TORRES BID A TRIPLE WHAMMY RUSE IN MERRY-GO-ROUND?
By dixon9
January 28 2011
Liverpool have confirmed that we have offered £35 million for Fernando Torres. “Chelsea have made a bid for Fernando which has been turned down,” confirmed a Liverpool suit. “The player is not for sale.” With only three days of the transfer window left, the offer smacks of a wild card catalyst to spark off a chain reaction which involves Udinese’s Sanchez, Aguero from Atletico Madrid, Liverpool target Luiz Suarez from Ajax, Van de Wiel from the same club and finally David Luiz from Benfica.
The Torres offer was certainly expected to be turned down; the bid was too low, and the new owners – although desperate for cash – were always unlikely to be willing to upset new manager and Liverpool fan’s favourite Dalglish.
So why make the offer then? Well, it was always worth a try given Liverpool’s current difficulty in shifting Ajax’s stance in selling them Luis Suarez, with their £12.8million bid falling well short of the required £21million.
But Suarez isn’t the only issue here. Ajax are in need of some cash injection and are prepared to sell defender Van der Wiel to solve their problem if no agreement is reached with Liverpool for Suarez by Saturday.
“Anything can happen at the moment,” said Van der Wiel’s agent Slimani.
“I think if one of the clubs wants him, he would have to think about it. The main thing is that Ajax will have to make a decision about that.
“But at the moment nothing is concrete, there is no offer on the table. He still has a contract for five years, so it all depends on Ajax and whether they are willing to let him go, and whether Luis Suarez joins Liverpool.”
The pressure is on and an increased offer from Chelsea for Torres would give Liverpool the cash needed for the deal with plenty to spare.
Van der Wiel latecomer enters the fray?
The pot thickens with the availability of a much cheaper £8.8million Van der Wiel possibly persuading Benfica to stop delaying and seal up the deal with Chelsea for David Luiz. Benfica want €25 million (£21.5m) plus one young player – apparently Nemanja Matic – which would put the total fee at around €30m. The Portuguese club also have an investment fund group “Benfica Stars” who are anxiously awaiting their €6.25m cut.
"El Niño Maravilla"
Chelsea have also been negotiating with Udinese for their much lauded striker Sanchez. Udinese are adamant they will only let Sanchez go for £25 million and we are reportedly prepared to go to a maximum of £22m. Could the Torres bid drive Udinese towards accepting our slightly lower offer?
Long-term Target
Ditto re the situation with our interest in Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero. Reports claim we have again gone back to the Spanish club with a new offer for their striker. The much publicised Torres offer could also serve to persuade them to grab our money.
There’s a big poker game going on at the moment; who will blink first? Who will win and who will lose?
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"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.