Rumour is the Inter Milan sporting director was at Stamford Bridge last night.

 

Supposedly they are interested in signing Torres in the summer. 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2583773/Inter-Milan-chief-Stamford-Bridge-Italian-giants-ante-bid-sign-Fernando-Torres.html?ico=sport%5Eheadlines

 

They've been linked with Evra and Sagna in recent days as well. Considering they're also signing Vidic, I guess their new transfer policy is 'we don't mind if you're a bit past it'.

 

Entirely more nauseating though:

 

Inter boss Walter Mazzarri is anxious to boost his attacking options and has also prioritised a defensive midfielder, with John Obi Mikel an option.

 

 

Thank God it's only the Mail!

Everything crossed Inter follow this up and can take him off our hands.

We need 2 top strikers next season and getting Ba, Torres and even Eto'o off our wage bill will allow this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2583773/Inter-Milan-chief-Stamford-Bridge-Italian-giants-ante-bid-sign-Fernando-Torres.html?ico=sport%5Eheadlines

 

They've been linked with Evra and Sagna in recent days as well. Considering they're also signing Vidic, I guess their new transfer policy is 'we don't mind if you're a bit past it'.

 

Entirely more nauseating though:

 

 

Thank God it's only the Mail!

 

Mikel has been linked for a while now.

 

In truth Serie A is generally quite poor at the moment so players such as Vidic, Evra and Mikel probably would improve a team like Inter who have got a bit of an aging squad anyway, so 30-32 year old will probably reduce the team age if anything. 

 

I think it's a way of being able to sign big name players without having to pay out big transfer fees. 

 

That said Inter are being linked with a lot of players and I can't see them signing even half of them. 

Mikel has been linked for a while now.

 

In truth Serie A is generally quite poor at the moment so players such as Vidic, Evra and Mikel probably would improve a team like Inter who have got a bit of an aging squad anyway, so 30-32 year old will probably reduce the team age if anything. 

 

I think it's a way of being able to sign big name players without having to pay out big transfer fees. 

 

That said Inter are being linked with a lot of players and I can't see them signing even half of them. 

 

 

I guess they realised they would need one hell of a player to fill shoes the size of Cambiasso's. I hope we tell them where to go, but not so harshly that they go off the idea of signing Torres.

I'd be eternally grateful if they took Mikel and Torres

I guess they realised they would need one hell of a player to fill shoes the size of Cambiasso's. I hope we tell them where to go, but not so harshly that they go off the idea of signing Torres.

 

Wait, are you suggesting we shouldnt sell Mikel to Inter?

If Inter sign Torres AND Mikel I feel like we'll be in some sort of eternal debt to them.

Torres leaving will match any signing we make this summer, I don't actually hate him as much as others on here but has to go if we wanna move forward. Jose calling in a debt with inter maybe, can't see why they would want either him or mikel

I don't think either of them would be too bad in Italy to be honest, the games over there are played at 1/3 of the pace which would suit both of them well.

I don't think either of them would be too bad in Italy to be honest, the games over there are played at 1/3 of the pace which would suit both of them well.

Good luck to them and I wish them well.

*I'll even drive them to airport*

Wait, are you suggesting we shouldnt sell Mikel to Inter?

 

Of course we shouldn't, we've only just finished a horrifyingly long streak of only having one defensive midfielder and I'm not particularly keen to repeat it any time soon.

 

Other than Matic who can we truly depend on as a regular for the forseeable future? Lampard has a very limited amount left in the tank, van Ginkel is a totally unknown quantity (as are Chalobah and McEachran really, having no PL experience) and Ramires is becoming increasingly erratic, and he was never particularly consistent to begin with. Other than Lampard, Mikel is our best and most consistent passer out of midfield (which is really the main thing you want a centre mid to be good at if you think about it) and he is defensively solid. Not to mention he's punching above his weight technically for a defensive mid, his first touch is excellent and he is totally reliable with both feet.

