Liverpool seal £22.8m deal with Ajax to land Luis Suarez...

[Sir X]

Liverpool seal £22.8m deal with Ajax to land Luis Suarez... but is Fernando Torres on his way out?


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Last updated at 5:48 PM on 28th January 2011

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Liverpool have signed £22.8m Luis Suarez as question marks hang over the future of Fernando Torres.
Ajax finally relented to sell Suarez to the Merseyside club and he becomes Kenny Dalglish's first signing since returning as manager.

On his way: Luis Suarez is swapping Ajax for Liverpool in the January transfer window

The 24-year-old has yet to pass a medical and agree personal terms but those two issues are unlikely to be stumbling blocks.
A Liverpool statement read: 'Liverpool Football Club announced this afternoon that they had agreed a fee of up to 26.5million Euros with Ajax for the transfer of Luis Suarez, subject to the completion of a medical.

'The club have now been given permission by Ajax to discuss personal terms with the player and his representatives.'
Having argued over the Uruguay international's value for some time Liverpool's owners Fenway Sports Group have sanctioned their first major signing since buying the club in October.
Liverpool face a fight to hold on to Torres after he asked them to consider Chelsea's sensational £35million bid.

Wanted man: Fernando Torres (left) is tempted by the offer from Chelsea

The Blues lodged the stunning offer with their Barclays Premier League rivals but Liverpool revealed they have rejected the deal.

However, it has now emerged that Torres - who has struggled for form this season - has hinted he would like to join the champions by asking his club to reconsider the offer.
Suarez's imminent arrival, which would give Torres support up front if he stays, is a key moment in FSG's short three-month reign.
Much had been made of their approach to transfers, with the long-term plan being to bring in players who represent greater value.

However, last week chairman Tom Werner admitted they would be prepared to spend heavily on a star name if it benefited the club's long-term interest.

At 24, Suarez fits the profile of the type of player they have in mind, and he has been prolific in the Eredivisie, scoring 111 goals in 159 matches since joining the Dutch giants in the summer of 2007.




Explore more:

People: Kenny Dalglish, Fernando Torres Places: Liverpool


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz1CM37y6Lm

[Sir X]

Torres forced that deal....Get him or else, purchase was a sign of intent...POOL SERIOUS !

[Me]

You better hope Torres stay put. Worse Saurez is a man who like bite people.

[Tilla]

Fernando Torres tells Liverpool to talk to Chelsea

• Striker feels move would be right for his career
• Torres considers Liverpool have not lived up to promises

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Sid Lowe in Madrid and Andy Hunter
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 January 2011 14.15 GMT
Article history

Fernando Torres has scored nine goals for Liverpool this season, two of them coming against Chelsea. Photograph: John Walton/Empics Sport

Fernando Torres has told Liverpool to sit down and negotiate with Chelsea, having reached the point at which he believes that a departure from Anfield is now the right move for his career. With four days of the winter transfer window remaining the striker is aware that time is running out but he does not want to miss out on the opportunity to join Chelsea for a second time. He has urged the Fenway Sports Group to broker an agreement that is good for both player and club. There is not, however, a clause that will allow Torres to unilaterally break his contract in this transfer window.

Chelsea made a bid for Torres during the summer but the striker was told that he would not be able to depart with the club undergoing a sales process. The price quoted for his transfer was so high as to be simply a symbolic "not for sale" sign. At the time, Torres sought assurances that he would be able to depart in the future, should an acceptable bid be made and he consider a move necessary. Those discussions were held with the then managing director Christian Purslow who has now left the club – and no written legal clause was signed.

Torres also wanted assurances over the future of the club when Liverpool were taken over by the new owners. Torres's camp believes that promises have been broken. Liverpool are not the club that Torres joined and the striker is pessimistic over the future and his patience has worn thin with the absence of investment or activity since the takeover. Roy Hodgson's departure and the appointment of Kenny Dalglish was a step in the right direction but is not enough. Liverpool have only made one significant move in the transfer window, for the Uruguay striker Luis Suárez.

It is now a case of Liverpool convincing Torres not to go. The striker can see little real argument to continue at Anfield. Although there is no plan to force a move through and despite the recognition that Liverpool could block the move, Torres believes that an immediate departure is the best solution. Liverpool's decision to announce the bid could be interpreted as an attempt to flush Torres out and force him to push for an exit.

If he were to join Chelsea, Torres would be eligible to play in the Champions League. He is hopeful of Liverpool recognising that his departure could be good for all concerned. Liverpool signed Torres for £23m; they could make more than £20m in profit if they were to sell now. Indeed, it is the money from a Torres deal that could unlock the funds necessary to make an improved bid to clinch Suárez.

