På dagens presskonferens inför EL-matchen mot Trabzonspor uttalade Roy Hodgson sig om en rad olika saker, inklusive transferspekulationerna runt Diego Cavalieri, Ryan Babel och lite allmänt om spelare in.

Cavalieri förväntas bli klar för Cesena: ”Diego has done a marvellous job for the last three years.

”He’s a very good goalkeeper and a very good person, but he made it clear to me at the start of the season that after three years of watching Pepe play every week he might, if he’s not careful, lose his goalkeeping ability or his status as a first-team goalkeeper.

”He made it clear he’d like to leave and find a club where he’ll be able to play on a regular basis, so we set about the task of finding someone we thought would be as good a complement to Pepe Reina as Cavalieri has been.

”That’s why Brad Jones has come in. He’s the man we’ve chosen to back up Reina, put him under pressure and, most importantly, be ready to play.

”Diego will travel to Cesena after the game tomorrow night for a medical.”

På frågan om rapporterna som placerar Babel i Wolfsburg stämmer svarade Hodgson:  ”No, there’s none there. I’m afraid we’re in the realm of speculation. You know better than I how many stories you’re getting every day, and many of them are unfounded and many are attempts from people to get their players in the spotlight.

”We’ve had no written or formal offers for Ryan Babel and he’s a player who I’m expecting to play for us.”

Vidare frågade journalisterna Hodgson om Christian Purslows uttalande om att laget kommer att förstärka med ytterligare 1-2 spelare. Angående detta sa managern: ”The Brad Jones situation has been under control for some time so I think he was talking about adding one or two other players to the squad (utöver Jones).

”We need 25 players in our squad like everyone else. We need the 25 players to play Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and Carling Cup. Arguably you wish you had a few more.

”Any player that leaves this club will have to be replaced. We aren’t in a situation where we can just let players go without replacing them. That’s if they are in our plans for the 25 man squad.”