Sunday 24 March 2013

Chelsea: Why Rumoured Fernando Torres Swap Deal Would Be a Great Move for All

With Fernando Torres yet again failing to deliver for Chelsea this season, speculation is rife that the Blues may be about to cut their losses on the player in the summer.

A possible swap deal involving Atlético Madrid's prolific Radamel Falcao has been mooted in the British press, with The Daily Mail quoting Diego Simeone's interest in his former teammate.

It would be a transfer that would send shockwaves through European football, but when you really think about it, it's a transaction that makes a great deal of sense.

Regarding Torres, there has to come a point when all parties decide that enough is enough.

The 29-year-old's dramatic loss of form since joining the club back in 2011 can no longer be merely labelled as a "dip," and it's clear that there is something not quite right with the Spaniard.

Simply put, Torres has never really looked happy at Stamford Bridge.

With such a monumental transfer fee being placed on his head, it was imperative that Torres got off to a good start to life at his new club because Chelsea were always going to expect him to hit the ground running after splashing out such a vast amount of cash.

Torres wasn't brought in for his potential; he was brought in to score goals from the off, and when that failed to materialise it was always going to be an uphill struggle to make an impression in West London.

Not even the arrival of Rafael Benítez this season, the man who got him playing the best football of his career at Liverpool, has changed the fortunes of Torres.

Roman Abramovich has largely shown a lot of faith in Torres and has appeared desperate to make the move a success, but even he must now be starting to accept that it just isn't going to work.

You would suspect that the overriding reason for Abramovich hiring Benítez was to get his No. 9 firing on all cylinders again (because there certainly doesn't appear to be any other logic to the decision) and with that gamble also failing to come off, it is looking increasingly likely that the Spanish duo will be ancient history come the start of next season.

With Torres' stock having now plummeted in England, a move back to Spain could be just the break needed to get El Niño back playing with a smile on his face again and Atlético would be just about the perfect destination.

Torres needs to find a club where he will be loved again, and so a move back to the City in which he learnt his trade would certainly be an attractive proposition.

Torres enjoyed an enormously successful spell at the Vicente Calderón during his first spell with Los Rojiblancos and is therefore still hugely respected by the club's supporters.

What's more, it's not like Atlético are making up the numbers in Spain with the club looking nailed on to secure Champions League football for next season and as such Torres would still have an opportunity to play at the very highest level of the game.

Torres' pride will have taken a huge knock as a result of his decline at the Bridge, and a fresh start, especially at a club in which he will always be hero-worshipped , could be all that's needed to get him back to his best.

As for Chelsea, in the shape of Falcao they would be getting one of the very best strikers in world football at this precise moment in time, and it would come as a great surprise if he wasn't a success in England.

On current form, he is undeniably an upgrade over Torres, having scored a remarkable number of goals throughout his career.

The Colombian would be an asset to the Premier League as a whole, although I'm sure that English defences would disagree with that suggestion.

At the age of 27, the former Porto forward would be arriving in England just when he should be about to hit his prime, which would be a massive boost to Chelsea's title aspirations next season.

Of course, as Torres has shown, you can never be too sure about how a player will react to the pressure of a huge price tag, but Falcao has already shown that such a scenario hasn't exactly bothered him in the past by banging in the goals in La Liga since moving for a fee of €40 million.

It's a swap deal that would suit all parties involved and would give everyone a chance to put this whole sorry Torres saga behind them.

The end may have come for Torres in England, but with Falcao leading the way, few would bet against a bright new future on the horizon at Stamford Bridge.

 

Follow Andy Ward on Twitter

Read more Chelsea news on BleacherReport.com

~Bleacher Report - Chelsea~

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