Liverpool have reopened talks with Ajax over Suárez this afternoon and, it is believed, made a breakthrough over a transfer fee for the Uruguay international. Ajax rejected a £12.8m offer from Liverpool for their captain this week and had insisted on €30m (£25.8m) for the deal to happen. Suárez has told the coach, Frank De Boer, that he wishes to leave Amsterdam for Merseyside and, mindful that his value will drop if they fail to qualify for next season's Champions League, Ajax are now understood to be open to a compromise fee with Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Chelsea's manager, Carlo Ancelotti, refused to be drawn on his club's bid for Fernando Torres but said he was happy that "the club are trying to do everything they can to improve the squad". But Ancelotti added: "I don't want to speak about this, you will have to ask the club. He is not my player and I have to have respect for Liverpool. I don't like to speak about this."

Ancelotti had previously intimated that the club's protracted pursuit of the Benfica defender David Luiz would be their only major move of the January transfer window. Asked if the Torres bid had therefore caught him by surprise, he said: "I'm not surprised, because I know very well what the club is doing now. I am happy because the club is doing a fantastic job in this transfer market. The club is trying to do everything to improve the squad."

[Sir X]

He will stay put , doesnt meet our 80 million valuation of the player and thats to Chel$ki, man city would have to cough up $160.

[Tilla]

He will stay put , doesnt meet our 80 million valuation of the player and thats to Chel$ki, man city would have to cough up $160.

I sure hope he stay put, if only for your sake. I would not want to see you blow a gasket should he transfer to Chelsea.

We will see what happens.

[Tilla]

One more thing you are ignoring here X. Liverpool can ask all they want. They could even ask for a billion pounds for him. The fact remains that the players contract has a release clause that if an offer of 50 million pounds comes in, then it should be considered. So all this 80 and 160 million is bull butter. If Chelsea is serious and the player wants to leave, it will happen. Maybe it might not this window, but it can happen.

[Sir X]

Suárez & Torres: Dream Team?
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Posted on January 28th, 2011
Posted by by Paul Tomkins
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So, one of the world’s best strikers signs, on the day that we’re told one of the world’s best strikers is supposedly intent on leaving. Nothing is ever simple as a Liverpool fan these days, is it?

But while Suárez has signed, Torres has yet to go anywhere. In theory, they look like a perfectly balanced front pairing. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to find out.

Suárez is someone who could be deployed in the old Beardsley/Dalglish role, behind the main striker, but equally comfortable in and around the box when he finds himself there (some link strikers are brilliant at setting up chances, but not the best finishers). Suárez is also at home on either side in a 4-3-3; he began his football life as a winger.

Very reminiscent in style, posture and even celebrations to peak-years Robbie Fowler, but is quicker and ‘busier’ (a la Tevez). His finishing at times is like viewing a mirror-image of Fowler (complete with left to right foot transition), but he’ll have to go some way to match the young scouser; and of course, he arrives with the added pressure of a fairly big price tag.

Suárez looks physically strong enough to play as the spearhead striker, but at 5’10” (the same as Fowler), is arguably too short for it to be ideal in England. Even though Dalglish’s Liverpool keep the ball on the deck, it often helps to have a fairly tall central striker who can put himself about but also get in behind teams, and that’s where Torres is at his best.

At a fraction more expensive than Darren Bent, Suárez seems a bargain by comparison (as noted on here a couple of weeks back in a piece for subscribers). Suárez fits the Soccernomics strategy to a tee, while Bent, whose fee could rise to £24m, shows just why Englishmen are overpriced.

Suárez is on the up, and from an unfashionable country (Uruguay). Although he was playing in a fashionable country (Holland), he doesn’t have the premium that would go with a Dutchman (page 59 of Soccernomics).

At only just 24 (his birthday was earlier this week), the Uruguayan is at the perfect buying age, unlike Bent, who is about to turn 27. Bent is not past it, and a good here-and-now solution for a team like Villa with his fine goalscoring record (including quite a few penalties, mind), but in three years’ time the investment will peter out, as might his legs.

The gamble with Suárez is adapting to the English game, but he appears to be physically and mentally suited; if it works out, Liverpool could well have a bargain. Indeed, one Ajax fan told me he played better for them than Wesley Sneijder had.

Suárez’s record was 112 goals in 158 games for Ajax, and he was the 14th player to score 100 goals for the club. He’s in a select group – one of only 14 players to have scored 100 goals for Ajax, and one of only three non-Dutchmen, the other two being Stefan Pettersson and ex-Red Jari Litmanen & (via @jouracule).

The excellent, über-informed international scout Tor-Kristian Karlsen said of Suárez:

“…Very comfortable as wide forward (right or left) in a front three, i.e. offers many options. Orginially a wide forward/2nd striker at Nacional (Uru), Groningen (Ned) + first couple of seasons at Ajax. Eventually playing more central. Main strengths: dribbling one vs one, acceleration, shooting/finishing technique, positional sense, right footed but nearly as natural w/left.”

Another Soccernomics rule is to not buy players straight after a successful World Cup. At the time, as one of the top scorers, Ajax were reportedly quoting around £30m+ for Suárez. The fee hasn’t dropped massively, but at more than £5m it’s still a reasonably significant amount.

One argument I dislike is that because players like Alves, Kuyt and Kezman were all ultra-prolific in Holland but far less so in England, there is some kind of assumption that any striker from the Dutch league will therefore automatically fail to translate that. Someone like … Ruud Van Nistelrooy perhaps? (In Googling his scoring stats, I discovered that his full name is Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij. Fantastic!).

Judge the player, not the league; yes, goals are easier to come by in Holland, but if a striker has more to his game, he can adapt. It can also work both ways. Goals in Spain also seem fractionally easier to come by than in England these days, but Torres’ record has been far better in England. Sometimes it’s down to the club you play for, and the role you perform.

As for being a cheat, was Phil Neville vilified as one when he punched Lucas’ goal-bound shot off the line in the last minute of 2007 Mersey derby? Or, like Terry McDermott in 1981, was he just doing what players do? There are so many forms of ‘cheating’ in every minute of every game; I don’t see why blatant shirt-pulling, or purposefully late tackles, are viewed as lesser crimes than other cynical or instinctive forms of gaining an advantage. (I never got Ireland’s outrage at Thierry Henry; it’s up to the officials to spot these things and punish the individual, but it’s no worse than all manner of transgressions.)

Hopefully the new signing will help persuade Fernando Torres to stay, if, indeed, he is intent on (at the very least) exploring other avenues. He won’t be sold for as little as £35m, that’s for sure.

There’s little logic in selling Torres now, given the body blow it would present, but £50m in the summer might just make sense, if it meant bringing in two or three quality players to rebuild the side. Right now there’s just not time to reshape the squad, but over the course of the summer months there’s ample time to make a number of changes. Remember, the last time Kenny sold a world-class striker he bought Barnes, Beardsley and Houghton, and got Aldridge in advance of Rush leaving.

The gamble is that you can lose a top asset who is fairly certain to deliver, and possibly end up with three duds; but part of Spurs’ ascent from Comolli’s time was down to selling players like Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Carrick for massive profit and reinvesting in the squad as a whole. Now Gareth Bale and Luka Modrić are arguably worth even more.

Don’t misunderstand me (although plenty on Twitter still did!) – Torres still has loads to offer, but in just over two years’ time he turns 29, and his value plummets (our research for ‘Pay As You Play’ suggests that once a player hits 29, his value, on average, is almost half what it would be at 28 or younger).

Torres’ contract also expires that summer, so unless he signs a new deal, in 2012 he’ll already be worth far less than he is today. I’m not advocating selling him, just examining the thinking that might go into any decision, once the inevitable emotion is removed from the equation.

Personally, I’m excited by the idea of Torres and Suárez as a split-level front two, or a 4-3-3 with Kuyt or Gerrard one side of Torres and Suárez the other. If it really fires between now and May, then there’s further reason for Torres to stay.

Although Suárez is a better footballer than Kuyt, and at this stage not quite as good as Gerrard, it is encouraging to have so many versatile players; not just in terms of starting positions, but in order to switch and swap during matches. A feature of that great 1987/88 side was that players popped up all over the place. Maxi is another who, like Ray Houghton, can drift around the pitch, as can Raul Meireles. (Another John Barnes now would be nice, mind!)

And for me, the damning fact of Roy Hodgson’s tenure (and one of the reasons I was so aghast at his preferred playing style) was that the opposite was almost always true. To be a top side, you need a fluid approach, and that’s why players like Johnson and Agger are so important, given how they can operate in all areas of the field, even if nominally defenders.

Charlie Adam would be another interesting signing, with a great range of passing, but for me, Suárez had to be the priority.

Though used to the Premier League, Adam may have a tougher time translating his very confident style from Blackpool – where he’s the kingpin – to Liverpool; it’d be nice to see him get the chance to try, but right now everything goes through him, and that wouldn’t be the case should he join.

For me, he’d be a squad signing, with the potential to be more, while Suárez is definite first XI material.

[Sir X]

Release clause means , start bidding at that price ..160 sounds good

[Lazie]

Release clause means , start bidding at that price ..160 sounds good

Yuh muss mean 160 quid? What has Torres done this season for anyone to be asking 60m fi him?

[Sir X]

lol.....aaahsah roy hodson the man u agent would say the same thing about everyone of dem lfc players,,,what a difference a manager makes...top 4 mi say

wasnt he entertaining an offer for torres to man u....at a knock down price of course..lol

[Tilla]

Release clause means , start bidding at that price ..160 sounds good

That is not what it means at all. Bids have been submitted. Liverpool have the right to say no if none reache 50 Million. If 50 Mil is reached, the player can demand the club transfer him if he wants to go to the other club.

As I said, I hope he stays with Liverpool. I do not want to see you self-destruct.

[Assasin]

good signing Xman

[Sir X]

Still has to meet the clubs valuation regradless of the clause.In fact the clause isnt worth the paper it is written on, if liverpool was close to bankruptcy dem let im go fi 20 , if Torres has a sudden injury that will affect his performance for his football life dem leggo im fi 5 million.

if Torres scores 3 consecutive hatricks 160 million is the clubs valuation and Torres crying means naught until its met until the duration of his contract.

[Assasin]

Torres rep currently asking them to sit down with Chelsea.