Swansea City close in on Liverpool and Everton target Rory Donnelly

Dec 30 2011 by James Pearce, Liverpool Echo

SWANSEA City appear to have won the race to sign Cliftonville striker Rory Donnelly.

Both Liverpool and Everton had expressed an interest in the 19-year-old but Swans boss Brendan Rodgers says the Welsh outfit have agreed a new fee and personal terms for the Northern Ireland Under-21 international.

Swansea initially appeared to be in pole position after having an offer of around £100,000 accepted last week but the price rose after both Merseyside clubs made contact.

However, Rodgers responded by upping their offer and now a deal looks set to go through.

Rodgers said: “I think we now have an agreement on both sides in terms of Cliftonville as a club and personal terms with the player, so we hope to complete that fairly soon.

“He will be over here for the game against Tottenham on Saturday. We will look to complete the medical tomorrow and get that put to bed and the boy can then come over and work on developing his game.

“I will talk more about him once the deal is done but he is coming here without pressure, he is coming from a part-time level.

“He has shone in the early part of the season and there have been other clubs interested, but we will talk more once he signs the papers.”

Reds boss Kenny Dalglish distanced himself from suggestions that Liverpool had followed up their initial interest with a firm bid for Donnelly.

Dalglish said: “Put a bid in have we? We had a conversation, that’s it. I never said anything about a bid.”