Tora! Tora! Torres!

Fernando Torres, 23 year old Spanish striker and Atletico Madrid's captain was in the center of the media attention this week. Just weeks ago, we've been linked with Henry, Villa, Eto'o and Bent which hasn't produced any positive signs for them. Now the press are widely speculating about Torres buy-out-clause worth £27million and revived the 3 major talking points on why he should be donning the red shirt? But Liverpool is not the only team that chasing for his signature, Chelsea and Manchester United are monitoring the situation very closely too. News from Atletico said 'Torres is not for sale'! Looks like Atletico Madrid ready to cash-in on him as his contract expires in 2009 and force us to trigger Torres's clause. Since they're playing hardball over the transfer fee, Rafa need an alternative persuasion. Report from Echo saying that Luis Garcia will be use as a bargaining chip.

If Fernando is worth £27million, then Rafa have to dig-deep into the pockets of the new owners for this. But the question is can Fernando Torres 'survive' in the English Premier League? Is he another 'Fernando' Morientes, who failed to live up to our expectation but banging in goals week in, week out once he left us for Valencia? Why don't we compete for Darren Bent instead of going after Torres? Bent is cheaper, almost half the asking price to Torres's and now we are set to lose him to Spurs.

The amount of money spent on an untried player will put Rafa in tremendous pressure to land the league title. If Torres perform then it's ok but what if he just an 'average joe'? A very good example, just look at Chelsea's megabuck superstar Andriy Shevchenko, a high profile striker in Europe but a flop in EPL. Henry cost lesser and Owen's clause is cheaper, both proven premiership goalscorers but Owen recent recovery from injury has caused Rafa to reconsider his availability. Henry rated £20million by Barcelona is far much complete player than Torres and I think Rafa would love to have him onboard if he can put his ego aside.

I know Rafa always play his cards close to his chest, but how many cards does Rafa possesses are remain to be seen? Selling players hasn't been successful so far. That's means George and Tom have to use their own pocket money to finance the purchase first, if not we'll not going to see any new player coming in at all. If we want to win the league title then we need to gamble and I mean big gamble. If Cisse was our biggest signing with £14million and wasn't able to perform, he was not signed by Rafa. Now we need Rafa to make his biggest signing in his reign and then we can judge whether he is making the right decisions or not?

Stay tune for more transfer news!


YNWA,
Red's Fury™