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The PROS and CONS of Selling Fernando Torres

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The response from some Liverpool fans to the title will be “what pros?” But I believe there are some reasons for selling our world class centre forward, even though personally I would prefer him to stay at the club:

Pros

– No one would deny that Torres’s injury record over the last two seasons has been great. Now out once more for six weeks with a knee problem which he had issues with back in January, it means that the 26 year old has only played 20 league games this season. His goals to game ratio has been absolutely fantastic but with the amount of injuries he has had, it means he is not been scoring the amount of goals he would like. The fact he only played 20 league games last season is also of major concern, and an indication that his injury problems may persist in the future. There can be no doubting though that many of these can be attributed to him overplaying. He hasn’t had a rest since 2007 effectively after playing in Euro 2008 and the Confederations Cup in the last two summers, and the fact that Liverpool haven’t got any other proven goalscorers hasn’t helped either. When he is fit again after a long term injury lay off, he goes straight back into the team for a long run of games, increasing the likelihood of him getting injured again. The fact that he generally plays as a lone striker and that the onus to score goals weighs heavily on him, are other contributing factors to his frequent injury lay offs. Buying a striker to lighten the burden could be the solution.

– Selling Torres for an extravagant amount of money of between 60 and £80million would help Rafa Benitez tremendously in re-building the squad after a bad season. 3 or 4 top class players, including a striker, could be bought for that money, a striker who could be 100% fit and score goals frequently too. Considering Torres’s injury record too, it maybe the only time in his career he is valued at such a high amount, and if he continues to break down with constant niggles, the Reds may regret not taking the money.

Cons

– Selling the world’s top striker and goalscorer can only really have a negative effect on the team. Liverpool effectively have 4 world class players on their day in Pepe Reina, Javier Mascherano, Steven Gerrard and Torres, and the loss of one of them would represent a big backwards step in the pursuit of that elusive Premier League title. Torres has scored an amazing 56 in 79 league games for the Reds, and that can’t be replaced very easily. Goals win you matches, and in his three year spell at Anfield, Torres has already contributed many important goals that have decided critical games. It is a sale which would cost points, goals and maybe titles.

– Selling to a team like Manchester City would be a shot in the foot for the Reds as they would be selling to rivals who potentially are competing with us for the Premier League title. The only teams that Liverpool should even consider selling to are in Italy or Spain. In most respects, a move to City would be a step backwards both in terms of history and fan support, there is certainly a lot of ambition at the club but the move would be more for money than anything else.

– The sale of Torres would no doubt lead to an exodus of senior players at the club. The lack of ambition by selling your star striker would indicate to players such as Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard that the club doesn’t have the means to go forward and be successful. The loss of such players would make the sale even more calamitous, compounding the loss with further sales which could take a manager a hell of a lot of rebuilding to make the team competitive once again.

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6 comments

  • Greg says:

    I’d rather we kept Torres, of course, but it would be tempting if City offered something like Tevez plus 60 million (remember they were prepared to pay 100 million for Kaka.) We’d have a similar number of goals, and could also buy, say, Higuain, Silva and a left back with the money. What do you reckon? Would that make us stronger?

  • nawamreh says:

    He should be kept for 5 more years, And if he (himself) decided to leave then he should ask transfer request for the sake of Liverpool fans and the buyer must come up with massive offer.

    He’s worth more than 60 million. He must go abroad though…can’t imagine him wearing blue jersey or whatever colors comes from premier league clubs

  • Lfc4life says:

    There are no pros to selling torress… Torres next yr will be worth as much as he is today!

    We need to rid of gerrard while he is worth something…
    Unfortunately he has lost it big time and not forgetting he is injury prone too!

    This whole build your team round gerrard is now rubbish…
    Who builds are new car with an engine thats on its way out?!

    £50m and its a no brainer… Last season i would said you must be joking!

  • Redone says:

    Since we are £270m in debt, it would be incredibly naive to think that the money from any player sales this summer will automatically be available for new signings. We have to keep hold of our best players because the money we make from selling them is likely, at least in part, to go on reducing the American’s morgage on our club.

  • Kenny Rocz says:

    FOUR WORLD CLASS PLAYERS??
    You sorry lot’s got ONE world class player in Torres. To call Reina, Gerrard and especially Mascherano world class is absolutely ridicolous!!
    Gerrard was a very good midfielder in his prime, but he’s (like many other Liverpool-legends; Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman…) peaked early in his carreer. Reina CAN be world class, and I think he will be, but he’s currently not even the best ‘keeper in England (as I rate van der Sar, Given, Chech, Schwarzer and Friedel above him.

    Mascherano is absolute rubbish!! His mindless tacklings gives away far too many freekicks in dangerous areas, he gets booked, and even sent off needlessly, in far too many games, and his distribution is nothing less than abysmal. Given te opportunity, I would pick Jermaine Jenas 10 out of 10 times ahead of that Argentinian twat, and I think Jenas is a crap player!!

    I don’t remember who said something like “If I could only have a team of Carraghers”, but the man got his wish!! Save Torres, no-one in your team is good enough to consistently compete for honours, and with the tactically inept, transfer-wise retarded, paranoid and arrogant manager you’ve got, you won’t win anything of significance anytime soon (Europa league is not rated a major trophy). After all, he’s only won two trophies in six years, and the first one was an absolute fluke in the Champions League, and the second a somewhat lucky result against West Ham in the FA cup, a trophy Benitez doesn’t even care about given his surrender in the competition in later years.

    If I were manager, I would sell the lot of the crap you’re paying tons of cash every week, keep £100M for new players and use the rest (if any) on clearing debts.

    The bottom line: Sell Torres if you can get more than £40M for him, and spend it on three strikers. After all; it’s better to have three strikers hitting 12-15 goals per season, than having one injury prone class act capable of scoring 30+ IF HE STAYS FIT.

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