Hot on the tail of the good news that Luís Suarez is about ready for LFC, reports are coming in that Fernando Torres wants to leave the Reds and move to That Blue Squad. Chelsea made an initial offer of around €40 M which was promptly rejected by Liverpool, then Abramovich upped the ante, to around €60-65 M, at which point (so the rumours have it) Torres filed a transfer request.

Why is this happening? We need only to look back at Fernando’s last years in Atlético Madrid – the club he grew up in and numerous times stated he would play for his entire career. Atléti was more or less built around Fernando, but was also in something of a free fall as far as results and silverware goes, and the season before Liverpool snatched up Fernando, he made it clear that unless Atlético made real efforts to win something he would look for a team that could live up to his ambitions.

LFC and Atlético aren’t all that dissimilar, and the evolution curve looks scarily the same. Torres was the loyal pillar of Atléti, the guy that through his prolific scoring carried the team, year after ayear until he could muster it no more. LFC signed Torres in the wake of Istanbul. It looked as if he had found his team and he certainly has done more than his share to make the club live up to his ambitions. Like in Atléti, he is the darling of the (awesome and fiercely loyal) fans. And like in Atléti, the club has failed to bring home any big wins. All in all I think this reminds ’nando all too well of his last seasons in Madrid.

In that light it isn’t at all far-fetched to see him moving to another club. The problem is: where to go. Only a select few clubs can afford him, only a select few have the kind of makeup that will let him continue to be the hero of the hardcore fans while at the same time give him a fighting chance to win trophies. And, aside from Bayern München, all those select few clubs are in England or Spain. FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern. That’s –in my view– the list. Real Madrid is out of the question because of history, Man Utd can’t afford him and Manchester City has no history – it’s a rent-a-team, which, I believe, is not what ’nando wants.

Can Torres move to Stamford Bridge? As unlikely as it may sound, of course. Today’s blue team stand a better chance of winning things than the Red one. Will he though? That’s impossible to know, but the feeling is that he’s given LFC enough time to turn things around without any progress – instead things have steadily gone worse – and that enough is enough.

Torres leaving would be a severe blow. We certainly don’t want him to leave, we think he still has unfinished business with LFC, and pairing up with Luís Suarez should make him more inclined to stay on for another season or so. Time will tell.