Sunday, June 15, 2008

Chelsea To Bid £40 Million For Torres

Seemingly undaunted by the player's declaration that he's going nowhere, Chelsea are planning to tempt Liverpool into selling star striker Fernando Torres by offering them £40 million for the Spanish striker, according to the News of the World.

Torres, who scored the opener in Spain’s 2-1 victory over Sweden in Euro 2008 yesterday, enjoyed a stellar first season in English football after signing from Atletico Madrid last July.

Although both Liverpool and Torres have previously stated that the striker is happy to stay at Anfield, Chelsea are thought to believe they can cash in on the current unrest between the Liverpool owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and manager Rafael Benitez, by offering a British record bid that the owners will find difficult to turn down. This in turn could unsettle the youngster.

New Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is reportedly determined to make the striker his first signing even though he knows it will not be easy. A Chelsea source said: “Scolari is will aware it will be a real battle to try to get Torres out of Liverpool.”

However despite this, Scolari reportedly believes a huge bid may just make the transfer a possibility.

“He’s ready to make the sort of bid that will make even the Americans sit up and take notice” the Chelsea source said before adding, “Obviously he knows that Liverpool don’t want to sell one of their star assets but he still believes he can exploit the troubles and turmoil at Anfield to get his man.”

Torres signed for Liverpool last summer costing the Anfield club somewhere in the region of £21 million. He scored 33 goals in his first season breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record as the most prolific foreign striker in their debut season in the Premier League.

As recently as this week he told the media in no uncertain terms that he was going nowhere and that he was eager to continue with the Reds.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He better stays. I hardly see any striker makes it better somewhere else these days after they left where they became famous.

Look at Henry. Remember Owens to Real Madrid?