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View from the Kop

What is Fernando waiting for?

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Liverpool’s Fernando Torres returned to training today after his three week holiday period came to an end. Roy Hodgson has come out and stated in recent weeks that he believes Fernando will stay at the club, but what I and other Liverpool supporters would love is to hear it from the horse’s mouth. If he comes out and makes a statement about his future then we can finally put to bed the uncertainty over his future and stop all the speculation in the papers so as to finally get going on the new season. The only real insight as to why he has yet to come out and say anything himself came from Hodgson not so long ago:

“Unfortunately, I cannot do much more. His beef is with the club and not me. Fernando’s situation has nothing to do with me, he made that perfectly clear over the phone during the World Cup and when I met him face-to-face. He knows what I would like to do with the club. He knows how much I value him. But his issues are with what has gone on in the past rather than the future. If he has problems with the club for things in the past, it is difficult for me to dismiss that.”

What I can only guess as being the problem is the ownership issue. Roy Hodgson has also mentioned that during his brief face to face discussions last month with the player, Christian Purslow was also present at the meeting and Torres spent a greater deal of time in discussions with Purslow rather than Hodgson. This suggests to me that rather than this being a footballing issue, he is looking for reassurances over the sale of the club. If he is looking to commit his future to the club, the ownership issue has to be resolved, something that Hodgson said he cannot do anything about.

The latest revelation of Chinese Tycoon Kenny Huang’s consortium making a bid for Liverpool can only be positive news then for fans of Liverpool as well as Fernando Torres himself. I have no doubt that if the Reds are sold before August 31st as Huang’s consortium would like, that Fernando will come out and say he is staying. In my view, and I think from every Reds viewpoint, I think we would like to see both the ownership issue resolved as quickly as possible and an announcement from Torres that he is staying.

Such news would certainly lift a massive weight off the club’s shoulder as well as over Roy Hodgson who is currently having to work under tight financial constraints. Huang’s group are promising substantial funds for transfers and to build the new stadium, but for the time being I would take any such news with a pinch of salt. Huang is a wealthy man and has a lot of connections in China which means he can finance the deal but the bid he is making may not be acceptable to the club.

He is apparently offering to wipe out most of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s debt on the club but there is no indication that the offer will see him pay any more than that. Bids have to go through Barclays Capital who are adjudicating the auction and so no bids can be directly offered to RBS itself. It seems there could be some way to go before the Reds get a buyer, and in that time, what will Torres be thinking? Hopefully he will see the progress on the sale and opt to stay; that would be fantastic news for the club.

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16 comments

  • JonO says:

    Either more money or for us all to fall to our knees I think, personally I am sick of waiting for him to live up to his fekkin contract

  • anteater says:

    I don’t need such a statement. He has a contract with us and unless he states that he wants to leave I believe that he will fulfill this contract. Just in case he comes out and states his desire to leave, which I don’t think will happen, there still has to be a club willing to pay our asking price.

  • Neil says:

    I think you should guess aain. This is a guy who is hacked off because he underperformed, hacked off because his team had a crap season and are out of the running for the big trophies and and hacked off because he left his boyhood team, Athletico Madrid because he knew he had to leave them to win trophies, only to watch them beat his new team to win a european trophy. Fernando Torres is hacked off because of on the pitch activities. What he needs is to see that this won’t happen again. He will still take some convincing.

    All of you mugs who want him to pledge his allegience to the club, he has. He has three years left on his contract. I cannot imagine anyone living up to their contract better than he has. You would hve to be a muppet (like JonO) to think differently.

  • RedMist!!! says:

    You’re missing the point!

    Huang is offering to pay the debt from the bank and has offered a lower fee because that’s how it works! Sort of an early repayment discount for for a bulk of the amount! This is done a lot in the banking sector!

    By doing this he’ll effectively have the Americans by the short a curlys! The debt owed by the pair will be owned by Haung! No extension on the debt and full repayment sort after in October!

    Both will then be offered a small pay off to leave the club and sign the club over to him!

    Brilliant!!! The Hicks plan for massive profit at Liverpool’s expense will be a pipe dream. Outmanoeuvred by a real businessman!!!

  • Jasmin says:

    @JonO
    Don’t jump to conclusions so easily! I think that he’s just pressuring Christian Purslow and owners into giving founds for players and/or selling the club, but what ever they do, I think that he has already decided to stay…

  • red2death says:

    That’s just how it is with stars that are always in demand. Even if he comes out and says he’s staying, there’ll still be speculation right up till the transfer window closes. And then before the January window opens you can bet there’ll be people starting up rumours again, Torres to City, Torres to Chelsea, Torres to any club out there that can afford him. Frankly I think Mr Torres couldn’t care less, and neither could I.

