Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Torres-Suarez partnership would be stuff of fantasy

Would Fernando Torres be welcomed back at Liverpool?
By Emdad Rahman

Orginal articleOn this dismally cold day we are told that Roman Abramovich is allegedly seeking £20 million to part company with Chelsea hit man Fernando Torres.


Torres arrived at Chelsea amidst a storm. He immediately endeared himself to the Blues when saying that he was pleased to be playing at a “big club.”

But such is football, that if El Nino were to return to Anfield and shoot Liverpool to the Champions League all would be forgiven and forgotten. It is football after all.

I wasn’t shocked with Torres’ mid season switch and had an inkling from my very own insider who had told me in November 2010 that Torres had not made the cut for Europa League games in order to preserve his European eligibility.

Andres Villas-Boas has a blueprint and has his own mandate for Chelsea. He was specifically chosen by Abramovich to lead the new Blue revolution and has three years to do so. Part of his first move has been to sweep the cobwebs with his brush.

Nicolas Anelka has left, and there is uncertainty over the futures of Frankie Lampard, Didier Drogba, and Alex. The old timers remember AVB as Jose Mourinho’s back room analyst and it may be proving difficult for some of them to rid that thought from their memories.

One thing is for sure, with his goals per game ratio over the last 12 months, no team will touch him for anything close to £20 million. After all we live in very hard economical times. It may come down to a last minute push from Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool.

The realistic expectation is a six month loan deal to lower the Chelsea club wage bill with a view to a summer transfer. On the other hand Manchester City may blow the competition away by taking Torres as Tevez's likely replacement.

Torres was nothing short of a Galactico at Liverpool, becoming the fastest player in Liverpool’s history to score 50league goals. Taking over Robbie Fowler’s No.9 shirt, Torres matched Fowler by becoming the first since Fowler in 1995/96 to score 30 goals in a season.

Successive hat-tricks against Middlesbrough and West Ham in 2007-08 made Torres the most prolific foreigner ever in a debut season in England.

His Stade Velodrome strike against Marseille won Goal of the Season on Liverpoolfc.tv, and the fans voted him their Player of the Year. The year finished with Torres becoming a European Champion, scoring Spain’s winner against Germany in the final.

It was unfortunate that his head was turned by his advisors who were more interested in adding zeros to his wages than his legacy as a footballing great.
With Romelu Lukaku lurking, the £10 million goal per game man may become the biggest casualty yet at Stamford Bridge.

Would Liverpool fans have him back? In a jiffy, I’d say. A mouth watering partnership with Luis Suarez is straight from the realms of fantasy football.

Many a dab hand Kopite will wholly trust Kenny Dalglish’s judgement on this. That, the voice of the fans and the picture painted by Damien Comolli’s computer generated analysis may prove to be the key feature if Torres is to ever return.

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