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Posts Tagged ‘torres’

• ‘Fernando Torres has told us he wants to come back’
• Roy Hodgson says striker will resume training next week

Fernando Torres has put a spring in Roy Hodgson’s step by pledging his immediate future to Liverpool. Speculation that the Spain striker would leave Anfield this summer has swirled around for months, but instead of heading for Manchester City or Chelsea it seems Torres intends staying on Merseyside for a while longer.

“Fernando Torres has told us he wants to come back,” Liverpool’s manager said yesterday. “He’s told us he’s looking forward to Monday and getting back to work and playing for us next season. That’s what we know and as far as I’m concerned, all others reports are erroneous.”

Torres was given an extended break after his involvement in Spain’s World Cup win but he has held private talks with Hodgson and clearly likes what he is hearing. “He’s having a well-deserved break with his family,” Hodgson said. “He’s keeping a low profile and not really talking to anyone, but he has spoken to us.”

The tone of the Liverpool manager’s conversations with Javier Mascherano appears to have been somewhat frostier, however. Hodgson – who also introduced his three new signings, Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Danny Wilson, ahead of this morning’s departure for Macedonia and the Europa League qualifier against FW Rabotnicki – has reminded the Argentina midfielder that he will leave Anfield on Liverpool’s terms alone.

Moreover, he hinted Mascherano, who has two years remaining on his contract, may yet be thwarted in his desire for a swift escape, ideally for him involving a reunion with Rafael Benítez at Internazionale.

“He wants to leave, he’s made that particularly clear,” Hodgson said. “He wanted to leave a year ago and he wants to leave now. But Javier Mascherano is contracted here and I will continue to treat him as a Liverpool player until this club decides that should change.

“Just because Mascherano is a bit unhappy does not necessarily mean he will leave. I expect him to honour his contract until the day this club accepts an

• 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

• New manager wants to ‘get enchantment back’
• Has not yet spoken to Mascherano and Torres

Roy Hodgson, the new Liverpool manager, has said that the club are having to work hard to persuade some of their disenchanted stars to stay this season.

There has been speculation about the futures of the Spain striker Fernando Torres, the England midfielder and club captain Steven Gerrard and the Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano since Liverpool finished a disappointing season under Rafael Benítez outside the Premier League’s top four and therefore out of the coming season’s Champions League.

The Spaniard’s departure at the beginning of June, for Internazionale, intensified rumours about the future of a number of players. Hodgson has spoken to Gerrard but he is yet to meet Torres and Mascherano, who are on leave after the World Cup.

Speculation continues to grow about a Chelsea bid for Torres and Mascherano has been linked with a reunion with Benítez at Inter or a move to Barcelona, who were interested in him a year ago. The Argentinian’s agent is talking up the prospect of a transfer.

Since taking over on 1 July, Hodgson has said that he wants to keep his key players.

“We are working very hard on making certain the players we have at the club who you would call the ‘good players’ are going to be with us for next season,” said the Englishman. “The board are working very hard in that area. Some players are a bit disenchanted after what happened last season and we want to make sure we get that enchantment back.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonFernando TorresSteven GerrardTransfer windowguardian.co.uk