MFletcher

It wouldn't surprise me either, but was he not citing the Argentinian lot at Inter as a reason why he wanted to go? I think he even said there wouldn't be that big a problem with the language due to that. If he wants to stay in the EPL, then we're probably the first port of call. A good Spanish base, other Argentinian players in Mascherano, Leto, Insua, Paletta and the likes of Xabi, Pepe, Rafa, the coaching staff etc. who all speak Spanish. Plus Masch is his best friend (or at least I think so). The one thing that sticks in my mind about this is the interview Masch gave a while back where he said Tevez was talking about a "probable" move to Liverpool. There's a big difference between "probable" and "possible", and unless the translator was clueless they'd have known the difference. Maybe I'm being too hopeful, but I really, really rate Tevez and think he would be a fantastic signing.

I can only see a left winger being brought in. Gerrard and Pennant will probably have right mid nailed down next season. The left is a much more pressing issue.

I've always had this gut feeling that he'd come here. Of course, there's every chance he'll end up at Real, but I just have "the feeling". Let's hope I'm right.

I'm tearing up Top Player PES6 Master League with Torres and Tevez leading my Liverpool team. I beat Middlesbrough 8-0 earlier on with Tevez scoring five and Torres the other three. An omen? Or wishful thinking?

They aren't backing us? That's only a smokescreen.

Are Radio Marca and Cadena Ser reliable stations mate? Are they BBC Five Live standard (as in good) or TalkSport (as in shockingly bad). I wouldn't trust TalkSport if they told me today was Thursday 28th June 2007...

I'm not sure if Luis has one or two years left on his contract, but the common consensus is that he has one year left. If that's true, then his fee will be lower than expected. Consider that he's recovering a serious injury as well and I think the valuation is understandable. Maybe he wants to go back to Spain? If he has young kids, maybe he wants them to grow up in Spain as opposed to Merseyside? It's not always footballing reasons. If he does leave, then he leaves with my best wishes because he has been fantastic for us.

Presenter: -It seems, like this year at last he will end up out of Atletico de Madrid and in the Premier. Antonio Ruiz, what is Atletico's take on Torres's exit, good afternoon.... Antonio Ruiz -good afternoon, well as of right now Cadena Ser has learned that after weeks of ongoing negotiations Atletico de Madrid and Liverpool could've reached a pre-agreement for the transfer of Fernando Torres for €30m plus Luis Garcia, although they're still trying to work out the details on the Garcia inclusion but it seems that is on course to happen, and of course it still remains that Torres after his vacations in Polynesia next week will not object to this operation, with the okay of his agents but they're still waiting on Torres to arrive in Madrid to personally negotiate all the intricate details of his contract At this time, i insist, Liverpool who are the highest bidders with the offer of €30m plus Luis Garcia could obtain the services of Fernando Torres... Presenter- Juan Antonio Alacala has been working with Liverpool's people all day and Alcala what's being said over there? Alcala- Good afternoon Gallego, from Liverpool they practically consider this transfer a done deal and even put a price on the operation as Antonio Ruiz said. €35m is what's been talked about in England if it was just the Fernando Torres transfer, €30m if Luis Garcia is included. There was a meeting back on June 21st with Rafa Benitez and the new owners where Rafa highlighted as a priority the signing of Fernando Torres. That day the two Americans, Hicks and Gillett, the Americans who are full of cash, made a first offer of around €30m-€32m, because we need to make clear that Liverpool has never tried to pay the full release clause, €40m. Sources of Liverpool, very well informed and consulted by Cadena Ser, say that it's "very likely" that on July 5th, Thursday, next week when Liverpool get back to work for the pre-season, the addition of Fernando Torres will be announced. As of right now, there are contacts, that is for sure. The player is very far, enjoying the beach and they would still need in a second phase the agreement, which wouldn't be too complicated, between Liverpool and Fernando Torres. ---- From ASF on RAWK. If it's true, I'm impressed with G&H bidding £20M quid on the same day Rafa told them that Torres was his main target.

So Cadena Ser could be talking rubbish? ASF claims the journalist covering the story (Alcala?) is credible.

Anyone have any other information from the Spanish media? It'd be nice to have this "report" confirmed by someone else.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index....opic=183343.960 A Spanish contributor (AnotherSpanishFan) writes: "When Liverpool will make the presentation or announcement, not too sure which they meant. Torres is on holiday in Polynesia and they're just going to wait on him to come back to sign. This according to Cadena Ser." Not 100% sure, but I think Cadena Ser is a radio station. Carry on people.

I reckon he'll spend most of his time on the right next season. We can't have Torres (potentially), Kuyt, Crouch and Voronin fighting for one spot in the team.

I don't see why we shouldn't take Tevez on a season long loan. The figures being suggested in the Mail are feasible for us. The £9M comes from both the fee to Kia and Tevez's wages. Now, we wouldn't be offering anywhere near the lunatic £115,000 a week that West Ham were supposedly offering - so it would be a deal similar to that we have for Mascherano. If he doesn't prove himself for us, then we haven't really lost out. Mascherano might not have worked out, but he's come in and proved himself. I've always thought we'd sign Tevez this summer. I don't know why, but it's always struck me as a likely move. Whether we can sign two top class players like Torres and Tevez is debatable. If we do - along with a top class left winger - then we should surely be looking at a proper Premiership challenge.

