Roy Hodgson Wants Money To Spend

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has confirmed he would like funds to strengthen his squad.

The Merseysiders have been busy in the transfer market this summer with Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen, Brad Jones, Danny Wilson, Milan Jovanovic, and Jonjo Shelvey all joining.

However, the ex-Fulham boss knows that with just one week left before the transfer window closes, the time left to strengthen is not the best period in which to splash the cash.

Hodgson does not believe he has fully assessed the talent and potential in the club's squad and academy and is against making a big-name signing if they already have a gem ready to be unearthed.

"I'd like some money to spend if I could research where that money could be spent wisely," said Hodgson.

"Giving me a lot now and telling me to go out and buy some players with one week of the transfer window left would not be particularly advantageous.

"I've only been here for five weeks or so and I'd want to make sure I had assessed absolutely everyone, including those at the academy, just in case we have an outstanding 17-year-old.

"We might have a Javier Hernandez there so I don't want to go out and spend £50million on buying another one."

Liverpool To Make Ambitious £4m Move For Serie A Veteran Goal Machine

Roy Hodgson will look to secure a deal to bring Juventus forward David Trezeguet to Anfield and hopes that deals that brought Alberto Aquilani to Turin and Christian Poulsen to Merseyside will help in potential negotiations for the 32 year old former French international to the club.

The veteran forward is set to be nothing more than a squad player in the coming season under new boss Luigi Delneri and Hodgson will at first be looking to seal a deal to bring the former Monaco man on a loan deal which could be just what the Serie A side is looking for as they look to trim their squad due to the rapid addition of new faces at the club.

If a loan offer fails he could pick up the ageing front man for a relatively small fee with his valuation appearing to be somewhere in the region of £4-6m.

In his decade plus at the Italian giants Trezeguet has netted 170 times but has found himself increasingly surplus to requirements behind the likes of Amauri, Alessando Del Piero and Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Hodgson is looking to bring in new attacking options before the transfer window closes and he may persuade the Frenchman to take one last challenge before he hangs up his boots.

Liverpool 'Face Competition From Italy Over Roque Santa Cruz Transfer'

Roque Santa Cruz will leave Manchester City before the end of the transfer window, but after Liverpool expressed an interest in the striker last week it seems they now face competition from Lazio and Fiorentina.

The Paraguayan is surplus to requirements at Eastlands, and looks set to be excluded from Roberto Mancini's 25-man squad - especially after their signing of Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan.

Roy Hodgson is keen to add another striker to his squad as back-up for injury-prone Fernando Torres, and is thought to have made a preliminary approach for Santa Cruz.

However, in light of the interest from the Reds, both Lazio and Fiorentina from Serie A - as well as Werder Bremen from Germany - are rumoured to have joined the race.

Santa Cruz has said he is happy to remain at City for the foreseeable future, but that could change if he is left out of the streamlined squad for the opening six months of the Premier League season.

West Ham is another club who are said to have made an enquiry about the 29-year-old's availability, but so far City are yet to open formal talks over a transfer fee.

Liverpool Reject €20 Million Javier Mascherano Bid From Barcelona

Barcelona have reportedly tabled a bid of around €20 million for wantaway Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano but it has been rejected by the Merseysiders according to radio station RAC1.

Over the weekend Reds coach Roy Hodgson intimated that he was informed by Massimo Moratti that there would be no approach from Inter for the Argentina captain but it appears that the Catalan outfit is still in the race to prise the 26-year-old away from Anfield.

The offer tabled by the Blaugrana is believed to be an initial €15 million payment with a further €5 million in variables but Liverpool are understood to have placed a value of €26 million on Mascherano. Hodgson has already gone on record as stating that the defensive midfielder is aware that he will not be leaving the club if an appropriate fee is not received.

Despite Hodgson already declaring that 'Masch' would be in contention to feature against fellow title hopefuls Manchester City on Monday night, AS has claimed that he will not play at Eastlands as talks between the clubs continue.

Liverpool Tell Inter Dirk Kuyt Is Not For Sale

Liverpool are reportedly in line to keep striker Dirk Kuyt, and also hope to ward off interest in Javier Mascherano despite a recent bid from Barcelona.

The Dutch forward had previously claimed that the Merseyside club had received a fax from Inter, amidst heavy speculation that the hitman could leave the Reds to reunite with former boss Rafael Benitez.

