Roy Talks Tough Over Torres

Roy Hodgson has told interested clubs to forget about making a bid for Fernando Torres after the Liverpool manager held positive talks with the striker.

Speculation has suggested that the Spanish World Cup winner, who is recovering from a groin injury suffered in the final, was set to return from his summer holiday to tell the Premier League club that he wanted to leave.
Chelsea, Manchester City and Barcelona have all been linked with Torres, a £26million signing from Atletico Madrid in 2007, after Liverpool's disappointing 2009/10 campaign and the resulting departure of former manager Rafa Benitez.
But new boss Hodgson, who has already held discussions with captain Steven Gerrard over his future, has warned off potential suitors following a brief meeting with Anfield's star striker prior to flying to Switzerland for a pre-season training camp.
"I have met with Fernando. I found him to be a very pleasant man and we had a nice conversation," Hodgson told reporters in Bad Ragaz.
"As far as we are concerned he is a Liverpool player and we want him to remain a Liverpool player. He is not for sale and we don't welcome any offers for him.
"We want to keep him. My conversation with him was only short because I had to leave to come to the training camp in Switzerland.
"We spoke about football, the World Cup, his injury, and I told him how much I am looking forward to working with him.
"(Managing director) Christian Purslow was also at the meeting and chatted to Fernando for a lot longer after I left but my chat with him was only about football matters."
Hodgson said on Thursday that Liverpool were being forced to work hard to keep their disenchanted stars happy.
But he has repeated that he has made it clear to Gerrard that he will not be sold at any price.
"I have met with Steven and thought the talks were positive," Hodgson added.
"We are in a situation where we hear our players are being courted by other teams but it is all just rumours.
"What we haven't had is a club wanting to buy Steven Gerrard. Steven Gerrard is not for sale - I made that clear to him.
"I told him I supported the club's policy that we don't want to sell our best players and have to start building again.
"We want to build our team around these players. He understands that position but clubs can get into players' ears and make promises. It destabilises the club and the players and we can't do anything about it."