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Posts Tagged ‘Steven Gerrard’

• Argentina midfielder reports for pre-season training at Melwood
• Roy Hodgson faces task of persuading player to stay at Anfield

The Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano met up with his new manager, Roy Hodgson, for the first time this morning after returning to pre-season training.

The Argentina captain has been uncontactable since going on holiday after the World Cup but was back at Melwood on schedule, along with his compatriot Maxi Rodríguez.

Hodgson tried to speak to the 26-year-old, who has been heavily linked with a summer reunion with the former Reds manager Rafael Benítez at Internazionale, following the end of the player’s involvement in South Africa.

However, the 62-year-old Englishman was only able to leave messages for Mascherano telling him he was looking forward to meeting him back on Merseyside as his calls were not returned.

Hodgson will outline his plans to Mascherano in much the same way as he has already done to Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Fernando Torres in an attempt to persuade him he has a future at Anfield.

But there still remains a nagging doubt that the combative midfielder, who was offered a new contract in the latter stages of last season, has set his sights on a move elsewhere.

Neither Mascherano nor Rodríguez will be available for Thursday’s Europa League third qualifying round first leg tie against Rabotnicki in Macedonia. However, Hodgson admits he may have to field a number of his other World Cup stars earlier than he would have liked.

The club’s medical staff have warned their manager bringing the likes of Gerrard, Carragher, Glen Johnson, new signing Jole Cole and Daniel Agger back too soon may have dire effects later in the season. But a largely reserve side has failed to score in two pre-season friendlies and Hodgson admits he may not be able to afford to take the risk of not using senior players.

“I don’t know what to do at this stage,” he said. “I will have to liaise with them and [head of sports science] Peter Brukner and make a decision by Tuesday on what sort of team I can put out.

“I can promise the Liverpool fans we will put out the best possible team, without compromising the future. It is going to be a difficult discussion between myself and Peter because his feeling is we shouldn’t use any of them and I am going to be tempted to say I want to use quite a few of them.

“The only players I will take will be the ones that I definitely think will play a valuable part in the game. If we are talking about senior players, it would be players prepared to start the game. I would not take Steven Gerrard there to play for the last 10 minutes as a substitute.”

One senior player who will be available is the midfielder Alberto Aquilani, who sat out Saturday’s friendly defeat to Kaiserslautern with a knee problem. “Peter Brukner told me he ran for the first time on Saturday so I would expect him to be fit for Thursday,” added Hodgson.

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• Midfielder looking forward to linking up with Cole
• ‘I’m very impressed with [Hodgson's] plans for the future’

Roy Hodgson appears to be winning some key battles for hearts and minds inside Liverpool’s dressing room after Steven Gerrard effectively tied himself to the club for at least another year.

Fresh from signing Joe Cole yesterday, Hodgson was today thrilled to hear Gerrard, previously rumoured to be on the brink of a move away from Merseyside, possibly to Real Madrid, offer an enthusiastic endorsement of his new regime.

“I wanted the chance to meet Roy Hodgson privately and, having done so, I’m very impressed with his plans for the future,” Gerrard said. The Anfield captain helped “sell” the club to his international team-mate Cole and added: “It will be fantastic to play alongside Joe in a red shirt for Liverpool.”

Hodgson did not disguise his pleasure. “It’s a great piece of news,” said Rafael Benítez’s successor. “I’m really pleased about it because I’ve got great respect for Steven Gerrard. He’s a player who I was really looking forward to working with when I came to Liverpool. It seems now with that commitment that this will happen. It gives everyone a boost, without question.”

Not that the former Fulham manager is getting carried away. “It will be a tough season with a lot of matches,” said the 62-year-old, currently working with his players at a pre-season training camp in Switzerland. “The disappointment of last season is going to take a while to dissipate but it is very good that our best player is still going to be playing at this club.

“Hopefully with the signing of Joe Cole – and, if we are lucky, one or two others to boost the squad – we will be going into this season’s competition maybe stronger on paper than we were last season.”

While much depends on whether Fernando Torres follows Gerrard’s example and buys into the new manager’s blueprint, Cole’s arrival certainly adds weight to Hodgson’s argument and he expressed his gratitude to Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in helping “sell” Merseyside to the former Chelsea midfielder.

“Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard did a good job in selling the club to Joe at the World Cup. He was undecided about what he wanted to do and, to be fair, it takes a bit more selling to persuade a Londoner who has played all his life in London to move up to Liverpool,” Hodgson said.

“I am pleased to get him because it is very important to try to improve our squad as much as we can in order to reach the high goals we have set ourselves. It is also pleasing that the reaction of the fans has been as positive as our reaction, so, at the moment, that is perfect. Now it is up to Joe to show on the field he is the right man.”

While he was marketing Liverpool to Cole there was speculation that Gerrard’s future lay away from Anfield but the midfielder’s doubts about staying on seem to have been erased by that meeting with Hodgson and he certainly appears enthusiastic about linking up with Cole.

“Joe is a great signing for us,” Gerrard said. “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.”

Carragher was equally positive about Cole’s recruitment. “It’s great news and a message that Liverpool mean business,” he said. “We have signed a top international who has been really important for Chelsea. A lot of clubs wanted to sign him but it is a real coup that he has chosen to come here and you have got to give the manager and the board a pat on the back for convincing him to come here. It’s the kind of signing we needed to make.”

Hodgson can only hope it will help persuade Torres to stay put but the Spain striker may be reassured to learn that Martin Broughton, Liverpool’s chairman, is continuing his efforts to find new owners to take over from Tom Hicks and George Gillett and is evidently seeking heavyweight ‘blue chip’ investors capable of empathising with the club’s fans and nurturing Anfield’s proud heritage. “We are out to find someone wealthy,” Broughton said. “But it’s important that they can win popular support. Putting Liverpool back in their rightful position is in the interests of British football and the League. Seventh [Liverpool's Premier League placing last May] is not their rightful position and nor is administration.”

Liverpool have announced a £6 rise in ticket prices to £45 per game for category A fixtures, the biggest matches, an increase of 13%.

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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.

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