Torres Off To Chelsea? Good Or Bad News.

This comes as a welcome news in a relatively quiet transfer window. My reasons being (a) the money involved (b) the player involved (c) the clubs involved

Taking (a) the money is a whole lot and for the fact that it’s being spent on a player whose form in recent years has been far from best. The kind of players who have commanded that kind of transfer fee in the past have been the ones who could take on the opposition single handedly and/or in blistering form before their transfer. Torres, in my opinion, is not any of those. For a club like Chelsea who have just paid £20m for Ramires, pouring £50m on another player should require a little more caution. There are better ways to spend £50m.

(i) Outbid Liverpool for Suarez. £25m

(ii) Man City would gladly accept this for an unwanted Adebayor. £15m

So that means two hardworking strikers plus £10m to pay their wages for the next five years. David Villa cost Barcelona £35m.

For (b) Fernando Torres has not lived up to the hype that preceded his entry into the Premiership and except Abramovich has placed a bet on signing Torres, the Chelsea backroom staff have a lot of explaining to do. Every striker in the Chelsea squad is very mobile and as fit. Strikers who came in lacking that quality were thrown through the transfer window as soon as it opened (Shevchenko, Pizarro). Torres as at the World Cup in South Africa and would have had the same stats if he hadn’t been there at all. Ego might be another thing as Torres has been more celebrated and decorated  during his time at Liverpool than Drogba who, by my standards, has been a better player in every department. He would definitely not rise above Drogba in Chelsea but if his work rate and goal rate becomes any less than the likes of Kalou, Anelka (if he’s lucky not to be part of the deal) and Sturridge then questions will be asked because Torres will always be played to justify his £50m and if Chelsea don’t make it through to the next round of the FA Cup every match will be as important as the next; starving the like of Kalou the much needed playing time. People remind me of his brace against Chelsea and that it should justify his price tag. If for that reason, I think Robin ‘I love my physio’ van Persie and Louis ‘I only score against big teams’ Saha might as well earn that kind of money for their clubs.

For (c) both Chelsea and Liverpool have had something in common recently and that’s their poor form. Liverpool, before their win against Wolves, had not won an away game since last October against Bolton and we all know the Chelsea story. Liverpool are out of both domestic cups and they are closer to relegation than they are to the title, so this might justify the sale of their best forward and half of their ‘two man’ team. They simply have nothing to fight for anymore this season and if they bring in Suarez or Andy Carroll, they have a good enough squad to stay in the top flight. Chelsea, on the other hand, have signaled their intent to defend the title. With the chance of taking six points off their biggest threat, Manchester United, a desperate move might be welcome. They still have some really big games  against the likes of other direct rivals like Man City and Tottenham so a big buy should ease off some pressure. The problem is, I think Chelsea need to strengthen other areas than the attack. The midfield and defence should have been given more priority as they’ve had more injuries in these positions recently. Lampard and Essien still look like they’re gaining match fitness while Ramires plays like he’s allergic to a blue shirt and has to take pills to suppress it. The defence is no better recent injuries to the likes of Terry and Alex has caused a redeployment of positions in the whole defence line and Terry doesn’t look to be back at his best yet

The fair play rule by Uefa for financial reasons might mean Chelsea would not be too active in the transfer market in coming seasons and Torres wages would not do Chelsea, who already boast of the highest wage bill in the Premiership, any good. The good news is, for the first time this January, we are seeing an actual transfer (save me the Dzeko, Adebayor speech). A preview of tomorrow’s matches comes in the morning. See you at the comments. Keep keeping it Naija!!!