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Liverpool’s reported interested in Real Betis defender Aissa Mandi has been dismissed as nothing more than speculation.

The Reds have been linked with the Betis centre half for most of the last year, with several reports in the summer claiming he was a potential target.

That is because he is available on the cheap, with his contract set to expire next summer and negotiations over a new deal still ongoing.

Rumours about a move have re-emerged in recent weeks amid Liverpool’s defensive crisis, with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez likely to miss the rest of the season with serious injuries.

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Estadio Deportivo are having none of that today, though, stating that the reports are ‘no more than a hangover’ of the interest from the summer.

They explain that Liverpool ‘showed a lot of interest’ in the summer but did not take ‘the final step’ to get the deal over the line.

Those negotiations mean they have ‘part of the job done’ when it comes to the player having dealt with his representatives in the summer.

The reports claiming the Reds are interested are nothing more than re-run which have emerged as a result of Betis and the player getting closer to an agreement on a new deal.

Indeed, the Spanish side are confident of getting Mandi signed up and ‘everything indicates’ that it will not long close to reach a final agreement.

Estadio Deportivo, therefore, treat the new Liverpool rumours as nothing more than a ploy in the negotiations, perhaps from Mandi’s side to get a better deal, and treat them as something to be dismissed as such.