Soccer:Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that his main task is to keep the squad together until new owners take over the club and give him money to spend on new players. The future ownership of the Reds is as uncertain as ever despite a fortnight of intense activity last month that still failed to see a proper bid for the club materialise.
For Hodgson, who took over from Rafael Benitez in July and was then forced to sell Javier Mascherano to Barcelona, his main aim has been to avoid having to rebuild the playing squad completely.
Hodgson told the LMA's magazine The Manager: "The club is up for sale and nobody knows what direction it will take if and when new owners are found.
"A few years ago when the situation was far more stable, the money to buy new players was available.
"I hope the situation will change when the club is eventually sold and owners who are prepared to invest in the club come in.
"When that situation arises I'm pretty sure that it won't be difficult for us to start achieving things again but at the moment the task is really to hang on to the players we've got and make certain we don't have a situation where we have got a total rebuilding process."
Hodgson insists however that Liverpool can achieve success and he will not attempt to dampen fans' expectations.
"The stature, traditions and ability of Liverpool to attract players certainly makes it an achievable task even though we are in strange times," he said. "You should never try and dampen people's enthusiasm and optimism.
"Furthermore every season we see teams not expected to win titles winning them.
"It doesn't always go to the favourite in any country.
"So we should never play down the Liverpool fans' incredible desire and passion to keep winning trophies - and the Barclays Premier League in particular - and keep their noses in front of Manchester United."
Liverpool's drawing power does, however, appear to have waned somewhat and Rafael van der Vaart's admission tht he chose Spurs ahead of Anfield would suggest as much. The Holland international made a dramatic deadline day switch to White Hart Lane after seeing Harry Redknapp move late for his services.
It had appeared that the playmaker was all set to remain at Spanish giants Real Madrid, with no agreement in place to take him away from the Bernabeu. However, Spurs snapped him up, with the move among the more intriguing to be completed during the summer transfer window.
Redknapp claimed at the time that he pounced for Van der Vaart after seeing Bayern Munich come up short in their efforts to do a deal. However, the 27-year-old insists it was not the German giants who had made a late bid for his services.
Instead, he claims Liverpool were the other side hoping to push through a deal, forcing him to choose between two Premier League heavyweights.
Van der Vaart told Sky Sports News: "Liverpool were interested. Bayern were not interested. In the end you have to have a good feeling, and with this manager I got a good feeling. I am happy and I am going to Spurs.
"I am going to give it my best and hopefully I will play a lot of games and be important for the team. I hope to get a lot of goals and have a lot of fun."
Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez claims the Bundesliga champions blocked his deadline-day loan switch to Liverpool. The Germany international has failed to hold down a regular first-team place at the Allianz Arena after joining from Stuttgart last summer and would have jumped at the chance of a temporary move to Merseyside to reignite his career.
But Bayern were not keen to let him go and insisted the 25-year-old still had a big part to play under Louis van Gaal this season.
"I have said that if I leave Bayern I will go abroad," Gomez told the Bild newspaper. "Then came this interesting offer from Liverpool. I took the loan offer seriously and discussed it with my family and girlfriend because I just want to play.
"But Bayern gave me the impression that they see a future for me. And therefore a change was not an issue anymore."