Having endured another season with Fernando Torres at the top of their attack, Chelsea are again reportedly ready to sell the Spaniard over the summer window.
According to Rob Beasley of The Sun, the Blues are prepared to take a £30 million loss on the striker and part ways with him this summer due to his lack of goals scored in the league.
The report goes on to highlight that with potential arrivals this summer, the Spanish international's place in the starting team can no longer be guaranteed:
The Blues want rid of their record £50m buy even though he has 22 goals this term, his best season at Stamford Bridge. Overall, Torres has 34 goals in 130 appearances since signing from Liverpool in January 2011.
Incoming boss Jose Mourinho wants a new-look attack and hopes to splash £70m on Napoli star Edinson Cavani and Bayer Leverkusen’s Andre Schurrle. Torres, 29, trousers £170,000 a week and the Blues face the prospect of either topping up a contract at a new club or paying him a lump sum to go away.
It's by no means a new transfer rumour—rather, one that we seem to hear every transfer window—but it is one that makes sense. Torres hasn't lived up to his incredible transfer fee and hasn't produced the kind of goals or the consistency we've come to expect from a world-class striker in the Premier League.
From Chelsea's point of view, if there are new arrivals to be found this summer, it does make sense—business-wise—to part ways with the 29-year-old.
They already have Demba Ba and Romelu Lukaku on their books. They also have guys like Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Marko Marin there as well, who are all capable of pushing forward and playing a very striker-like role—and that's without considering any summer transfer purchases this season.
Thus Torres, and what he brings to the team, can be replaced.
However, having witnessed what we have this year, it just doesn't seem like this is the time to sell Torres—not after what he's produced this season for Chelsea.
The 29-year-old finished with eight Premier League goals, six Europa League goals and three Champions League goals. Through goals in the FA Cup and Community Shield, Torres has finished 2013 with a very respectable goalscoring total.
Yes, the jokes around him might still be there, and his goal against Everton might have been his first in six months but Torres has scored goals this year for Chelsea.
Fans of the striker will be quick to point out how that fits with other top-class players, and as much as there are arguments either way, it's hard to argue with the numbers.
Even when we talk longevity, the numbers still add up pretty well for Torres.
So for Chelsea to sell him now would just be madness. They've seen the worst of Torres—there's no doubting that—but they're also starting to see the best of him.
Whether he's "back" or not is something that we'll never know and really is secondary to the entire debate. What matters is that Torres is consistently scoring, and he's starting to do it in Chelsea's biggest games—which is all clubs can really expect to get out of their talisman every season.
Torres still has to prove himself over a number of seasons, there's no doubting that, but he is slowly starting to leave his mark on the West London club.
The 2013 campaign was big in terms of his confidence and development.
To end that—now that it's finally started to begin—would just be crazy by Chelsea.
Hit me up on Twitter for more sports goodness: Follow @dantalintyre
Read more Chelsea news on BleacherReport.com
~Bleacher Report - Chelsea~
No comments:
Post a Comment