SOCCER NEWS:ROY HODGSON has warned Liverpool supporters it will take much more than the arrival of Joe Cole to lift the "doom and gloom" that enveloped the club last season. The manager, speaking after the midfielder completed his free transfer from Chelsea, urged fans to remain realistic about the club's prospects as he picks up the pieces from the wreckage of Rafael Benitez' final season in charge.
An immediate challenge for Hodgson is to decide whether to sell Javier Mascherano after Internazionale yesterday made an approach for the midfielder. Mascherano has let it be known he would like to link up again with Benitez at the Serie A club and Hodgson is believed to be ready to sell at the right price to free up funds for purchases.
Although Hodgson is delighted that Cole has agreed to move to Merseyside, as his rebuilding programme at Anfield starts to gather some momentum, the former Fulham manager said yesterday that he would never want to “dupe” supporters into believing “everything was rosy” because of one signing.
Liverpool missed out on the Champions League after finishing seventh in the Premier League and Hodgson acknowledged the disenchantment that accompanied a miserable campaign would not disappear overnight. He has pleaded for understanding from fans and, at the same time, spelled out the need for “a lot more players” to arrive before the start of the season if Liverpool are to progress and have a chance of seriously competing again.
“You don’t change doom and gloom, you don’t change disenchantment with a signing or two,” said Hodgson from the club’s training camp in Switzerland ahead of last night’s 0-0 friendly draw with Grasshoppers in Zurich.
“The Liverpool supporters know that I can’t stand in front of a TV camera and put right some disenchantment that has been going on for several years now with a couple of words or by signing a football player. All we can hope to persuade them is that we are going to be on the right track. We are trying to get things right again.
“I can assure (the Liverpool fans) we’ll make plenty of efforts on the field, and I’ll hope to dispel the doom and disenchantment in that way, but it’s not going to be an overnight thing.
“Unfortunately, last season was a very disappointing season for the club in every respect, culminating in a popular manager leaving the club – you don’t dispel that with a couple of signings and I wouldn’t ever want to try and dupe the Liverpool public by telling them all is rosy now because Joe Cole is signing. There is a lot more work to do and there are a lot more players needed.”
Progress is already being made on that front. Having already recruited the Serbia international Milan Jovanovic and Cole on free transfers, Liverpool yesterday completed their third signing of the summer when Danny Wilson joined from Rangers in a deal worth €2.4 million initially and up to a further €3.5 million in add-ons.
The 18-year-old central defender won the Scottish Football Association and Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year award last season.
Hodgson’s desire to strengthen the squad further is likely to lead to a number of players moving on, with right back Philipp Degen, who made just three league starts in two years, the latest to be told that he has no future at the club.
Liverpool remain on the look-out for new owners with Hodgson admitting that Martin Broughton, the club’s chairman, is “trying desperately to find the right people” to provide much-needed new investment. In the meantime he has urged supporters to remain patient.
“I can only hope that the people who watch us are aware of the situation and that they’ve got their feet on the ground and that they’ll give us credit if we deserve any for the efforts we make on the field,” Hodgson said.
Cole yesterday risked upsetting his former employer by provocatively claiming he had joined “the biggest club in the country”.
The England international, who has signed a four-year contract, dismissed suggestions that money was the motivation for moving to Liverpool and insisted that swapping Stamford Bridge for Anfield was purely a football decision.
“I tried to take everything out of the equation, take the financial and location side out and just thought in football terms,” Cole said. I thought about the semi-final of the Champions League in 2005 when I ran on to the field and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I was thinking about playing in that atmosphere every week and that swung it for me.
“I know I have made the right decision and I am looking forward to the challenge. I have played in London all my life. I could have stayed at Chelsea because the fans loved me and I won things, but I wanted to challenge myself and when I knew Liverpool were interested it was a no-brainer because they are the biggest club in the country.”
GuardianService
