Re: Torres - Chelsea 35mil Bid turned down
Losing prize asset means Liverpool are left without partner for Luis Suárez
Tony Barrett
1 minute ago
By signing Luis Suárez for a club-record fee, Liverpool intended to do two things — give Fernando Torres the top-class strike partner he has been crying out for and prove to the Spain forward that their ambition matches his own.
The question now, after Torres informed Liverpool of his desire to leave Anfield yesterday, is whether they will appear in the same team.
Having wanted to leave Liverpool last summer only for his desire to be left unfulfilled by Chelsea’s inability to come up with the kind of offer that would tempt the Merseyside club to do business, Torres’s longing for a transfer has intensified during a season in which Liverpool have failed to live up to his and their aspirations.
The Torres camp has long seen Chelsea as the ideal destination for a player who has been coveted by Roman Abramovich for the past two seasons. Chelsea’s owner sees him as the key that can unlock the door to the Champions League success he craves. That is why the move for Torres has been made now; Abramovich wants to win the competition this season, before Chelsea’s ageing squad is broken up.
The other prime motive for Chelsea’s interest being hardened now is that Abramovich is hoping to avoid having to meet the £50 million release clause in Torres’s contract that will be activated at the end of the season if, as expected, Liverpool fail to qualify for the Champions League. There is also the small matter of Manchester City, Torres’s other long-time suitor, who would be ready to move in the summer and provide a challenge that Abramovich might not be able to match.
Torres’s yearning to leave is fuelled by a belief that Liverpool are not the same club as the one that he joined in July 2007. He feels that the damage done by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the former owners, will take several years or a spending spree unprecedented by Liverpool’s standards to make them competitive again.
The Spaniard also feels that he has been let down by a series of promises not being kept and saw this season as the final chance for Liverpool to live up to his expectations. Seventh place in the Barclays Premier League was not what he envisaged.
The Torres problem is one that was inherited by Fenway Sports Group (FSG), which has owned Liverpool only since October. It did not insert the clause in his contract — that was done by Christian Purslow, the club’s former managing director — nor did it spark the spiral of decline that has pushed Torres to the Anfield exit door. FSG has shown a mixture of ambition and prudence in conducting the Suárez deal.
But Torres was looking to FSG to go on the kind of recruitment drive during January that would convince him to stay, as John W. Henry II, Liverpool’s principal owner acknowledged when he admitted that certain players “would prefer a quick fixâ€. Henry will be particularly disappointed with Torres’s decision.
The move for Suárez for a fee that could rise to £22.8 million was intended to be a statement of FSG’s intent, an indication that they are ready and willing to compete at the top end of the transfer market.
But with Torres making clear his intention to leave and Chelsea’s interest in the World Cup winner intensifying despite their opening offer being rebuffed, it is likely that even a club record purchase might prove too little, too late for Liverpool to keep El Niño.