I'd take Anelka over Torres on this seasons form any day of the week. *Let alone Anelka over a Torres who was forced to stay here and will probably have a major ****ing sulk on. As a short term option I'd be made up with Anelka right now, as we need someone who can play in the Europa and he can. *If we can get ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã45m plus Anelka right now, I'm happy with that. The Torres of two years ago was irreplaceable and priceless. *The Torres of this season is barely an improvement on Ngog. *Not because he doesn't 'have it' anymore, but because his attitude ****ing stinks, and do people really think it will get better if we force him to stay? Maybe it will because he will feel he has some making up to do, but that's not a risk I'd be willing to take, and he'll be a massive distraction for the rest of the season. If Chelsea give us ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã45m and Anelka, we should take it in my opinion, as it buys us some time to get another striker in our own time next summer.
I'd rather 55mil and Sturridge. The Chelsea fans were outraged that their board were willing to use their most promising youngster in this deal. 21, English and bags of potential and re-sale value. Ulike Anelka, nearly 32 with no resale value at all.
If it's a loan (it's been reported as a loan deal as well as a straight cash plus permanent player exchange), then I'd say anelka. Between now and the end of the season anelka will be better than sturridge. But if it's permanent, maybe sturridge is the better option.
Good call. Agree with you. Anelka would be a good short term solution but Sturridge for the long term as I think he'd be worth the investment in 3 years time perhaps. Maybe we could get both? I really think we could hold Chelsea to randsom over this deal, they seem to really want Torres.
Yeah me too. If they want him now, it'll be on our terms. In the summer, it'll still have to be (allegedly) 50m for them to talk to him without permission. Even then though, if City and Barca offer 50, that might push the price up. Or barca/city may even try a 40m plus player deal, same as Chelsea are doing now. Barca might offer Krkic. I imagine it'd be him if anybody, certainly not Villa. Possibly Pedro. This is the club who gave Eto'o plus 35m for Ibrahimovic, so who knows what they might offer. I can't decide which is better for us, now or summer. But I think he'll definitely go.
Italian clubs can't afford him, Barca are apparently skint, and the key thing here is that he wants to go to Chelsea. We can't start a bidding war as he has a 50m escape clause, and even if he didn't who in their right mind would pay that kind of money for someone who has looked **** for the best part of 12 months.
There have been suggestions it doesn't kick in until the summer. Not sure if that's the case but the clause exists. I'm also not convinced Chelsea is his best option. I'd much prefer him to go to Chelsea than City, because City are on the up and I could see Chelsea starting to slide as loads of their players are about to start slowing down if they haven't already. If he's going there to win trophies, he may be in for a rude awakening. But I can't understand, if he has any respect for the club at all why he has chosen three days before the window closes to put in his transfer request. And while I accept there are mitigating circumstances for him wanting to leave, they don't extend to leaving us with no time to get a ****ing replacement. Him wanting to leave is a seperate issue from the ****house way he went about it (putting a request in 3 days before the window shuts and then fleeing to Spain for a couple of days).
I agree that I can't see chelsea winning much, if anything, soon. Next season, although we like to think not, United will still be up there, Arsenal are looking better every season, City will improve, and Spurs might have another good run at it. So that's 4 chelsea have got to beat, and us too if things go to plan. Previous seasons (last season, for example) it's just been Chelsea and one other team competing closely at the top. The season before that we performed well and knocked them into third. They're looking like us last year, albeit they've got a little bit more (aging) quality about them to keep them within touching distance of the top bunch. Without investment soon, i can see them falling down rapidly.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opi...ward-to-by-joining-Chelsea-article686283.html Haha!! Looks like the mirrors on our side for once!
Can you remember last season when we played them at Anfield and Torres was injured, but was hanging around the dressing room before the match? Most of the Chelsea players were walking up all smiles, shaking his hand and saying something to him - notably Ashley Cole. Maybe they thought he'd be with them last summer.
Always liked the idea of him joining the Gunners - but at ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã50m and his wages - forget it. I suppose it will all be forgotten on Monday afternoon when he takes another ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã50k per week wages.
Fernando Torres’ Liverpool career was nothing if not a little Shakespearian. What promised to be a timeless love story has slowly festered into a tragic tale, with our former No.9 willingly creeping into a frilly thesp costume to cast himself as the treasonous villain of the peace. Just like the ill-fated King Macbeth, Torres was once a great warrior of the realm, beloved by an entire Kingdom. He was furnished with riches and respected by peers and common folk alike. More importantly, he was afforded something that something that could never be bought; the unwavering love of his people. For that he would fight until the death for the crest upon his armour, of that we could be sure. Right? Well somewhere along the way, all that changed. In the story, Macbeth encounters three witches who flatter his ego and tempt him with the riches that lay in wait upon a (supposedly) higher throne, all he needed to do was betray those who believed in him. Sure enough, he began listening to his own hype and ended up piercing the heart of a great Scottish King and his loyal subjects Just like the treacherous Thane of Cawdor, Fernando Torres’ heart and mind have been irrecoverably altered over the last few months. He began believing the voices, listening too keenly to all of the plaudits. Suddenly our love was unbefitting of this king in waiting, he was better than that and before we saw it coming he drove that knife through our collective hearts. Many of us are hurting today. We feel suckered-in by his professions of love for our city and club and the thought of being taken for such a ride is what makes it so painful. It beggars belief that he could have done this had those once-cherished utterances had an ounce of truth to them. But the jaded, self-absorbed, entitled little brat we see parading his new superior status in front of us is really not the same man who fought so valiantly and effectively for our own cause. There’s no doubt for me that at the time Torres believed what he was saying, it’s unlikely that he lied to us, he just changed. Just like Macbeth, the witches got to him. As hard as it sounds, we shouldn’t take it personally, even while he rubs it in our face with his tactless and spiteful ‘top level’ comments. Here’s why. I hate to break it to you Fernando, but Macbeth’s ascension to the ‘throne’ he craved didn’t exactly work out too well for him. He became lonely, racked with guilt, riddled with paranoia and too far up **** creek to go back or go forward. A broken man, he was hunted down and slain by the sons of the King and his last words were a morbid realisation of how pointless it all was. While the above is merely a literary metaphor, it’s true that Fernando Torres will be regretting the last few days forever. He could have been immortal, a man cherished and loved for generations; a man with a true legacy to compare with the best of them. Never again will he feel the kind of love he experienced from us, the kind of admiration that Dalglish himself, Fowler, Carragher and Hyypia can all cherish forever. They all got the meaning of that honour and the most saddening aspect of this sorry episode is that we thought he did too. Deep down I think he probably does and he’ll come to realise that. Deep down, I don’t think he’s all of the names we’ve called him over the last 72 hours, but by the time this once respectful, hungry, brilliant young man realises the error of his ways the dye will have already been cast. Already he’s seemingly struggling to find the words to justify why he felt compelled to toss it all aside. “Because they’re hard to play against,” he stuttered in a hastily-arranged first interview during a phone in hosted by the great Scott Minto. He could have lied and spoken of the great fans, wonderful legacy, great teammates, the prospects for the future and the fantastic stadium, but maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to do it? It’s going to be a very lonely time for you Fernando and not even ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã2m-a-year in image rights, more wages than JT and the odd Champions League run-out can ease that hurt. As for us, we’re already moving on. His betrayal, The Return of The King and the intent shown by the new owners have brought us closer than we’ve been since the dust settled on the miracle of Istanbul. The mood today is one of excitement and determination. While Torres begins years of soul-searching, we’re already preparing to have the last laugh, and make no mistake, we will. The King is dead, long live The King.
Top piece, James. Excellent. I've thought of it in a simpler boy/girl sense. You say you love somebody and you mean it but it can still all end acrimoniously and that's probably happened to most of us. Me more than once. Some guys are looking to trade up on a bird even while saying they love her. Some guys don't see it coming and don't realise she's been staying despite things, not because of them. Some guys take it bad and offer her promises to change, then let her take all his stuff when it's over. As Ben Folds said, "Give me my money back, give me my money back, you bitch. And don't forget my black teeshirt." They can seem cold in the fog of your pain. That doesn't mean they didn't love you more than you ever realised when it was good and beyond, because it was so good, and she won't forget those times. The black teeshirt will always remind her.
As much as it makes a lot of sense to hate him I just don't. I'd quite like a catastrophic failure at Chelsea but if he were to move abroad I think I'd be quite happy to see him do well. He was playing the **** for six months and wanted to move but that doesn't have the weight to change the fact that I generally think he's a decent human being that had made some bad choices over the last half a year. I think us giving him his deserved **** and him not making spiteful comments on it has cemented this feeling.
