We will look to complete the medical today and put that one to bed," Brendan Rodgers said of the agreement with Donnelly.

"Everyone will identify the challenge we've faced to bring Rory Donnelly here and, if we can get everything completed, we will be happy.

"He is coming from part-time football, so there will be no pressure on him.

"Hopefully we can get everything sorted out so he can get on with his development nice and quietly."

While Liverpool could have offered Donnelly a more lucrative contract, Swansea will likely offer the player more game time and the ability to be a part of the first team as soon as possible.

The Swans are currently 14<sup>th in the Premier League table, and are five points clear of the relegation zone. After losing to Blackburn 4-2 at the start of December, the side have worked hard on becoming more defensively sound, and have only given up two goals since.

And Rodgers is planning on making some more additions to the squad in January besides Donnelly, with both short and long term goals in mind.

"We will be in the market for a few players who will hopefully develop with us but can also add to what we have in the short term," he explained.

"There will not be a lot of signings, but those we do bring in we hope can add some excitement to the group.

"We are looking for players who will hopefully make a difference.

"We are not going to be able to go out and flash a lot of money around, and I don't think now is the time to do that.

"We want to add two or three to the squad of players who have done so well for us this season."