Roy Hodgson gave an in-depth and interesting interview to TalkSport radio this morning, in which the new Liverpool boss chatted about the arrival of Joe Cole, the future of Javier Mascherano and his hopes of strengthening the squad.

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Here's what he had to say in full...

Roy, the reaction to the Joe Cole news has been wonderful. It must please you a lot bringing a player of his quality to Liverpool...

Yes, it pleases me first of all to get the player because it's very important we try to improve our squad as much as we can in order to try and reach the high goals we've set ourselves.

But it also pleases me very much to hear the reaction of the people has been as positive as our reaction, so at the moment that's perfect.

Now, of course, it's up to Joe to show on the field he is the right man.

Trying to put two and two together - I would hope while on World Cup duty Steven Gerrard was encouraging Joe to sign. Fingers crossed the speculation about Steven will end and he'll stay at Anfield...

Yes, that's also what we're hoping of course. The club has made no secret, and I in particular have made no secret, that I came to Liverpool in order to work with people like Steven Gerrard - not to see him disappear before I even get a chance to work with him.

You're quite right in saying both Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard did a good job in selling the club during the World Cup to Joe, who was undecided about what he wanted to do.

To be fair, it takes a bit more selling to persuade a Londoner who has played all his life in London to move up to Liverpool. The simple solution for him would have been to stay in the London area.

I listened with interest to your comments about trying to contact Javier Mascherano and leaving him voicemails but he hadn't got back to you. It must be hard to accept that you want to talk to your player about his future, but you can't get hold of him?

That's been exaggerated and it's good to have a chance to put the record straight.

I left a voice message - obviously I wanted to congratulate him on the World Cup that he had, to say I was really looking forward to seeing him again and wish him a good holiday.

I remember actually saying, 'Don't feel as though you have got to ring back. As far as I'm concerned, it's just important for you to know I am trying to contact you and I am counting on you.'

I wasn't really expecting him to call back to be perfectly honest because it would have only been a small chat if he had - 'How was the World Cup?', 'What's the weather like in Argentina?'

That's not really necessary, but what is necessary, I thought, was for him to realise I was as anxious to see him at Liverpool as the fans and everybody else, and that he could certainly count on me as his manager when he comes back.

The speculation about him leaving continues, but I must also put the record straight and say that as yet it is pure speculation because we have heard nothing from Inter and heard nothing other than he will come back and work with us.

So you gave him the option of getting back to you? That's fair enough...

To be honest, if you're a player and a new manager comes in, you don't have a lot to say to him. We'll have plenty to talk about when we start working together - we don't necessarily (need to) have lots of small talk over the telephone.

I am disappointed it's been flagged up as he's let me or the club down in some way. I don't see it that way at all.

What's the latest on Fernando Torres? How's his fitness at the moment?

I think it's quite good. I saw him now almost a week ago, last Wednesday. I went to Ibiza and met him, albeit briefly, and we had a little talk there.

He was telling me he didn't think the groin problem was anything to worry about at all and it was something that just a rest on holiday was going to clear up.

We're hoping when he comes back on August 2 he'll be fit and well.

How difficult was it to leave Craven Cottage after a couple of wonderful seasons at Fulham?

It was difficult. I enjoyed my time there enormously, it's a fantastic club. All the people, coaching staff and the players - you couldn't have asked for more in terms of a working environment and being with a group of people you want to work with every day.

That was probably the optimum, but Liverpool are a bit special. Liverpool rank up there, in English terms certainly, with Manchester United and Arsenal as clubs that have a worldwide reputation.

Our reputation stretches all over the world and, arguably, we could quite easy rank amongst the top 10 European clubs if you take the historic perspective as well as modern day.

It was a difficult job to turn down and I was delighted when they offered it to me.

I've left the 'comfort zone', I suppose, to come to something that is going to be anything other than a comfort zone. But I think I'm ready for that and I am looking forward to whatever fate throws at me.

A rumour today claims Didier Drogba's agent has been talking to Manchester City, so we just don't know how strong City are going to be come the start of the season. Getting in amongst the big boys looks to be getting harder every year because of teams like City and Tottenham...

Absolutely. Money does talk - there's no question of that. The game is about football players, and less about managers and administrators.

Football players are who we pay to watch and when they're talented, they're in a good market because it seems there are few good players and lots of clubs chasing those players, which pushes the prices up both for them and in terms of transfer fees.

There's no doubt the classic top four has now definitely become a top seven or eight and might even stretch down further than that.

We know the extent of the challenge, but the good thing is hopefully it won't be any easier for teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United to see off the challenges of Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton and Man City than it will be for the likes of us.

All the top clubs were after Joe Cole - you got him. Are there more players to come?

We hope so, yes. We're working very hard on a lot of targets because, as I said to you at the start, we'd like to improve our squad, make it stronger and more competitive, and make certain we have the players we're going to need for what could turn out to be a long season if we continue in the Europa League.

We're working on it, but I don't have anything to report.

Looking at the fixtures for the Premier League, it's a tricky old start isn't it? There are two early trips to Manchester...

It's a really, really difficult start and before that it's even more complicated as most of our players haven't started training yet because they've had the obligatory three-week holiday that we're obliged to give people after they've finished in the World Cup.

That means from tomorrow we will see the first two or three and then they'll trickle in from then onwards.

We have a match on the 29^th, we have a friendly match on August 1 and then we have a match on August 5. So, even before we get to Arsenal we've got quite a difficult programme to get through.

In the beginning, it's going to be very demanding on the young players at the club, the reserve players people don't know a lot about. They're going to have to step up to the plate and show they deserve to be at Liverpool Football Club and they have the talent people obviously thought they had when they were signed.

You were given a lovely welcome in Switzerland having worked as their national team manager and at Grasshoppers...

Yes, it's very nice to be back in Switzerland, I must say. It's a wonderful country. We've been very lucky with the weather and we're staying in a good hotel with excellent training facilities.

In terms of a training camp, you can't get much better than this. Unfortunately the quality of games are probably a little bit better than you would have welcomed at this stage of the season.

Really, the teams we're playing are more worthy of a pre-season friendly against Liverpool's absolute first XI - and it's not going to be that by any stretch of the imagination.

Even players like Jovanovic and Kyrgiakos, who have joined us here for a few days, the sports science people are encouraging me not to play them because they think it's too early.

It's going to be a young and reserve type team, but it's a good chance for those lads. If you want to show you're a first-team player, you've got to be given a chance some time. They're going to get their chance.