Torres happy with Roy of the Reds

[Kennys_spell]

If he goes he'll go where he wants to go. Kaka didn't go to the highest bidder.

 

Really? What other bids were in for Kaka that were higher?

[Whelan]

Really? What other bids were in for Kaka that were higher?

 

City, although that was Milan's decision rather than Kaka's.

[zigackly]

If he goes to Chelsea then he's a cunt. Fairly simple.

[Kevin D]

If Torres leaves it will be one persons decision and one person only, and that is Torres. Blaming Broughton would be daft.

 

Torres left his home town club that he loved so he could challenge for the big titles and play in the big finals. Thanks to the Americans we have become a joke of a club with little hope of this improving in the immediate future and virtually no hope of any silverware. Why on earth would Torres want to stay? If he wants to go, then, in truth, who are we to stop him or deny him? He is a top top player and deserves to be challenging for titles and European Cups and not wasting away at a mid-table club with no chance of anything. If he was at Aston Villa we would be saying he should move - well, Aston Villa probably have a brighter immediate future then us. We are where we are now and have to accept that, at this moment, we are a midtable selling club. Torres only has maybe 4 seasons left at the very top of his game. I think we may have to accept that he'll want those 4 seasons to be spent somewhere where he can win things. And that may very well be Chelsea, and anyone that thinks Torres wouldn't play for another English club has their head in the clouds. He'd play for another Spanish club in a league that has the club he adores, so be under no false impression that he wouldn't do the same here.

 

If Torres goes, or Stevie, or Pepe, be under no illusion as to where the blame lies, and that is squarely at the doors of two very greedy, very obnoxious and utterly despicable Americans who have systematically raped this club of not only its place in world football, but it’s soul, and almost its lifes breath.

 

[coop]

Whilst Hodgson may well improve us this season there is very little chance of us winning the league and in all fairness we are going to havhe to play well to qualify for the Champions League with the way City are likely to spend.

 

JohnnyH is right in that Torres knows at Chelsea he is more or less secured to be playing Champions League football and will be challenging for all the major honours.

 

For us to turn round the situation at the club we need to be sold and a new stadium to be built and all that will take 2-3 years if we are sold this summer.

 

There is no such thing as loyalty in football anymore so don't kid yourself into thinking Torres owes the club anything.

[Kennys_spell]

Not so sure about the stadium being key to our improvement - get new owners before the end of the "window" (which isn't impossible) and we have the chance to add a few players that will improve the 1st team and a few to improve the squad. That could bring immediate improvements and the building of the stadium would allow us to maintain that.

[gkmacca]

All clubs do it. Real get more publicity for it because they do it with high profile players.

 

Most do it, yes, but not to the extent of Real. It's a shameless routine that utilises a huge media network to ride roughshod over any inconvenient rules. LFC has been penalised in the past for far, far, far less.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Actions not words will decide the future of Stevie and Fernando

 

Clichéd sound bite much?

[coop]

Not so sure about the stadium being key to our improvement - get new owners before the end of the "window" (which isn't impossible) and we have the chance to add a few players that will improve the 1st team and a few to improve the squad. That could bring immediate improvements and the building of the stadium would allow us to maintain that.

 

Maybe the case mate but your hoping on a Man City kind of take over if they can afford to spend on the squad asap whilst still committing to buying the stadium.

 

It may well happen and investor has the cash to inject into the playing staff but its a gamble that they would and Torres may well feel its not worth the risk.

[Hermes]

City, although that was Milan's decision rather than Kaka's.

 

It wasn't, Kaka refused to join them. Why would Milan turn down £100m and then accept £56m?

[gkmacca]

YNWA: The Players' Version

 

When you walk through a storm

Don't like walking through storms.

Hold your head up high

OK, I can do that!

And don't be afraid of the dark

Lights must be on at all times.

At the end of the storm

I repeat: I don't 'DO' storms.

There's a golden sky

Now you're talking!

And the sweet silver song of the lark

Meh.

 

Walk on, through the wind

You're disappointing me again!

Walk on, through the rain

You're trying my patience here!

Though your dreams be tossed and blown

OK, that's it, I'm off!

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart

Whatever.

And you'll never walk alone

Er, no - but YOU will!

You'll never walk alone

I need to win things.

[Whelan]

It wasn't, Kaka refused to join them. Why would Milan turn down £100m and then accept £56m?

 

Gary Cook stated that Milan bottled it!

[Hermes]

Gary Cook stated that Milan bottled it!

 

Gary Cook has stated a lot of things.

[ZonkoVille77]

If he goes to Chelsea then he's a cunt. Fairly simple.

 

This exactly.

[King Emlyn]

To be honest i really couldn't care less. If he wants to go let him go for the best possible price, if he wants to stay, cool.

[TheResonator]

I've seen a lot of this 'if they want to leave, let them leave!' on the forums recently regarding Yossi, Torres, Gerrard and anybody else for whom a transfer is mooted. Nobody's bigger than the club and so on.

 

The sad fact is that the club of today is not the club it was even five years ago, I think back then we could afford the luxury of telling anybody who doesn't want to stay to 'do one'.

 

Realistically though, what does it mean for someone to play for Liverpool now apart from the name, the historical prestige?

