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Posts Tagged ‘disenchantment’

• Manager says last season’s troubles cannot be cured overnight
• Joe Cole completes move to ‘biggest club in the country’

Roy Hodgson has warned Liverpool supporters it will take much more than the arrival of Joe Cole to lift the “doom and gloom” that enveloped the club last season. The manager, speaking after Cole completed his free transfer from Chelsea, urged fans to remain realistic about the club’s prospects as he picks up the pieces from the wreckage of Rafael Benítez’s final season in charge.

Although Hodgson is delighted that Cole has agreed to move to Merseyside, as his rebuilding programme at Anfield starts to gather some momentum, the former Fulham manager said today that he would never want to “dupe” supporters into believing “everything was rosy” because of one signing.

Liverpool missed out on the Champions League after finishing seventh in the Premier League last term and Hodgson acknowledged the disenchantment that accompanied a miserable campaign would not disappear overnight. He has pleaded for understanding from fans and, at the same time, spelled out the need for “a lot more players” to arrive at Anfield before the start of the season if Liverpool are to progress and have a chance of seriously competing again.

“You don’t change doom and gloom, you don’t change disenchantment with a signing or two,” said Hodgson from the club’s training camp in Switzerland. “The Liverpool supporters know that I can’t stand in front of a TV camera and put right some disenchantment that has been going on for several years now with a couple of words or by signing a football player. All we can hope to persuade them is that we are going to be on the right track. We are trying to get things right again.

“I can assure [the Liverpool fans] we’ll make plenty of efforts on the field, and I’ll hope to dispel the doom and disenchantment in that way, but it’s not going to be an overnight thing. Unfortunately, last season was a very disappointing season for the club in every respect, culminating in a popular manager leaving the club – you don’t dispel that with a couple of signings and I wouldn’t ever want to try and dupe the Liverpool public by telling them all is rosy now because Joe Cole is signing. There is a lot more work to do and there are a lot more players needed.”

Progress is already being made on that front. Having already recruited the Serbia international Milan Jovanovic and Cole on free transfers, Liverpool today completed their third signing of the summer when Danny Wilson joined from Rangers in a deal worth £2m initially and up to a further £3m in add-ons.

The 18-year-old central defender, who won the Scottish Football Association and Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year award last season, described the move as a “massive challenge” after passing a medical and signing a three-year contract.

Hodgson’s desire to strengthen the squad further is likely to lead to a number of players on the periphery moving on, with Philipp Degen the latest to be told that he has no future at Anfield. The Switzerland right-back made only three league starts following his arrival from Borussia Dortmund two years ago. “We have had an amicable conversation with Philipp and he wants to play football,” Hodgson said. “We won’t stand in his way and he is free to look for another club.”

Liverpool, who play Grasshopper tonight in their first pre-season match of the summer, remain on the look-out for new owners with Hodgson admitting that Martin Broughton, the club’s chairman, is “trying desperately to find the right people” to provide much-needed new investment. In the meantime, the Liverpool manager has urged supporters to remain patient and be sensible with their demands for success. “I can only hope that the people who watch us are aware of the situation and that they’ve got their feet on the ground like we’ve all got our feet on the ground, and that they’ll give us credit if we deserve any for the efforts we make on the field,” Hodgson said.

Joe ColeLiverpoolTransfer windowStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk