I've been doing some thinking (made my brain hurt a fair bit) into the sycophantic nature of the Torres sympathisers within CFC itself, Benitez being a perfect example, and, like many others, have come to the conclusion that the Torres situation has very little to do with what goes on on the pitch. There has to be an underlying reason; besides the fact we forked out a ****load of money on him, that is keeping his head above water and I figured worldwide shirt sales will have a massive influence here. I remembered reading not long after his transfer that by Feb 2011, Torres was selling 40% more shirts as a blue than he ever did as a red... So I did some digging. First I found that the Daily Mail (forgive the source, let's just presume their info is correct on this!) did a survey in November whereby they contacted Premier League clubs to ask for their top shirt sellers. Where most clubs gave a top 3, we were the only club to decline to comment... okay then... This got me intrigued so I checked out some other stats and found that Torres is No 3 in North America, behind Van Persie and Rooney as of December for the 2012/2013 season And then for global sales, Torres is again 3rd. Overall, we are 4th in the global ranking for shirt sales, behind Utd, Real Madrid, and Barcelona so we are selling plenty of shirts. There will be a few that know the reality here, and that is that there is not a lot of profit in shirt sales... ...the real profit is made in selling the CFC brand worldwide and Torres is an intrinsic cog in the brand machine and until that changes, it will continue. Extra thoughts/info: The average profit from a shirt sale is about £10 so there's a conservative estimate of about £9M annually for total sales of approximately 900,000 (not just Torres) but then you have to take into that the implications of our kit deal with Samsung, worth £18m per season and the deal with Adidas at £20m per season (signed in 2010 for 8 seasons at a total of £160m). Both are massive global brands who will be delighted with the figures and will even, albeit indirectly, put pressure on our board to try and keep Torres playing in the hope that his performance will improve and shirt sales would even go up! EDIT: I dont literally mean NEVER, but for the foreseeable future at least.
very interesting and i think you could well of hit the nail on the head with that. Its a shame that torres will not do the honourable thing and put in a transfer request and go on strike if it is not granted.
Or better still, nail IN head. Very interesting read CH83, could well be a significant factor. By the way, how long does his contract run ???
Coolhand --Your article was spot on . I go with your reasoning that Torres is paying us bsck in other ways! I'd rather like to see him terrorise the opposition though!
Saw this, today, on the BBC Football website:- 1711: FOOTBALL Rafael Benitez has backed Fernando Torres to win over the Chelsea boo boys and insisted the misfiring striker's poor performance in the 2-0 defeat to Swansea was down to a stomach bug, rather than lack of desire or talent. "I could not explain it before the match, because (Swansea manager) Michael Laudrup would have known, but Fernando had a stomach bug and Demba Ba had a niggle," Benitez told a press conference. "So Fernando was playing with the problem. I was really pleased with him because he was trying to play despite the problems he had." Bad luck guys. Then again, I think we all knew that Coco has no real choice in the matter. He's got to act like Torres will come good, because that is what Mad Dog has brought him in to say. Expect potential Golden Boot Boy, Demba Ba, to be sitting on the bench for your next big match, whilst Torres is given yet another opportunity to fcuk things up for you and the club
what a load of cobblers, wonder what ba's niggle was? probably that he had to sit and watch tummy bug boy not get a kick
I doubt too many people are buying torres shirt anymore to be 3rd ranked, your article is dated almost a year ago .. in past year , he become the main trolling target for every sport forum.. why want to wear his shirt now? the only reason he staying is bcz he was Abra choice just like sheva and costed alot .. selling him will mean Abra was wrong there will be no sale of shirts if Chelsea are doing well & winning .. and that is counter your claim logic.. he has to be dropped and sold.. SIMPLE