Even if he doesn't start (Matic-Kroos is an undeniably mouthwatering prospect) he would still be an excellent squad player, one who has been a good club servant for almost a decade, and one with positive, trophy-winning experience at the very highest level. And if that wasn't enough, chances are we'd be receiving less than we paid for him, with no replacement ready. We have nothing to gain from this deal.

 

Torres on the other hand is an albatross around the club's neck and we have nothing to gain from keeping him.

We gain money from the Mikel deal which would go towards a better player who will actually get game time?

There's a reason Jose isn't playing him much...that won't change next season either...best to say thanks and goodbye.

We gain money from the Mikel deal which would go towards a better player who will actually get game time?

There's a reason Jose isn't playing him much...that won't change next season either...best to say thanks and goodbye.

 

Except to say that you wouldn't be able to upgrade on Mikel for the amounts being mentioned.

 

He's been having niggles and fitness problems for the past month or so - otherwise I would imagine he would have made an appearance last night when we were defending a lead.

Except to say that you wouldn't be able to upgrade on Mikel for the amounts being mentioned.

He's been having niggles and fitness problems for the past month or so - otherwise I would imagine he would have made an appearance last night when we were defending a lead.

We may well be able too plus we will have a budget in the summer to add to it if needed.

Player sales such as Luiz, Mikel, Torres and no doubt the likes of Marin and Moses will ensure we can add some quality to our midfield.

Mikel won't be sticking around to make a sub or cup appearance here or there. It's best for both parties if he goes IMO.

Edited March 19, 201412 yr by RFC_CFC

Latest on the Inter Milan link is that apparently we will allow him to join Inter on loan to allow Mourinho to sign his choice of Falcao or Costa. 

No, not a loan deal. Don't do it. We gain nothing from it.

No, not a loan deal. Don't do it. We gain nothing from it.

 

We vacate a strikers position in our squad and reduce the wage bill.

 

If that's what it takes to allow us to bring in a better player then I am all for it. 

Loan or transfer either way if we gain a player we want from it then yes please.

He could impress on loan and they could buy after that.

Either way something has to happen

We vacate a strikers position in our squad and reduce the wage bill.

 

If that's what it takes to allow us to bring in a better player then I am all for it. 

 

If the only option to remove Torres from our books was to have someone at the club organise an elaborate assassination plot, would you still be all for it?

If the only option to remove Torres from our books was to have someone at the club organise an elaborate assassination plot, would you still be all for it?

 

No comment. 

No comment. 

 

Yeah, no use incriminating yourself in a public forum.

As Fernando Torres turns 30 is it time he returned to

Atlético Madrid?

 

In the week of Fernando Torres's birthday, it can't have been much of a present to see Didier Drogba back at Chelsea. The Ivorian's visit with his current club Galatasaray brought with it tributes from José Mourinho, hugs from his former teammates and misty-eyed pre-match reminiscences. All around Stamford Bridge banners still hang that proclaim Drogba as one of the greatest to wear Chelsea blue, and few fans would have begrudged the old warhorse one last goal at the ground. Torres must know that he will never be taken to heart in the same way.

 

He has always seemed to exist in Drogba's giant shadow. Though he was signed for £50m in January 2011, the sort of fee that should have ensured he was the first-choice striker, he made two less starts than Drogba during the remainder of the season, and the same number as Nicolas Anelka. His inability to cement the lone centre-forward spot Chelsea subsequently favoured always seemed to be coloured by the fact that, while Drogba was at the club, nobody else would be top dog – no matter what they cost.

 

Whatever Torres did, he always faded into Drogba's background. During Chelsea's successful 2012 Champions League campaign, he was outdone by the Ivorian in the most dramatic of ways. In the semi-final against Barcelona, it was Torres who sprinted half the length of the Camp Nou pitch to score the goal that made absolutely sure that Chelsea went into the final (and send Gary Neville on a viral journey around the internet). But Drogba, of course, scored the penalty that won the competition outright – and did so with his last kick for the club: an impossibly iconic slice of history that will forever dwarf Torres's contribution. It hardly helped, meanwhile, that Torres was not even allowed to take one of those spot-kicks.

