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• Argentina midfielder keen to join Internazionale
• Mascherano set to be reunited with Rafael Benítez

Javier Mascherano returned to pre-season training at Liverpool yesterday, accompanied by his agent, and told Roy Hodgson that he wants to leave Anfield.

The midfielder’s request will have come as little surprise to the manager. Rafael Benítez, Hodgson’s predecessor at Liverpool, is trying to sign the Argentinian for Internazionale and Mascherano has spent several weeks agitating for a transfer. His agent, Walter Tamer, has stated that it would be a “dream” for his client to move to San Siro.

Mascherano, who has been unsettled at Anfield for some time, missed Liverpool’s pre-season training camp because he was given time to recover from the World Cup. Hodgson is expected to demand at least £25m for the 26-year-old, who was Argentina’s captain in South Africa.

Hodgson is more concerned about the possibility that Fernando Torres could also leave the club, with Chelsea leading the hunt and Manchester City having renewed their interest since Benítez’s departure for Inter.

Jamie Carragher, though, believes the Spain striker, currently recovering from a groin injury he suffered in the closing minutes of the World Cup final, will join Steven Gerrard in deciding to be part of the Hodgson era. “I’m sure that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will still be involved at the club next season,” the defender told Zoo magazine. “If they are, then the aim for Liverpool must be to get back into the Champions League.”

They finished seventh in the Premier League last season and the 32-year-old said: “Liverpool aren’t a club like Real Madrid, who can just throw £100m at it if we don’t win the title. For clubs like Real Madrid and Inter, it’s a disaster if they don’t win the league, so they go out and spend big money on new players. Liverpool can’t do that – we have to build.

“Next season, rather than thinking too much about the title, we have to concentrate on getting back into the top four. It’s a rebuilding process again and hopefully we can get ourselves right up there.”

A key position for Liverpool to fill is left-back – Fábio Aurélio was released at the end of his contract and Emiliano Insúa is on the verge of joining Fiorentina – during a period of financial hardship that, in the words of Carragher, has shrouded the club in “a lot negativity and it’s been like that for a while”.

But the club denied they were set to sign Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid after the Dutchman posted a message attributed to his Facebook page saying a move to Anfield was imminent. “I will soon be joining Liverpool,” the message says. “I hope I will have a good season with my new club.”

Drenthe is among the players José Mourinho would allow to leave the Bernabéu. The former Holland Under-21 international, who can play as a full-back or winger, is a close friend of Liverpool’s Ryan Babel but Hodgson does not appear to regard him as the solution at left-back. He has failed to fulfil the potential of his early years at Feyenoord since a €14m move to Madrid three seasons ago, at the age of 20.

Liverpool’s new signing Milan Jovanovic says the players are keen to get the season started on Thursday, when they play a Europa League qualifier against Rabotnicki in Macedonia. “I know we will be ready to play in Europe,” he said. “I am really looking forward to it. For all players all over the world, you have to be proud when Liverpool come for you.”

LiverpoolFernando TorresJamie CarragherTransfer windowDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk

• Former Chelsea midfielder signs £18.7m, four-year deal
• Hodgson hopes capture will also appease Torres

Liverpool hope Joe Cole’s arrival at Anfield on a four-year deal worth £18.7m can convince Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to commit their futures to the club.

Cole agreed to become Liverpool’s second summer signing today when he rejected the chance of Champions League football with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in favour of a £90,000-a-week contract on Merseyside. The transfer will be finalised providing the England midfielder passes a medical in the next 48 hours in Switzerland, where he has arrived at Liverpool’s pre-season training camp.

Liverpool’s offer to Cole, who was available on a free following Chelsea’s refusal to extend his contract at Stamford Bridge, is understood to have bettered the terms available in north London but was not the most lucrative deal on the table. West Ham United, one of Cole’s former clubs, made the highest offer to the 28-year-old but the prospect of joining Liverpool, and regular first-team football under the new manager, Roy Hodgson, swayed him.

Cole’s decision gives the lie to the notion that remaining in the capital on the most lucrative contract available was his over-riding ambition. The Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, claimed at the weekend that Cole’s problem at Stamford Bridge was not personal but economic.

