SOCCER:ROY HODGSON appears to be winning some key battles for hearts and minds inside Liverpool's dressingroom after Steven Gerrard effectively tied himself to the club for at least another year.
Fresh from signing Joe Cole on Monday, Hodgson was yesterday 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,” 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 Benitez’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.”
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 ace.
“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.”
There was speculation that Gerrard’s future lay away from Anfield but the midfielder’s doubts seem to have been erased by that meeting with Hodgson and he 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. “It’s great news and a message that Liverpool mean business,” he said. “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.”
Martin Broughton, Liverpool’s chairman, is continuing his efforts to find new owners.
“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 is not their rightful position and nor is administration.”
The club have announced a £6 rise in ticket prices to £45 (€53) per game for category A fixtures – an increase of 13 per cent.
Liverpool are close to adding a third summer signing after agreeing a potential €5.9 million deal with Rangers for Danny Wilson. The 18-year-old central defender, voted the SFA’s young player of the year last season, was pulled out of the Rangers squad that departed for a pre-season tour of Australia yesterday to undergo a medical at Liverpool. Rangers will receive €2.37 million up front plus up to €3.3 million more in add-ons.
