Martin Skrtel signs new long-term contract with Liverpool

Martin Skrtel has handed new Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers a timely boost after putting pen to paper on a new long-term contract.

The 27-year-old Slovakia international had attracted interest from a host of suitors this summer, including Manchester City and Fiorentina.

But the in-demand defender, who joined the Reds from Zenit St Petersburg for £6million in 2008, has committed his future to the Merseyside club insisting he wants to be remembered as a legend at Anfield.

Skrtel's centre-back partnership with Daniel Agger is viewed as the bedrock of Rodgers' foundations for the coming years so the next job for the Reds boss is to tie the Denmark international down to a new contract.

Manchester City are believed to have made two enquiries about Agger over the summer but Rodgers has stressed he does not want to sell the defender.