Istanbul club Fenerbahce are willing to take Fernando Torres off Chelsea’s hands as they bid to reclaim their league crown.
The Turkish outfit has been second best to their bitter rivals Galatasaray, who won the title two season in a row and want to boost their ranks, with Torres reportedly on their shortlist.
Club president Aziz Yildrim seems to be a fan of experienced Premier League players as the likes of Dirk Kuyt, Joseph Yobo and Raul Meireles were signed last summer. Could Torres join them?
Well, for now it’s just a rumour and there are no real indications of what players will be leaving Chelsea in the upcoming transfer window as the new manager is yet to be confirmed. But I’m sure we will be signing a new forward with the £100m Rafael Benitez says we have to spend and I doubt anyone would want the problem of benching a man that doesn’t want to be benched, especially when he’s on £170,000-a-week.
Torres had a decent season for Chelsea as far as the cups were concerned and scored 23 goals, 9 of which were in Europe. His Premier League return was dreadful though as he only managed to net eight times in 28 starts (36 total appearances). I’ve seen people defend him saying that he barely played in the Premier League once Demba Ba was signed but this simply isn’t factually correct.
About a week ago The Sun journalist and Chelsea fan Rob Beasley wrote an article which suggested that the club were keen to get rid of Torres this summer as Jose Mourinho, expected manager, isn’t keen on him. He believes that the Blues would have to partly fund any sort of transfer either with a wage subsidy or a lump sum pay-off as it’s unlikely anyone would match his current wages, but Chelsea would still save millions in the process as Torres will cost nearly £30m in wages should he remain for another three years.
Whilst the going is moderately good for Torres it could represent the best opportunity to move him on because if he’s as goal-shy next season as he’s mostly been during his time at Stamford Bridge then it will be much more difficult to drum up any interest in him, especially as he’ll be thirty in March next year.
Torres could go to Fenerbahce for as little as €16 million but it would be difficult to recoup much on a player that has only managed 35 goals in 131 games for Chelsea.
Source: Ladbrokes via Turkish reports