His move to Anfield has wider implications for Liverpool, who have endured a turbulent period on and off the field recently, with the departure of Rafael Benítez as manager accompanied by doubts over the futures of Gerrard, Torres and Javier Mascherano.

Liverpool are reluctant to say anything publicly about Cole’s signing, beyond confirmation of the agreement, until a player who suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury in January 2009 has passed a stringent medical. Club officials are increasingly hopeful, however, that a transfer that has been well-received by senior players will serve as a statement of intent to Gerrard and Torres should they become the subject of bids from Real Madrid and Chelsea respectively.

No offers have been received for Gerrard or Torres, despite long-standing interest in the pair and their frustrations at the club finishing seventh in the Premier League last season and Liverpool’s struggles to compete at the higher end of the transfer market. Mascherano is a target for Internazionale and Liverpool may show less resistance to selling a player who has agitated for a move for two summers.

In the circumstances Cole’s arrival will provide a significant fillip to Liverpool who, despite the £350m debt placed on the club by the co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have signed an England international and the Serbia striker Milan Jovanovic on free transfers, but substantial personal terms, this summer.

Selling Yossi Benayoun to Chelsea raised £5m and Liverpool intend to increase that figure significantly by reducing the size of the first-team squad. Emiliano Insúa is considering a £5m move to Fiorentina and Albert Riera is close to joining Olympiakos for a similar fee. All the deals were put in place before Hodgson joined on 1 July. The manager has confirmed a new left-back is a priority, given that three will have left since January should Insúa follow Andrea Dossena and Fábio Aurélio out the club.

Hodgson has said that Liverpool’s World Cup contingent will not be considered for Europa League qualifying duty next week, but that policy may not apply to Cole, who was restricted to just two substitute appearances totalling 44 minutes in England’s woeful campaign.

Ian Rush, who retains close links with his former club, said: “I’m sure Roy Hodgson will play him in every game, especially if he is playing well, and maybe getting regular football is a reason why he has come to Liverpool. To get Joe to come out of London and come to Liverpool is a coup for Hodgson itself. We might not have been as successful as we would have liked to have been recently, but this shows we can still attract top-name players, whether that’s an England international or a foreign international.

“We’ve got a great new manager in Roy Hodgson and he knows what he wants, and he can talk these players into signing for our club. This is the signing supporters wanted and it’s a big boost for them. You look at last season when we went into it not hoping but thinking we were going to win the league.

“This season people are thinking are we going to finish in the top four. I think this sends a sign out to Liverpool supporters that the club do mean business.”

LiverpoolJoe ColeTransfer windowSteven GerrardFernando TorresAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

• Spain striker wore Liverpool scarf during World Cup celebration
• Torres has been linked with a summer exit from Anfield

Roy Hodgson said pictures of Fernando Torres celebrating his World Cup success wearing a Liverpool scarf have given the club a lift. The Spain striker has been the subject of speculation over his future throughout the summer but he showed his allegiance after Sunday’s win in Johannesburg.

The 26-year-old was one of four Liverpool players in the World Cup final squads along with his Spain team-mate Pepe Reina and the Holland pair Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel.

Hodgson told the club’s website: “As Liverpool manager, I take great pride in the fact that two of our players can call themselves World Cup winners this summer.

“I think it’s safe to say the pictures of Fernando in the dressing room with the World Cup certainly went down well with our fans but the club can be proud of all the players who went away to the World Cup. To have four players reach the final is an incredible achievement and I look forward to working with them when they return to Melwood after their holidays.”

Liverpool could today learn the extent of the adductor injury which forced Torres to pull up late in extra-time in the final. Torres, who was plagued by injuries throughout last season, was due to have a scan yesterday having returned to Madrid with the rest of the Spain squad.

The Liverpool medical staff are due to fly out this week to meet Torres, who is now beginning his summer break. The players who have already returned for pre-season work step up their preparations today by flying out to a training camp in Switzerland.

Fernando TorresLiverpoolRoy HodgsonTransfer windowguardian.co.uk