However, the Daily Mail reports that Liverpool have officially told the Italian club that Kuyt is not for sale.

Liverpool Loanee Alberto Aquilani Has Juventus Title Ambitions

Speaking as he begins his loan spell from Liverpool, Alberto Aquilani said that he believes Juventus could win the Serie A title.

The 25-year-old attacking midfielder moved to Juventus towards the end of last week after Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson advised him to get some regular first-team football in Italy as he doesn't feature in his Anfield plans for now.

Just before he underwent a Juventus medical, Aquilani said, “I am happy to be here."

Referring to fellow newcomer Milos Krasic, Aquilani continued, “Juve are a team worthy of the Scudetto. We hope to do well together with Krasic.

“I have returned to Italy to get a place in the national team again.

“I will meet Del Neri tomorrow. He convinced me to come and no other club came looking for me.”

Aquilani played for Liverpool against Rabotnicki and it is unclear whether he will therefore be able to represent Juventus in the Europa League this season.

Jovanovic Still Settling In

Milan Jovanovic is hoping Liverpool supporters will be patient with him as he settles in at Anfield.

The Serbia international moved to Merseyside over the summer and has been thrown straight into the action by Reds boss Roy Hodgson.

He has not looked out of place so far, but feels there is still much more to come from him in the near future.

Jovanovic knows it will take time to acclimatize to a new country and a new way of life, but he is confident it will not take long for him to hit top gear.

He is taking inspiration from the gradual progress made by his fellow countrymen, Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic and Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, and hopes he will soon be following in their illustrious footsteps.

"I maybe need to be stronger and think more quickly to fit in," Jovanovic told The Independent.

"It will take time and it has happened to all the players from my country who have come to England. It happened to Branislav Ivanovic and it happened to Vidic. For the first six months they hardly played any games.

"I have to prepare for that and be at my best as quickly as possible. But I have come here having already played against English teams so I know what to expect."

Jovanovic is determined to make a name for himself in English football, as he accepts that few Premier League supporters will know much about him.

He does have UEFA Champions League experience from his time at Standard Liege, and graced this summer's World Cup finals, but appreciates that his career path has kept him out of the limelight.

"I am not sure if people in England know of my performances," Jovanovic added.

"That's normal because I played in the Belgian League and English people aren't going to find that interesting. It is only a small competition but Liege played in the Champions League and the Europa League and were very successful. We beat Everton and, if I doubted my ability, I would never have come here."

Wolves Owner Steve Morgan Tips 'Special Purchaser' To Rebuild Liverpool FC

Steve Morgan believes that Liverpool require a 'special purchaser' to rebuild the club.

Hong Kong-based businessman Kenny Huang officially withdrew his interest in buying Tom Hicks and George Gillett's shares on Friday after growing impatient at the pace at which chairman Martin Broughton and the board were conducting the sale process.

Morgan, a former Anfield shareholder, attempted to buy the club in 2004 before he became owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers and believes that Liverpool require a wealthy investor who is willing to provide funding so that they can once again challenge for major honours.

Redrow magnate Morgan, 57, also hit out at the Americans for acquiring David Moores' majority stakeholding through a leveraged buyout, which has seen Liverpool's debts rise to well over £351million, and claims this is an improper way for any football club to be run.

"I don't think you can buy any football club on leverage. You can't gear up like you can in a manufacturing or a property company. It just doesn't work that way," he said.

"The players and agents' wage demands these days mean that there's very little left over after you've paid for the running of the club.

"There certainly isn't the money there to service hugely leveraged debt - and that's the mistake not only Liverpool have made.

"To take over Liverpool now, you need very deep pockets.

"The amount of people with those deep pockets is limited, and them being prepared to invest in Liverpool, knowing that they have go to build to get it back even remotely in contention again, in addition to the stadium issue, is going to need quite a special purchaser to come in."

Morgan attempted to extend his 5% share in Liverpool six years ago in a bid to trump former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who went on to briefly own Manchester City, and maintains that he would have ensured that the club remained debt-free.

He added: "It's difficult to rewrite history but the circumstances were different.

"The deal that we almost had with David Moores was a combination of paying some money out to buy shares off him, but the bulk of the investment was going into the club.

"At the time, the debt wasn't huge so the investment going into the club would have cleared all the debt off so Liverpool would have been debt-free.

"Had it happened, it would have been a very different history that we'd be looking back on now, but the one thing for sure is that there wouldn't have been any debt."