Hodgson – Torres doesn't want to stay with Liverpool!

The new Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that he has spoken to the Spanish striker Fernando Torres, and says the hitman is very unhappy with the Liverpool club as a whole, and there is little he can now do to persuade him to stay. Torres has been strongly linked with a move to Chelsea, or possibly Man City, and the two clubs will certainly be heartened by today’s admission.

“Unfortunately, I cannot do much more,” said Hodgson. “His beef is with the club and not me.”

“Fernando’s situation has nothing to do with me, he made that perfectly clear over the phone during the World Cup and when I met him face-to-face.

“He knows what I would like to do with the club. He knows how much I value him.

“But his issues are with what has gone on in the past rather than the future. If he has problems with the club for things in the past, it is difficult for me to dismiss that.”

But Hodgson also said that he hoped that Torres would still honour his contract with the club, despite his misgivings. “People forget he is a Liverpool player,” he added. “One year ago he signed a four-year contract. I hope he will commit himself by honouring his contract.”