Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup says it would be counterproductive to force Joe Allen to stay at the club against his will.

Midfielder Allen, 22, is set to finalise his £15m move to Liverpool, where he will be reunited with former Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers.

"You can't keep a player who wants to leave," said Laudrup.

"He has a great possibility to go to a big club with a manager who knows him and who will play him."

Allen was in the directors' box at Anfield on Thursday as Liverpool beat FC Gomel 3-0 to reach the Europa League play-off round.

He was set to complete a medical on Friday and Laudrup does not expect to him at Swansea again.

Record breaker Joe Allen's £15m move to Liverpool will be the biggest transfer fee paid for a Welsh player, eclipsing the £14m Manchester City paid for Craig Bellamy from West Ham United in 2009

"It's very advanced but nothing's signed yet," he said. "When things are that advanced, if nothing strange happens then we'll have to admit he will leave us."

Allen started every game for Great Britain in the Olympics as Stuart Pearce's team went out of the competition in the quarter-finals by losing on penalties to South Korea.

The midfielder played alongside Welsh team-mate Craig Bellamy, who has left Anfield to sign a two-year deal with Cardiff City.

Bellamy revealed he had been urging Allen to join Liverpool during their time together at London 2012.

"He's brilliant, what a good player," said Bellamy.

"I spent the last three weeks hounding him to go to Liverpool. I'm delighted - delighted for him, delighted for Brendan [Rodgers], but delighted for Liverpool because they've just got an immense player."

Laudrup was non-committal when asked about his reported interest in Bolton Wanderers midfielder Mark Davies, saying he needed to know more about the player.

The new manager has already looked to Spain to recruit three new players and suggested he may have to look abroad again when deciding how to spend the significant amount received for Allen.

"Selfishly I would have loved him [Allen] to stay and it will of course be a setback for us because we have to find a replacement and that's not easy," said the former Denmark captain.

"It's definitely not easy in Great Britain so we may have to go outside the border to look for one."

Scott Sinclair's future at the club also appear uncertain after Manchester City made interest known in the England Under-21 international.

Sinclair says he wants to a new contract at the Liberty but when asked if Sinclair would be leaving, Laudrup replied: "I don't know at this moment. I don't think so.

"He has one more year left [on his contract] and we want him to stay. He's an important player for us - a wide player that gives you goals and goals are worth money.

"I will talk to him and see what he wants. I think we would like him to stay and then we will see what happens at the end of the year when his contract ends."