Gerrard and Cole raise the spirits at Liverpool

There is no doubt that Liverpool had a pretty rotten season last time out. A seventh placed finish in the Premier League, failing to qualify out of the group stages of the Champions League and losing in the semi-final of the ‘booby prize’ Europa League was simply not good enough for a club like Liverpool.

Rafael Benitez has moved on and to the surprise of many, Roy Hodgson has stepped in. With financial uncertainty in the background and no Champions League football to look forward to, it seemed that the biggest challenge faced by Hodgson would be to keep the likes of Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano, rather than the signing of any new players.

Hints

Hot on the heels of the news that Joe Cole has signed a four year deal with the Anfield club after coming to the end of his contract with Chelsea comes the news that Steve Gerrard is dropping some pretty big hints that he is keen to stay at the club.

In a statement on the official club website Steve Gerrard has said,

“I wanted the chance to meet Roy Hodgson privately. Having done so I’m very impressed with his plans for the future of the team. I only returned to training on Monday at Melwood with some of the other World Cup players but I can’t wait for the new season to start. I made it clear that I simply needed to concentrate on the World Cup and then have a decent holiday with my family.”

New boss Hodgson knows that he has a struggle ahead to convince the Liverpool fans he is the right man to take them to the level they feel they should be at and he is understandably delighted by what Gerrard has said.

“It’s a great piece of news. There won’t be anyone in Liverpool today who isn’t delighted to hear that. 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. It will be a tough season, with a lot of matches and 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.”

Speaking to the radio station TalkSport, Hodgson went on to explain that the signing of Joe Cole was a major coup for Liverpool and owed something to Jamie Carragher and Steve Gerrard,

“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. The simple solution would have been to stay in the London area.”

Gerrard also talked about what a great signing Joe Cole is for the club,

“It’s a great signing for us. I know Joe well through the England set-up and have seen first hand just how good a player he is. He’s 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.”

Hodgson also hopes Cole’s impact will excite the club’s fans who have endured a fairly terrible twelve months,

“I am pleased to get the player 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 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.”

Challenge

One signing does not make a new team but the arrival of Cole together with a revitalised Steve Gerrard will go some way towards helping Liverpool back into the top four. If Hodgson can now persuade Fernando Torres to stay and maybe bring in just one or two more players then maybe, just maybe, the Liverpool fans might get the title challenge that they crave.