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The father of the Stoke City schoolboy at the centre of Liverpool's "tapping-up" row has told the Daily Telegraph that the Merseyside club wanted to make his son's signing as part of the Joe Allen transfer in the opposite direction.
Last month, Liverpool were given a two-year academy transfer ban -- with the second year suspended for a three-year period -- and a £100,000 fine for breaking Premier League rules on youth recruitment.