Newly appointed Liverpool (12/1 to win the Premier League) boss Roy Hodgson has praised his star striker Fernando Torres for deciding to stay at the club this season.

Throughout the summer there has been speculation linking the 26-year-old with a move away from Anfield to Premier League rivals Chelsea and Manchester City.

However on Tuesday the Spanish World Cup winner returned from a three-week holiday and stated that he was happy to stay at the Merseyside club.

Hodgson’s first task when he left Fulham was to make sure Liverpool (7/4 to finish in the top four)  kept their key players with Torres, Steven Gerrard and Javier Masherano all being linked with moves to other clubs.

Skipper Gerrard was the first to commit his future to the club this summer and now that Torres has done likewise the new manager is pleased that he can now look to build the squad for next season.

He said: “It’s nice  that the speculation can finally end and even better that Fernando gave an interview yesterday in which he spoke about how committed he is and how keen he is to have a good season with the club.

“He has only been back a couple of days and he needs to do a lot of work to make certain he recovers from his holiday of three weeks and also, of course, the injury he picked up towards the end of the World Cup,? he added.

Hodgson hopes that the striker will be ready for Liverpool’s opening game of the Premier League season when they take on Arsenal at Anfield on August 15.

The former Blackburn manager looks likely to be without Argentina midfielder Masherano as he expects the player to leave Anfield this summer, possibly to follow former manager Rafa Benitez to Inter Milan.

The holding midfielder is estimated to be worth £25m and if sold could help ease the club’s financial issues which could set to be dealt with.

A number of parties are closing in on buying Liverpool with Chinese tycoon Kenny Huang and a consortium made up of Arabian and Canadian businessmen in the running.

Current co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have been looking to sell the club for some time and a deal with one of the parties who wish to buy the club could come in the next couple of weeks before the Premier League season kicks-off.

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