Garcia was a fantastic player for us. Should he ever return to Anfield with Atletico, the reception for him would be deafening. If he does move, we'll have to find someone who is capable of replacing his goals. He was infuriating at times, but he actually cared and showed real character (CL final, first season derby). I reckon the Torres deal is complete, with Atletico and Torres now deciding how they should break it to the fans. Torres will want to make it look he has to go to achieve his ambitions, however the board will want to show that they can match his ambition but he chose to leave rather than stay and help the club up. It's a delicate process. The board are unpopular as it is, and any move to sell Torres for less than his release clause gives them even more ammunition to throw at them. It's a delicate balancing act. And I'd be delighted to sign Tevez - even if it's only on loan for a year. It would give us a chance to see how he would fit into our system.

He probably came over here too early. Tim Vickery wrote a good article on it. He said he should've have went to Boca/River before coming to Europe. As it is, he's looked incompetent when on the pitch. I'm aware he's a young man, but against Portsmouth at the tail end of the season, he went missing twice. One time he just dandered back and watched after Dudek had made a mistake. Carra would have bust his gut trying to do something to put him off - even if he knew he had no real hope of doing so. I imagine we'll recoup our fee anyway. It was only a £2M outlay.

If Riise has been told that he has no place in the Liverpool team, then he'd move on. And he's too limited for teams like Barcelona, Inter etc. to be considering him. He's not good enough defensively for left back and not good enough in his dribbling or crossing for left midfield. He's a good solid player and a club like Newcastle is his level. That's just my opinion - an opinion I'm allowed to hold even though he's been a loyal player for a number of years now.

I could see Riise going to Newcastle actually. He fits the Allardyce mould. Strong, quick, direct. The only left back I can think of in La Liga who would command a fee as high as €18M is Zambrotta. Maybe Adriano of Sevilla (I'm pretty sure he can play left midfield and right midfield as well)? It's certainly interesting. I recall a line in the Echo about Riise being one of a number of players tredding on thin ice. He was pretty dire this season, despite some pretty crucial goals.

No doubt there are rules for the staff at Anfield. eg. no camera phones etc. We'll only have hearsay to go on until something is confirmed. My interpretation is that we're close to, if not having already agreed, a deal for Torres. This would explain why they're bidding a good chunk of money on Forlan (his replacement). The stories from the Atletico president are simply his way of "putting up a fight", even though the only thing that Atletico can play on is Torres' loyalty. They're in the Intertoto cup and have been in constant transition since he broke into the team. By claiming that he's staying they're showing the fans that they care and they want him to stay. If he does move, they'll pass it off that they had no choice - the release clause was met etc. etc. To be honest, if we were selling Owen when he was at his prime (before he ran his contract down), we could have commanded a similar fee from a big European club. I'd have expected the board at the time to put up some sort of fight to try and keep him. Or at least make sure that we were getting the maximum amount of money possible. I'm very, very hopeful this deal with go through very soon.

In the long-term, Atletico are more likely to do something with themselves. The French league is of a lower standard that La Liga and Marseille are hardly going to be doing overly well in the CL (no doubt they'll win it now that I've said that). I'm more hoping he'll move to Atletico - kill two birds with one stone then.

Yes, but Atletico are one of the top three supported teams in Spain. They're a sleeping giant - and not in the same sense as some deluded Newcastle fans think of their club. They're in constant transition and have a Real Madrid-like tendency to sack the coach if things start going slightly wrong. At the minute, they have a good coach and a good team with some promising youngsters and internationals. I think the sale of Torres would help them in a way, because his career has stagnated there. They can use the money to bring in some new faces and reinvigorate the team. I can't see why Cisse would turn them down to go to Marseille. If they're interested in him, I think he'll be part of the Torres deal. Of course, he could be dead-set on going to Marseille - and there would be nothing we could do about it. They have £17.5M from the sale of Ribery, so they can't plead poverty. I just want someone to cough up for Cisse. It looks pretty clear that Rafa doesn't want him back, so whether we sell him and put the money towards Torres or include him in the Torres deal itself, it doesn't really matter.

Try saying that over there. You'll be ridiculed, have your posts deleted and eventually banned if you persist. I don't trust any insiders. I don't see how some randomer could possibly know what Rafa intended to do during the next transfer window. If the did know, why the hell would they post it on some internet forum for everyone to read?

There's a bloke on TIA who most of the people there believe to be an insider. If you look at his thread, he's linked us to every forward that the papers have. If a credible link comes up, one of the others quotes his post and hails him as a genius. If he isn't right, it's claimed he only posts rumours anyway and it doesn't matter. His latest offering is that we'll be signing Torres, Benayoun and Mancini. The posters over there will fail to remember that the Torres speculation is at fever-pitch, we've had a confirmed bid for Benayoun rejected and Italian newspapers were reporting the recent rejection of a €19M bid on our part for Mancini. I've tried pointing out that he talks rubbish, but my posts get deleted and others have been banned for questioning his insider status. It's quite ridiculous really.

Torres' agent was speaking either yesterday or the day before and said our supposed offer of €24M and Garcia to Atletico wasn't good enough.

I've always thought he'd move out of Spain. He's a big Atletico fan and I don't think he'd be particularly keen to play against them. I think a move to us would suit all parties. Atletico would get the money to reinvest in different areas of the team, Torres moves on to stop his career stagnating and we get a top quality player. If only it was that easy.

I generally dismiss "insider" knowledge. There's a bloke on TIA who has pretty much indicated we're interested in every striker going (Eto'o, Tevez, Milito, Torres etc. etc.) Am I to assume that he "can't say anymore"?