"The speculation isn't a distraction to me," he says. "All I want to say to him is that we have confidence in him. I have a lot of confidence in him, he knows that, and I am sure he will do well until the end of the season. If we can win more games in the Champions League and also finish in the top four of the Premiership then I am confident about Steven's position.
"If we don't do that and Steven tells me he isn't happy at the end of the season, I will not give up on him. I am a fighter and I will fight to keep him. I will keep fighting until I can bring the things to this club that will make him happy. People must remember that Steven has more than two years left on his contract. That fact alone puts Liverpool in a strong position. He wants to win things and win them with Liverpool.
"I always talk to Steven about my ideas for the future and he knows that we want a strong team around him. It is difficult at the moment because it is the first year and we have a lot of injuries, but he knows my ideas. I am a fighter and I am fighting to keep him. The first thing is to tell him we will build a strong team around him.
"Sometimes I have told him about players I am looking at because I want him to understand we are working very hard for the present and the future. When I decided to sign Fernando Morientes I asked Steve what he thought. I asked him if he liked Morientes as a player and what he thought he could bring to the team.
"When I was in Spain at Valencia I spoke to some of my key players about what we would do. That is important and I have done that with Steve. We are working now to bring in players in the summer. We have to watch them all around the world because that is what others are doing. I don't want tosay how many I am looking for, it is not the right time to talk about that, but we are looking.
"My scouts have prepared a list of players in all the positions. It depends what money we have. If we have not much money then we will have to act quickly.
"Steven understands how important he is to us and he has a clear idea about the things he wants. He wants to win with us and he will do the best for his club and that's the most important thing."