Liverpool are ready to sell their American international goalkeeper Brad Friedel just three weeks after winning the right to sign him. One of the most curious chapters in the Merseyside club's recent history is likely to end shortly with Friedel's departure from Anfield, quite possibly to Scottish champions Rangers.

Friedel's career at Anfield may well prove to be a good deal shorter and less eventful than his protracted battle for a work permit to play in England. Friedel now seems likely to lose it without once appearing in Liverpool's first team.

It became clear yesterday that Friedel, if he so wished, could spend the next three years picking up a healthy weekly pay packet without ever being required to work for it. Were he to lose his permit, Friedel would be entitled to remain on the Liverpool payroll until his current deal expires in 2001 because the contract he signed late last month does not include a clause which would nullify the agreement if he was not available for selection.

Friedel and his advisers met the Liverpool manager Roy Evans yesterday to discuss a situation which is now thought unlikely to yield a happy ending.

The goalkeeper thought his problems were over when, shortly before Christmas, he was told his appeal against the Department for Education and Employment's decision to refuse him a permit had been successful.

Having been bought from the US League club Colombus Crew for £1 million to replace the inconsistent England international David James, Friedel believed his promotion to Liverpool's senior side was inevitable.

But it was not. Despite being told that Friedel would be required to figure in at least 75 per cent of Liverpool's first-team fixtures between his arrival and the end of the current season if he was to win a permit renewal in early July, Evans, unexpectedly, opted to stick with James.

With Friedel having so far progressed no further than the substitutes' bench he will have to displace James either on Saturday at Leicester or against Newcastle at Anfield next Tuesday night if he is to have any chance of meeting the DfEE's strict criteria governing appearances.

Rangers' manager Walter Smith tried to lure the player to Glasgow and may now resurrect his interest.

Meanwhile, Coventry striker Dion Dublin stunned the club yesterday by rejecting a new three-and-a-half year contract worth nearly £3 million. Dublin turned down the third and final offer from Coventry chairman Bryan Richardson which would have netted him almost £16,000 a week.

Now Coventry seem certain to cash in on the £5 million-rated player, who has been attracting the interest of Crystal Palace, Leicester, Middlesbrough and Wimbledon.

Dublin will be able to leave Highfield Road as a free agent under the Bosman ruling when his current deal expires in the summer of 1999.