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They are two popular home-grown talents who have the ability to help shape Liverpool’s future under Jurgen Klopp.

However, in less than a fortnight both Jordan Rossiter and Jon Flanagan will be free to open talks with suitors outside of English football.

The Scouse duo are out of contract at the end of the season and neither is close to putting pen to paper on a new deal. Considering the dearth of local stars in Jurgen Klopp’s first-team squad, it’s a worrying situation.

With both under the age of 24, Liverpool would be due compensation if either allowed their contract to expire and signed for another English club next summer. The Reds would insist on taking the matter to a tribunal.

That hardline stance with Brad Smith recently worked well for Liverpool as clubs weren’t prepared to take that gamble over what fee would be determined. Last month the Aussie defender returned to the Reds and accepted the contract offer he had previously rejected.

However, there is no guarantee that a similar scenario with Flanagan or Rossiter would pan out the same way.

For a start, they could sign a pre-contract agreement with a non-English club from January 1. Under FIFA rules, if a club outside of this country wanted to sign Flanagan or Rossiter they would only have to pay Liverpool a nominal fee of around £250,000.

Considering that one is a full England international and the other has long since been touted by Robbie Fowler as “potentially the next Stevie G”, it's little surprise that there’s been interest from overseas already.

Udinese are monitoring Rossiter’s situation closely in the knowledge they could buy him for peanuts with a view to selling him on at a later date for a tidy profit.

Tottenham and Manchester City are also keeping tabs on the England Under-19s midfielder. English clubs would be more willing to go down the tribunal route to land Flanagan or Rossiter than they were with Smith.

Both players display the qualities fans want to see

The hope is that it won’t come to that and Liverpool move quickly to get the Academy graduates tied down to new deals.

Losing either would be a PR disaster for a club which has waved goodbye to the likes of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard in recent years. The only other Scouser currently in the first-team squad is Connor Randall.

Supporters love to see home-grown lads coming through because they identity with them. The reason why Flanagan and Rossiter are both held in such high regard on the Kop is because they display the qualities fans demand.

They have that hunger, that passion and that willingness to put their bodies on the line for their hometown club. Every win means that much more and every defeat cuts that little bit deeper because of their roots.

You don’t get much more local than Flanagan and Rossiter. Flanagan grew up in Utting Avenue, just a few hundred yards from Anfield and joined the Academy when he was 11, while Rossiter is from Everton Valley and has been on the club’s books since he was six.

Of course their current circumstances are different.

Flanagan only returned to full training this week as he looks to put an 18-month injury nightmare behind him. The 22-year-old full-back hasn’t played for Liverpool since the final day of the 2013/14 season.

When he underwent a second knee operation to repair cartilage back in April, Liverpool were only willing to give him a 12-month deal. It was the support and messages of goodwill from Kopites which kept Flanagan going through his gruelling rehabilitation programme.

They haven’t forgotten the role he played in the remarkable title challenge of 2013/14. It was that outstanding form which earned him an England debut against Ecuador and a place on the standby list for the World Cup finals in Brazil.

Now he’s ready to make up for lost time and get back to those levels. Having him back for the second half of the season is akin to making a new signing and he deserves the security of a new contract.

If Liverpool wanted to wait for Flanagan to prove his fitness before getting him to sign, the fact that Rossiter is so close to being out of contract is more difficult to explain. Talks are continuing but agreeing a deal has so far proved problematic.

The combative 18-year-old has long since been touted as one of the brightest prospects to emerge from the Kirkby Academy. Carragher described him as “a great talent” who boasts the “bit of steel and character that me and Stevie (Gerrard) had”.

He became the second youngest goalscorer in the club’s history when he netted on an accomplished first-team bow against Middlesbrough last season. A Premier League debut followed against Arsenal back in August and he got three more run outs in the Europa League group stage before a second hamstring injury of the season sidelined him until January.

Local lads sometimes get a rough deal. Their loyalty can sometimes be taken for granted.

Liverpool can’t afford to fall into that trap with Flanagan and Rossiter. Having invested so much in them both, it would be careless to risk losing them when they still look so capable of being part of Anfield’s bright new era.