Rafael Benitez has fined Ryan Babel a week's wages for his public outburst after being dropped for last weekend's trip to Stoke City.
The Spaniard hauled the out-of-favour winger into his office at the club's Melwood training ground yesterday to demand an explanation for his rant on Twitter following his omission from the squad that drew at the Britannia Stadium.
Benitez tore into the Dutchman, claiming his tantrum on the microblogging network was highly unprofessional, to which Babel accused the Kop boss of refusing to agree to demands by his agent, Winnie Haatrecht, to transfer list him.
Babel stormed out of the meeting after he had turned down a potential move to Sunderland in a swap deal for Black Cats striker Kenwyne Jones.
Benitez is set to hit the confrontational former Ajax winger with a fine of a week's wages, believed to be £60,000 for his misconduct, effectively sealing his exit from Anfield.
A move for Jones has been dealt a severe blow after talks between the two clubs over a potential loan switch for the lofty Trinidad and Tobago international ended, with Sunderland officials claiming that there was "not a chance" that he would move to Liverpool.
Despite Jones reportedly falling out with Black Cats boss Steve Bruce, the former Wigan Athletic manager claimed that a fire sale at the Stadium of Light would not fit into his plans of building his Sunderland squad, who slumped to a 7-2 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.
He said: "The one thing I am trying to do is build the squad and build the squad to improve.
"The last thing I want to be doing is trade or anything like that."
The 25-year-old would join the ranks at Anfield following news that Fernando Torres will be sidelined for up to six weeks through injury. The former Atletico Madrid star underwent a successful operation to correct a knee problem on Saturday in Barcelona after twisting it in Liverpool's FA Cup exit to Reading last week.
Following the loss of Torres, Yossi Benayoun and captain Steven Gerrard to injury, Benitez hinted that he may hand first team opportunities to the promising youth trio of David Amoo, Daniel Pacheco and Nathan Eccleston.
Pacheco and Eccleston have both made cameo appearances for the Reds this season but the Spaniard is considering utilising the duo more in addition to pacy ex-Millwall youth Amoo.
He said: "We know Torres is a very important player for us but Ngog is doing well and we have some other options with [Dirk] Kuyt so we will see if we can manage.
"Amoo, Pacheco and Eccleston have been training with us this week. We know they have quality but when things are not going very well you have to be careful with the young players, so we have to support them and we will see.
"Amoo has been doing really well and he has pace. Eccleston and Pacheco also have quality."
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