• Premier League

Hodgson fears Mascherano exit

ESPN staff
August 4, 2010
Javier Mascherano is training with Liverpool, but Roy Hodgson is not sure for how much longer

Roy Hodgson has admitted Liverpool have received no offer for Javier Mascherano, but fears the midfielder may still be prised away from Anfield this summer.

The Argentina international is believed to be on new Inter Milan boss and former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez's radar. Hodgson is aware of the speculation and suggests it may be difficult to keep hold of the midfield enforcer if a decent bid is tabled.

"If a big offer comes in for him and it is a club that he wants to go to, I think that will be harder," Hodgson said at a press conference on Wednesday. "But the good thing for me at the moment is that we haven't had that offer and as a result I can continue to work with him and deal with him as a Liverpool player and consider him as a Liverpool player and just wait for the day, if the day comes, when the offer comes in.

"Then maybe if the offer comes in and it was the offer that meets our valuation and he wants to go, then I don't know that my powers of persuasion will be much good in that situation.

"But maybe they will never be needed because we might not get the offer and he might stay with us."

Meanwhile, Hodgson has confirmed his interest in signing Juventus midfielder Christian Poulsen.

"If we can sign him from Juventus at a price I consider reasonable, he will be a very good player to bring into our team," Hodgson said in Ekstra Bladet. "Christian is a player I know well, a player whose career I actually kick-started many years ago and I have followed him closely ever since."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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