The transfer window may now well be firmly slammed shut until the New Year but while all matters RBS go back to dominating the headlines, it seems that squad changes at Anfield are still on the mind of Roy Hodgson, just as much as the media continue to work on possible new arrivals.

Liverpool’s squad to start the 2010 campaign may well be lacking the fire power in atacking areas that many a fan craved but Roy Hodgson has been happy to throw some more optimism out there to be digested, as he declared himself satisified with the clubs summer dealings. With Javier Mascherano finally making his long anticipated move to Barcelona and Alberto Aquilani sent out on loan to Juve, Hodgson reshuffled his pack as he brought in Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles to provide balance across the midfield.

“It was important to sign a quality midfielder when we lost Javier,” said Hodgson. “We had half prepared for his departure by jumping in to sign Christian Poulsen when he became available, but it was important for us to keep strong in that area.”

Hodgson commented; “We loaned out Alberto Aquilani and so we are pleased to have been able to bring in Meireles. He is experienced in the Champions League, in international football and has had proven success at Porto. He is an all-round midfielder who is capable of playing in all three of the central midfield positions.”

“He has a pedigree which we researched, followed and studied. I followed him at my previous club so it was good when I heard he could be available and that we could do the business quickly.”

“He has played a lot of international football so settling into the English game won’t be a major problem. Our public are sensible people and they realise that having played all of his career in Portugal, it may take a bit of time. We have that time. He will adjust, but whether it’s from the first moment we’ll have to wait and see.”

With Liverpool also adding Paul Konchesky to the squad to resolve a lack of left back options, Hodgson was probably close to where he realistically thought he would be, given Liverpool’s financial plight, when the time for bidding was over. Despite no further success in the final 24hrs of the window, specifically in the search for striking support for Fernando Torres, Hodgson’s thoughts were that of a good start to his redevlopment of the L4 club and happiness in his decisions.

“We should be very happy,” he said. “A lot of hard work has gone in and you have to mention Christian Purslow and Eduardo Macia, who both worked really hard during the transfer window to do the deals I wanted to happen but also to do deals for quite a few players to leave the club.”

“We were unbelievably overstaffed when I came to the club and, if the truth be known, we still are overstaffed. It was just as big a job making sure some of the players who never feature for the first team move on and that we limit our squad to players who are either in the frame to play first-team football or who have a bright future who are still anxious to play academy and reserve team football.”

“We don’t want that middle group who are too old for reserve football but are not serving any purpose for the first team because they never feature.”

While the axe may still loom in the background and several players contemplate whether they form part of the overstaffing problem, the media as usual are certainly not slow in coming forward with possible replacements and reinforcements. Liverpool as a club, along with its fans, continues to wait to see if RBS continue to increase the pressure on H&G and manages to remove them from ownership, by either enforcement or sale, when the October 6th deadline arrives. Should Liverpool be in the hands of new financially strong and stable owners at the time, then the January transfer window could be a very a different one to the methods required in the last one.

Galatasaray’s Turkish superstar Arda Turan is believed to remain very much on the Anfield radar but he is also been a long term target of both Spurs and Atletico Madrid, with Madrid believed to have seen a final day of the transfer window bid for the winger rejected.

The Turkish International has been credited on a number of occassions as being interested in a move to Liverpool at some point in his career, mentioning last year;

“As I always mention, Liverpool attracts me because of their tradition,”

“In Europe, I am a Liverpool supporter, so if I go to play in Europe, I would like to play for them.”

“My dream has always been to play for one of the top European clubs, but you shouldn’t make concrete plans in your life because sometimes these plans cannot be achieved.”

“This is my dream, but for now I’m just working on my football.”

While Galatasaray’s golden boy is certainly going to take some prizing away from the club, a fee in the region of £14m believed to be an approximate valuation of the players worth, Liverpool do have a good relationship with the Turkish giants which they may hope to call on. With Harry Kewell previously sold to the club, Milan Baros on their books and Emiliano Insua just starting a season long loan, there are some familiarities to work with even though it will be money at the end of the day that does the vast majority of the talking.

While people are left to speculate whether tradition and the Europa League will  be enough for Turan to one day switch to a Red shirt, other than that of his home nation, media have also been very quick to emphasise the just under £10m buy out clause that has been inserted in to the contract of another believed Liverpool target, Artem Milevskiy. The Ukranian striker has recently signed a three-year contract extension to keep him at his present club Dinamo Kiev, where he is captain.

Roy Hodgson is credited with interest in the striker over the summer and is also believed to ongoingly be monitoring the situation with Ola Toivonen at PSV as well as Mario Gomez of Bayern Munich, with the possibility of another attempt in January. Hodgson failed in the final stages of the transfer window to entice Bayern into relinquishing the German international that currently sits at 4th choice in their striking line up. The player has since confirmed his knowledge of the interest shown by Liverpool and his consideration of it but was advised that he would not be leaving the club at that time.

The names will continue to flow week in and week out until 2011 arrives but right now there are more pressing matters to attend to. With the right changes in place, if that can be achieved, then some of these suggestions we read day in and day out may one day soon become a reality. However on the other hand, under new ownership and direction, perhaps the ideas may become somewhat bigger.

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