 

But if an inferiority complex was the problem, it wasn't one that was solved after Drogba's departure. Torres has continued to frustrate and it is hard to fathom precisely why. If you ignore the price tag, his signing appeared to be an unquestionable piece of business. He was keen to leave Liverpool, a club he said was "in chaos" at the time. He was a proven goalscorer, one who scored a hat-trick within a month-and-a-half of his Liverpool debut in 2007 and another two – in successive matches – several months later. He scored 33 goals that season, 17 the next, and 22 in his final full season at the club – 65 goals in his 102-match, three-and-a-half season Liverpool career. Even for a club that lived to regret recruiting strikers such as Chris Sutton, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Mateja Kezman, Adrian Mutu and Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea must not have had to think very long about signing him. But, though he has been in London for almost exactly the same amount of time that he was at Liverpool – three seasons and 103 matches, he has scored just 19 goals.

 

Torres has played under five managers at Chelsea, four of them Champions League winners, and the other a Europa League winner. But none of Carlo Ancelotti, André Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benítez or Mourinho could get Torres to play with anything like consistency. There were moments, brief reminders of a former life before another inevitable slump. After missing an open goal against Manchester United in 2011, there was the masterful swivelled shot against Swansea in the following match. A brace followed soon after in the 5-0 Champions League demolition of Genk in October. Villas-Boas proclaimed the striker's confidence was back and so he did not score again until March. When Benítez arrived at the club in November 2012, a temporary recruitment partly to rediscover the manager-striker relationship that once got the best out of Torres at Liverpool, he sparkled with seven goals in six matches in December. He then scored just three in the next three months – against Brentford, Boro and Steaua Bucharest. He did not score again in the league until May.

 

If coaches with that kind of pedigree – excusing, perhaps Di Matteo – could not get him to rediscover his form, then nobody can: the problem lies with the striker, not the staff around him. There are those who have pointed to the serious knee injury he suffered at Liverpool in 2010, claiming it robbed him of the pace that once served him so well. But Torres is hardly a slouch now, and he has had nearly four years to work a way around his problem.

 

There are arguments too that Chelsea do not suit his style of play. At Liverpool, the club would win the ball in their own half before Steven Gerrard would pass into space behind the opposition defence. Torres's speed would do the rest. But in Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, Oscar and Eden Hazard, Torres has hardly been short of world-class playmakers to feed him. And so his confidence is blamed instead – and that's a far tougher thing to quantify or resolve. If his inability to dislodge Drogba from Chelsea's starting lineup started his spiral of doubt, then the fact that his current manager seems to prefer the other ageing, iconic African striker of this generation – Samuel Eto'o – up front cannot help. The simple matter for Chelsea, though, is that they cannot afford to be sympathetic for much longer. For a club that sees itself as one of the best in the world, there comes a time for ruthlessness: and in Torres's case that time has long been up.

 

On the day that Torres turns 30, he has confessed an admiration for the Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone – currently in charge of the striker's first club and the one he has always held dearest. If Chelsea are wondering what to get Torres for his birthday, then granting him a simple transfer might spare them too much wrapping.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/mar/20/fernando-torres-chelsea

He's scored more than 19 goals hasn't he? I think the author has included his league goal tally but his total appearance tally.

 

That said, a move back to Atletico would be nice - would they be interested considering they already have David Villa? Considering our interest in Costa(?), would Atletico not be more interested in a part exchange with Courtois than Torres? I would have thought they would do anything to maintain their leverage in the Courtois deal, even if it kills any hope of them signing Torres.

He's scored more than 19 goals hasn't he? I think the author has included his league goal tally but his total appearance tally.

 

That said, a move back to Atletico would be nice - would they be interested considering they already have David Villa? Considering our interest in Costa(?), would Atletico not be more interested in a part exchange with Courtois than Torres? I would have thought they would do anything to maintain their leverage in the Courtois deal, even if it kills any hope of them signing Torres.

 

He's only scored about 19-21 league goals since he joined the club yeah. 

 

I can't see Atletico actually wanting Torres myself, I think he would be too expensive personally. 

 

The article doesn't really tell us Chelsea fans something we didn't already know but I thought it worth sharing as it lays out some pretty decent points.