Reds block winger move

Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has failed in his attempts to engineer a loan move back to Ajax to gain some regular first team football.

His agent says he was looking to head back to Holland after finding first team football difficult to come by at Anfield but Rafa Benitez has blocked the move.

According to his agent Winnie Haatrecht, the 21-year-old would relish a return to Holland in January but only on a temporary basis.

"Ryan finds that he sits on the bench too much at Liverpool, he wants to play more and asked me to see if Ajax were interested in a temporary return," Haatrecht told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf today.

"After we got an enthusiastic reaction from Ajax, we asked Liverpool for their co-operation but the club don't want to see him go.

"Rafael Benitez finds Ryan too important. Hopefully we will see that in more playing time.

"Let's be clear: Ryan feels great at Liverpool, but for him to develop further he needs to get playing time."