Yesterday, Liverpool agreed a fee of close to £23m for Ajax striker Luis Suarez and are continuing to hassle Blackpool for Charlie Adam’s services.
Whilst Holloway remains determined that he wants to leave the club over a £25,000 fine issued by the FA for its 10-man team change following their 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa back in November, Charlie Adam’s quest to join Liverpool continues.
As pointed out by numerous Premier League managers such as Harry Redknapp and Alex Ferguson, the Premier League’s winter transfer market is without a doubt the trickiest business in football as prices for players plummet to ridiculous prices, and are finely complemented by the various club’s form, and this year it’s Liverpool’s.
Following a disappointing start to the 2010-11 campaign with Roy Hodgson, John Henry and his new boys decided that the former Fulham was not suited for the job and gave his position to Kop legend Kenny Dalgleish, who alongside Director of Football Damien Comolli, is looking to add to the squad.
However what Liverpool have decided to do is finally splash the cash and invest in players who can immediately help recover the club’s woes and propel them back amongst Europe’s elite.
Luis Suarez imminent arrival on Merseyside may jolt the Uruguayan and together with Liverpool’s incomprehensible tongue, may confuse the 24-year-old to where the goal exactly is. His hopes of playing with some of the world’s best players could be dampened with Fernando Torres’s recent politely declined request to leave the club.
Has Torres’s recent request put a halt on Suarez’s arrival? Maybe.
Has Torres’s recent request put a halt to Liverpool’s ambitions this season and ability to bring Europe’s top names to the club? Indeed.
Why exactly Liverpool decided to reveal Chelsea’s bid for the Spaniard is beyond any Reds fan at the moment, as the media have manipulated every single one of the major transfers so far in the window, with words being stretch to such extremes to suit ‘dramatic’ situations that they no longer are relevant to the topic.
Torres needs to partner up with Suarez for the rest of the season, not Didier Drogba.
If he must go, he must go in the summer, when he has longer than 2 days to make up his mind and have to move all the way to London with his new born son, and countless Premier League trophies *cough*.
It’s not his desire to leave the club that comes as a shock, but the manner in which he has decided to do it. World-class players have the right to play for the best teams in the world and win trophies, but unfortunately for Liverpool – they are not in that bracket just yet.
Torres has stuck by the club since his success with Spain in the summer, which has shown that El Nino loves playing for the club and hear his name sung by the Kop and wants Liverpool to succeed. However with the infamous six-month Hodgson era, Torres has underperformed and become one of many wantaways on Merseyside.
One must remain respectful for his services to Liverpool’s history, becoming the fastest player to reach 50 goals in a season and entering double-digit scoring tally every season since joining back in 2007. Torres was not a part of their 2005 Champions League triumph, their 2006 FA Cup win or CL Final in Athens a year later in 2007.
It is understandable that Torres wishes to leave Liverpool, he has established the building blocks of his career at Anfield and has always been a fans favourite. The timing however could be better, with a couple of days left in the window – it is unlikely that he will be able to bridge a move to Chelsea.
He could very well endure a difficult future four months at the club, unless King Kenny can persuade the 26-year-old to stay, and string together a series of wins and Champions League worthy performances.
Then again if El Nino opts to stay until the summer, he could pick up an injury that could scare potential suitors away or knock a cool £20m off his £50m price tag – where’s Paulo Ferreira when you need him (remember Rooney in 2006)?
Torres’s departure could leave Liverpool in tatters, and will be a backwards step for the club. The former Athletico Madrid striker is in a brilliant position at the moment, either he will get the big money deal away from Anfield or his CRUCIAL agent will intervene and demand a nice fat new contract worth millions of pounds.
Gerrard and Torres remain the core of Liverpool’s talent at the moment, and his departure could signal to the world that the club are not heading in the right direction and prevent big names from joining the club.
Suarez should be playing the role of a classic number ten, cutting in from the wide areas and feeding the number nine, in this case Torres. The Spaniard should most defiantly stay until the rest of the season and see what prevails, because Chelsea, for a number of reasons, will not win the Premier League nor will they reach the finals of the Champions League due to Barcelona and Milan’s recent form.
Is Chelsea the right club for Torres, with the likes of Steven Pienaar rejecting them for Tottenham and Benfica’s David Luiz’s deal collapsing – are they honestly offering that much more than King Kenny? With the Blues key players perhaps overstepping their stay at Stamford Bridge, could Barcelona be the ones to adopt Torres into their Spanish home?
Who should play on Liverpool’s wings? Niko Kranjcar is not getting a game at Tottenham all thanks to Gareth Bale, and at a cool estimate of £6m, could he be the man for the job to replace out-of-depth Maxi? Perhaps a debate for another time but…
What do YOU think?
Follow and ask me YOUR questions on Twitter (@mwoodward90) – best questions will be mentioned in next week’s Fan’s Question of the Week.
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