 

Look no further than Hodgson's appointment, the lack of other big names mooted or the instantaneous dismissals of Deschamps, Hiddink when linked with the role. The current club is tainted by greedy, callous and self-serving owners, a board that backstabbed a manager after six years and sacked him in the most ignominious way, a manager who, by all accounts, was a fair and decent person. Hodgson is analogous to the sort of player we can expect to attract these days; decent mid-table who will put aside the boardroom troubles for a chance to play for a 'big' club (no longer challenging or successful, but 'big' in the way people speak of Newcastle or spoke of Spurs a couple of seasons ago). Players who are essentially not the caliber of player we would have gone for a couple of seasons ago but are our only option now.

 

Torres is probably the most exciting player we've had at Liverpool in my lifetime and the reality is I don't know when we'll next sign a player like him, not to mention that his replacement will likely be vastly inferior. This is why I'm reluctant to just let him go.

 

For Torres and Gerrard, staying means - on some level - playing ball with the boardroom that unceremoniously sacked the manager they'd worked with for 6/3 years, that lied to him the summer before about transfer funds, that is offering no investment and no hope of challenging for the title in the immediate future. This element is not entirely separable from the name 'Liverpool FC', nor is it separable from their decision to stay 'for the fans', like it or not, staying for the fans would also serve to support the decision to treat Benitez in the way he was treated, and the appointment of his successor. The elements involved are not clearly divisible.

 

Personally I'll be praying he stays - I love the guy. It would be awful if we went to Chelsea but I would not judge him nearly as badly as I would have a year ago. LFC are his employers and, at the end of the day, they're rotten to the core - irrespective of the continuing support of their customers.

 

To leave on a slightly conspiratorial note, what if Broughton was hired not to sell the club but to broker deals of our saleable assets to Chelsea? Yossi goes, then Torres goes, money pays the debt and then come the end of August, with no bids on a sale, Broughton regrettably leaves his post citing differences with the owners and the impossibility of a sale and goes back to his directors box at Stamford to watch Nando and Drogba together up front. Don't let it surprise you.

[King Emlyn]

If he goes to Chelsea then Broughtons position is completely untennable.

[Horus]

The bizarre thing is, if Martin Broughton was telling the truth about the fact we have no need to sell, then why don't the club release a statement saying he is under contract and would not be allowed to move until new owners are in place, due to the fact that they may be mega wealthy people that will enable him to fulfill his ambitions at Liverpool?

 

What's all this "if Fernando wants to go, we are powerless" bollocks that Roy was coming out with?

 

Broughton will definitely do his best to get him to Chelsea, I also bet he'll do his best to ensure we end up with investors as owners, rather than a Sheikh Mansour type. Liverpool has become the watchword for providing nice liitle earners to all concerned. Why would the bank deem a sugar daddy to be best for Liverpool, when they want to keep working with us? In order for that to happen, they need people that are rich enough to properly guarantee the money, but not entirely wealthy enough to not need it. I fear the next owners will be 5 year, stadium build investors and not long term custodians.

[GJM]

I really don't think he'll leave this summer. He's struggling for fitness, there are only a few clubs that could afford him (and his recent fitness issues make him something of a risk, even to clubs with bottomless pockets), and I think that there are only one or two clubs that he would want to go to.

 

Taking what he has said over the past year or so at face value, it seems pretty clear that his preference is to play for Liverpool and for Liverpool to be able to challenge for the premier league and the champions league.

 

Whether we can sort ourselves out in time to do this is the issue. I think he'll stay and my hope is that the new manager can get us playing in such a manner that some of our players start to lose this perception that we are no good unless we spend another 100million in the transfer market.

 

The likes of Torres and Gerrard staying fit and motivated is key to this, and it would be nice to think that they see themselves as sharing in the responsibility to improve performances and results.

[King Emlyn]

Btw, surely i can't be the only person who thinks the club isn't really up for sale.

[zigackly]

No club is bigger than a player, eh? Because that's what we are seeing nowadays. Players holding clubs to ransom. And what's worse is we seem to suck it all up with a big straw. What happened to clubs winning things because the players went out onto the pitch and made it happen?

[Horus]

I really don't think he'll leave this summer. He's struggling for fitness, there are only a few clubs that could afford him (and his recent fitness issues make him something of a risk, even to clubs with bottomless pockets), and I think that there are only one or two clubs that he would want to go to.

 

Taking what he has said over the past year or so at face value, it seems pretty clear that his preference is to play for Liverpool and for Liverpool to be able to challenge for the premier league and the champions league.

 

Whether we can sort ourselves out in time to do this is the issue. I think he'll stay and my hope is that the new manager can get us playing in such a manner that some of our players start to lose this perception that we are no good unless we spend another 100million in the transfer market.

 

The likes of Torres and Gerrard staying fit and motivated is key to this, and it would be nice to think that they see themselves as sharing in the responsibility to improve performances and results.

 

These are the guys that need the help. We need to add to them with players on their level, not ask them to set the example week in week out to the whole squad. That's too much burden.

[Hermes]

Btw, surely i can't be the only person who thinks the club isn't really up for sale.

 

Why would they say it was if it wasn't? What would they have to gain from the stagnation, uncertainty and lack of forwarding planning that an imminent sale brings?

[King Emlyn]

Why would they say it was if it wasn't? What would they have to gain from the stagnation, uncertainty and lack of forwarding planning that an imminent sale brings?

Time

[Carra_is_legend]

Btw, surely i can't be the only person who thinks the club isn't really up for sale.

 

I think the club IS for sale but I don't think the two cunts have put a "reasonable" figure against it. And I don't believe any of this bullshit about the price has already been agreed and its "reasonable" etc.