    That’s modern-day football. Live with it =)

  • dj says:

    Why should he come out and say he is staying?
    Of course he is, he has 3 years left on his contract.
    But he should want to play for us regartdless of the off field problems, and if he aint prepared to, do we want him?

  • Voland says:

    My understanding is that Huang (or rather Hong Kong-based investment company QSL Sports) is offering to buy out Gillet and Hicks for around £325 million – in addition to his offer to repay the entire RBS debt of around £237 million. This would suggest a total economic value for LFC of around £562 million.

  • JJ says:

    Please god let this takeover go through and everyone can stop talking about debt and money and start talking about football again,Huang has said he will invest heavily in the squad around £100m to get them back where they belong he also plans to clear the debt and start building the new stadium pronto it all sounds too good to be true but im praying like many fans, im sure that if it is true this would definitley convince Torres to stay and probably Mascherano.With that sort of money I would love us to buy Ashley Young and James Milner for £40m,Gareth Bale for £15-20m,Gary Cahill for £12m and maybe Crouchy for around £10m we would have probably surpassed Chelsea with the best squad in the league so maybe Outs-Yossi Benayoun,Albert Riera,Emiliano Insua,Ryan Babel,Sotiris Krygiakos,Damien Plessis,Nabil El Zhar,Mikel San Jose,Daniel Ayala,Krisztian Nemeth,David Martin,Charles Itandje Ins-Jonjo Shelvey,Milan Jovanovic,Joe Cole,Danny Wilson,Alex Smithies,Ashley Young,James Milner,Gareth Bale,Gary Cahill,Peter Crouch Start a 4-1-4-1 system with Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard playing centrally just ahead of Javier Mascherano and supporting Fernando Torres,James Milner on the right wing and Ashley Young on the left Starting XI-Reina-Johnson-Cahill-Agger-Bale-Mascherano-Milner-Gerrard-Cole-Young-Torres Squad GK-Reina-25/Cavalieri-1/Smithies-31/Bouzanis-43 RB-Johnson-2/Darby-32 CB-Cahill-6/Agger-5/Carragher-23/Skrtel-37/Wilson-22/Kelly-34 LB-Bale-3/Aurelio-12 RW-Milner-11/Rodriguez-17 CM-Mascherano-20/Lucas-21/Spearing-26/Shelvey-33 CAM-Gerrard-8/Cole-10/Aquilani-4 LW-Young-7/Jovanovic-14 ST-Torres-9/Kuyt-18/Crouch-15/N’gog-24/Pacheco-27 it is very ambitious but if Huang does takeover and pumps that much money in I think all of these are good proven premiership players and other than Crouch they are all 25 or under and are improving all the time and these are the players I would love to see Liverpool sign but i’ll be happy if we sign any of them to be honest

  • nab says:

    Lets’s face it, why should Nando say anything? It’s only the culture of British press that’s pressing him to say anything, and he doesn’t have to. I don’t buy papers personally because the Sun ruined everything for all of us, and continue to speculate and lie. He has a contract with us. I like the way he conducts himself and doesn’t feel that he has to be a performing seal for the, at very best, guessing journos who we all despise. That said, positive news is easier to give than difficult news, and 70M can buy one heck of a squad if the loose ‘rumours’ are true. Love Rafa, but the formula didn’t quite work out, so cash for a new squad could buy one big player and 4-5 very good supporting ones and Roy will choose wisely…think about our squad shortages…On a sub note..welcome back Fabio Aurelio..what a player who never really got a chance (through injury I know). Sooooo suprised he never got picked up by another club and we get another bite..

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  • steve mcauley says:

    JJ, calm down mate! let’s just see what happens, remember H&G made all the same noises before shafting us!
    as for mascherano, let the ungrateful little argie bollocks clear off. hopefully, just like michael owen, he will leave and live to regret it, good riddance!

  • Greg says:

    I agree with others – Torres has no need to come out and say anything. Nando’s a private sort of guy – he only had a few guests at his wedding, for instance – and if he had to front up to the press and say, “I’m staying” every time he was linked with other clubs he would hate it.

  • Warnock says:

    thanks but no YANKS!!

  • JonO says:

    Oh and BTW @ “Lets’s face it, why should Nando say anything”, I can think of over a hundred thousand reasons a week, Every week even the many injured weeks.

  • dj says:

    just confirmed, torres stays.

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