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• Midfielder excited by prospect of playing next to Joe Cole
• Gerrard expresses admiration for Roy Hodgson

Steven Gerrard has all but confirmed he is to remain at Liverpool by expressing his delight at the prospect of playing alongside Joe Cole at Anfield next season and with the plans of Roy Hodgson, the new manager.

Cole yesterday agreed a four-year deal with Liverpool after being released by Chelsea at the end of last season. It has been suggested that the 28-year-old, who was also wanted by Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, is a replacement for Gerrard, who has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid this summer. However, it would appear the 30-year-old sees his long-term future at Liverpool.

“I know Joe well through the England set-up and have seen first hand just how good a player he is,” Gerrard is quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo. “He has proved his ability over many years in the Premier League – sometimes against us – so it will be fantastic to play alongside him in a red shirt for Liverpool.”

“I’ve told him what a great club this is and I’m sure Joe’s the sort of exciting talent our fans will love to see.”

Gerrard, who returned to pre-season training today, had refused to speak about his future while at the World Cup with England, fuelling the belief that he was about to leave the only club he has played for.

However, the Anfield captain has clearly been impressed by Hodgson having met the 62-year-old shortly after he replaced Rafael Benítez as manager at the start of the month. And, despite Liverpool’s difficult financial position, and the fact they will not be playing in the Champions League next season, believes he can instigate a turnaround.

“I wanted the chance to meet Roy Hodgson privately and having done so, I’m very impressed with his plans for the future,” said Gerrard, who has been credited by his new club manager for “selling” Liverpool to Cole while the pair were in South Africa with the England squad.

Doubts, though, remain over the future of Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano.

Steven GerrardLiverpoolSachin Nakraniguardian.co.uk

• Spain striker sustained adductor problem in World Cup final
• Chelsea monitor fitness of transfer target

Fernando Torres will undergo a scan on the groin injury he suffered during the World Cup final within the next 48 hours amid concerns that the Liverpool striker and Chelsea transfer target will be out of action for up to two months.

The Spain international sustained an injury to his left adductor in the closing moments of Sunday’s victory over Holland, although he and Liverpool will not discover the full extent of the damage until a further examination has been made. Spain’s return journey from South Africa and triumphant homecoming in Madrid prevented any assessment yesterday, although the initial indications are that Torres may be out until September.

The 26-year-old was troubled by a hernia problem late last year and also underwent two knee operations as Liverpool endured a miserable season. He returned after a six-week absence to play a part in Spain’s first World Cup triumph, but a lack of match sharpness was obvious as the striker failed to score in the tournament and was only a late substitute in the final.

Torres’s injury problems were well known before Chelsea began to explore the possibility of luring Liverpool’s record signing away from Anfield this summer; whether his latest setback will deter their pursuit remains to be seen. Torres, photographed wearing a Liverpool scarf as he celebrated Spain’s success in Soccer City on Sunday, has also interested Manchester City and Barcelona but only Chelsea have both the Champions League football and finance necessary to broker a deal.

The new Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, hopes to visit Torres in Spain this week as he attempts to convince the forward to remain at Anfield. The former Atlético Madrid captain is due to attend his sister’s wedding this week before going on holiday. Torres and the other Liverpool players involved in the World Cup final – the goalkeeper José Reina and the Dutch pair Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel – have all been given three weeks off.

Liverpool continue to insist their leading striker is not for sale and it will take a formal transfer request from Torres for them to consider parting with their prized asset. The futures of Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano have also been in doubt since the end of last season, although Real Madrid’s interest in the Liverpool captain has not so far produced a formal bid.

Two of the many lesser lights who could be leaving Anfield this summer are Emiliano Insúa and Nabil El Zhar. Hodgson has confirmed that talks with Fiorentina over a move for Insúa, the young Argentinian left-back who struggled last season after an encouraging start, began before his arrival at the club, while El Zhar has declared a desire to leave over his lack of first-team opportunities.

Fernando TorresLiverpoolSpainWorld Cup 2010Transfer windowAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

Liverpool have taken the first step out of the darkness by appointing a wise head with an eye for undiscovered talent

A legacy of the Bill Shankly era is that a Liverpool manager is expected to double up as priest, community leader and father figure at an institution that retained its family feel until two American speculators took it for a ride. The bonds are still there, under crushing corporate debt, but Roy Hodgson ought to be spared the cult of the leader.

The Kop could grumble at Hodgson’s arrival on Merseyside only if they think Liverpool needed a Hollywood gesture to end a 20-year wait for their 19th league title and restore them to the Champions League. What they need is 34 years of experience at club and international level and a restoration of the side’s forthright spirit. By the end of the Rafael Benítez reign one of the game’s great clubs had adopted a kind of mechanical pragmatism designed to destroy the opposition’s plans rather than impose their own.

Anfield’s regulars were suffering but were too loyal to complain. They filed out through the Shankly Gates bored. It was inimical to Liverpool’s followers to see their heroes win games by calculation alone. They revered Benítez for the 2005 Champions League win in Istanbul but could recognise the creeping joylessness of his football and his apparent inability to derive any pleasure from a goal.

Assuming the deal goes through, Hodgson’s Liverpool will get back on the front foot. They will assert their pedigree. Nullifying the opposition will not be their religion. This is the first step out of the darkness for a side who finished seventh in the Premier League and now face a second Europa League campaign. Some will shout that keeping Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Pepe Reina is the real first step to a renaissance and they would be right, except that those stars may be persuaded to stay only if they think Liverpool will recover their old identity and stop playing chess.

High on Hodgson’s to-do list will be a purge of all the obscure shadow men brought in by Benítez during a carnival of talent speculation. Clearing out the no-names and nearly men is a vital task which Hodgson has performed already at Fulham. This will lighten the wage bill, provide money for acquisitions and offer chinks of light to a marginalised academy, the finishing school for Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jamie Carragher and Gerrard.

A widely expressed doubt is that Hodgson’s main skill is reviving the careers of discards and journeymen rather than dealing with household names, which would be news to Internazionale, who hired him to coach a team sporting Roberto Carlos and Paul Ince.

At Fulham he turned capable players into good ones by vigorous pattern-of-play work on the training ground. “Width in attack, depth in defence” was one of the first lessons he was taught. Liverpool will advance with pace and ingenuity but defend resolutely. His Fulham back five were a marvel of consistency achieved through familiarity. Mark Schwarzer, John Pantsil (a figure of fun at West Ham, but now a World Cup quarter-finalist with Ghana), Aaron Hughes, Brede Hangeland and Paul Konchesky were serial over-achievers. Hangeland’s arrival from Norway displayed Hodgson’s eye for an undiscovered talent: a virtue to be appreciated at a club £350m in debt.

So Liverpool have taken the sensible course of not chasing Marcello Lippi or Frank Rijkaard but hiring a sage who understands every nuance of the English game and will perform expert surgery on a bloated squad. Nor was a punt on a young manager advisable at this point. “There’s no question in my mind that an experienced manager who retains the passion and enthusiasm of his youth is going to be arguably a better manager than the energetic youthful one who doesn’t have the experience,” Hodgson said before Fulham’s Europa League final.

From boardroom chaos, miraculously, comes an appointment straight out of the old Liverpool school of wisdom.

Roy HodgsonLiverpoolPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk