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• Club cannot match City or Spurs financially, says Hodgson
• Manager trying to use money ’sensibly and intelligently’

The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, is keen to make further signings before the start of the season but admits he has to be realistic in his aims.

The Englishman accepts he cannot match the spending power of Premier League rivals such as Manchester City or Tottenham but that will not stop his recruitment drive. Having already acquired Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic on free transfers, and brought in the 18-year-old centre-back Danny Wilson for an initial £2m, Hodgson has to find a left-back and support for striker Fernando Torres.

Liverpool were today linked with Manchester City’s England defender Wayne Bridge and Milan’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar – both of whom would make a considerable dent in Hodgson’s restricted transfer budget. However, with Emiliano Insúa on the verge of a £5m transfer to Fiorentina, the winger Albert Riera in talks with Olympiacos over a move for a similar amount and the £25m-rated midfielder Javier Mascherano more than likely to be leaving Anfield this summer the manager should have money available to strengthen his squad.

“We don’t have the unlimited funds that teams like Manchester City and even Tottenham to some extent these days seem to have,” said the 62-year-old. “On the other hand some money is being made available and we are doing everything to use that money as sensibly and as intelligently as we can.

“We had quite a good squad of players last season: Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, José Reina – these players mean there is a certain strength to the team whatever we do. We would like to make some changes. Every manager who comes to a new club would like to make changes, to bring in some fresh players.”

Hodgson has yet to work with most of the players who are likely to make up his first-choice line-up as they have either only just returned from a delayed holiday because of the World Cup or are still on leave.

Instead the Liverpool manager has been putting a largely reserve squad through their paces at their Switzerland training camp. Last night he took charge for the first time in a goalless friendly against Grasshoppers with a team who had an average age of just 20.

Hodgson is keen to arrest the decline of the last decade in terms of players coming through the ranks and in the last week has given hope to a number of promising youngsters.”It’s a great opportunity for them but my real work in preparing Liverpool to play next season will begin when I get back to Melwood and find the 13 players who went to the World Cup,” he said.

“If you’re a young player you’re waiting for that chance to get into the first team and show what you can do. These lads are being given a chance earlier than expected but unfortunately they are being given a chance all together.

“What you hope for when you get your chance is that all the big-hitters are around you and they make it a bit easier for you. Here we are throwing them all in together.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonTransfer windowguardian.co.uk

Today’s hooey knows who rules if you listen to fools

First Gianfranco Zola is sacked, then Ronnie James Dio gets summoned by the unholy sorcerer in the sky – truly, this has been a foul few weeks for giant men with little bodies. Shaun Wright-Phillips may not fit into that category but he does fall into this one: Manchester City wingers who are not thought to have much of a future at Eastlands and may find themselves sitting down soon to discuss a move to Newcastle. It’s quite a lonely category, in fairness.

Still, it’s better to be alone than in bad company, as the Mill’s mum says whenever she catches us consorting with spivs and floozies and journalists and all the other loquacious lowlife who keep us supplied with the guff you read here and doubt on a daily basis. Sir Alex Ferguson wants to improve the calibre of person, or at least of player, that he hangs out with and aims to do so by adding a £38m debit to Manchester United’s balance sheet in order to sign Argentinian trickster Angel di Maria from Benfica. The Daily Mirror tells us that the Scot also intends splurging £35m on Ajax’s Luis Suarez. That may sound like an unfeasibly large spending spree for a club whose debts are so heavy the dear-departed Dio could have appeared on their soundtrack, but a lucrative exodus will help fund the swoops: out will go Ben Foster (Birmingham), Dimitar Berbatov (Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Milan, Sevilla, take your pick), Nani (Marseille, Benfica, Sunderland, Villarreal), Anderson (Benfica) and Darren Fletcher (Sunderland, Aston Villa, Newcastle).

That all sounds quite neat, eh? Ah, but that’s only if everything goes to United’s plan or, to be precise, only if United are not outbid for Di Maria by Manchester City, who will turn their attention to the Argentinian if they fail to nab Franck Ribery.

Liverpool are confident that City see no further use for Stephen Ireland but are growing increasingly concerned that Arsenal might, especially if Cesc Fabregas goes back to Barcelona. Arsene Wenger also plans to prise Jack Rodwell from Everton and Scott Parker from West Ham – and the latest goalkeeper to be linked with a move to the

Emirates is Mark Schwarzer. Every time you hear Gareth Southgate sounding reasonable from ITV’s gantry, balance that by remembering he is the man who let Schwarzer leave Middlesbrough for free.

Fulham are favourites to sign Carlton Cole from West Ham, who will replace him with Everton striker Yakubu. Meanwhile at Stoke, Tony Pulis will offload James Beattie on Coventry City and Dave Kitson on Wolves, then celebrate by recruiting England’s Emile Heskey.

Manchester CityManchester UnitedArsenalFulhamLiverpoolStoke CityWolverhampton WanderersWest Ham UnitedPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk

• ‘No chance 11 Liverpool players will be thinking about United’
• Lampard praises Ancelotti’s laid-back attitude during title race

Frank Lampard insists Chelsea will be subjected to an awkward afternoon at Anfield on Sunday, despite the reality that a victory for Liverpool could thrust Manchester United nearer to a record 19th league title.

While much has been made of Liverpool’s underlying desperation not to see their tally of championship successes eclipsed by their bitter rivals, Lampard believes Rafael Benítez’s side’s professionalism and desire to remain a top-four club will dictate their approach to the collision.

Chelsea travel to the north-west with a one-point advantage over United and knowing victory in their final two games, at Liverpool and at home to Wigan, will secure their first title since 2006.

“There is no chance that 11 Liverpool players could go out thinking about Manchester United winning the championship on the back of what happens in that game,” Lampard said. “They will go out to win the game. Their manager’s professional, their players are professional. There’s no way they will think about anything other than winning the game, regardless of whether it gets them into the Champions League next year or not. Even if they were out of it, they’d give everything. There’s no doubt about that.

“It’s a difficult game for us, but there’s no point worrying about it. We are all aware what is at stake. Playing at Anfield is difficult at any stage of the season – we know what’s coming, and we know what’s there for us [if we win]. We just have to try and win the match. It’s quite a simple formula for us – win two games and we win the league. If we don’t then we might have to rely on goal difference, depending on the Manchester United result [at Sunderland on Sunday evening]. But if we don’t turn up and start slowly, or don’t play with the intensity that we did against Stoke, then we will lose at Anfield. It’s as simple as that.”

Lampard and Chelsea have experienced wildly contrasting fortunes on Merseyside. They have triumphed there under Claudio Ranieri, in the first match of the Roman Abramovich era, and José Mourinho, and last season under Guus Hiddink in the quarter-final of the European Cup. Yet they have also endured some of their darkest moments at Anfield, most notably in successive Champions League semi-finals and, last season, under Luiz Felipe Scolari, where a 2-0 defeat in the Premier League saw Lampard sent off and the Brazilian’s reign terminally undermined.

There is an acceptance within the Chelsea squad that any repeat of the sloppiness evident in their defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane this month could end up costing the club the title. “We have to go there and take the game to them,” Salomon Kalou said. “We let Tottenham play. We let them get comfortable on the ball, so we have to go to Liverpool and play differently: keep the ball, play our own game and not let Liverpool take control. They are still a strong team, even without Fernando Torres, and it will be tough.

“They have that spirit at home and their fans will push them all the way. We will have to be focused and try and impose ourselves on them. We will have to win. There is no other way of doing it – if we want to keep our destiny in our own hands, we have to go out and win both matches, and that’s what we intend to do. We know that United won’t back down, so we have to keep focusing on ourselves. If we win our match, we don’t have to worry about what United do against Sunderland after us.”

The league leaders are braced for more mind games from Sir Alex Ferguson in the build-up to the penultimate round of matches following the United manager’s assertion last week that the pressure was all on Chelsea, with the title “theirs to lose”.

“The talk doesn’t matter,” Lampard said. “All that matters is the concentration in the camp, both in training and in the games. We have to approach the games in the right way and ensure we get the right result. We’re getting to the stage of the season where the talk … well, all it does is generate column inches. What really matters is getting out there and playing.

“It helps that the manager is laid-back and fairly calm. He doesn’t take his eye off the ball, or his targets. When he speaks, he speaks with authority. After the Stoke game he just told us there are three games to go [two in the Premier League and the FA Cup final] and we have to concentrate and give every ounce in every minute of every game we’ve got left. We can prepare in these long weeks we have now, with no midweek games, but if we work hard in training we can be fairly light-hearted around the place. We’ve been like that all season.

“He’s been in this situation before when he has won the Champions League and Serie A. He understands what it is like as a player and as a manager to achieve that. He knows he mustn’t show tension at this particular time. But, at the same time, he has got the focus we need.”

ChelseaLiverpoolPremier LeagueDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk