Liverpool Agree to €26.5M Transfer Fee for Suarez, Should Torres Still Quit?

Ok, so Liverpool fans must admit that Fenway Sports Group and John W. Henry have made a statement of intent by signing a record deal for the Uruguayan hit man from Ajax, Luis Suarez. Although they did leave it a little late, Liverpool FC sure have benefited from their decision both financially and for footballing reasons. Even though many a fan had become frustrated (including me to an extent) at the delay, the words of Frank De Boer, the Ajax manager who had given a deadline for the deal to go through, was given due respect as Liverpool FC and Ajax negotiated to a transfer fee.

Finally there was something to celebrate for the Liverpool fans who had been really hoping for this deal to go through for quite some time now.

However, as is the case with Liverpool football club, things just don't add up.

Even after such a stellar signing, fresh rumors of Fernando Torres submitting a transfer request have started doing the rounds after it was confirmed yesterday that Liverpool FC had received a bid from one of their major arch rivals, Chelsea, for the player. The bid was reported to be around £35-40M and was immediately rejected by Liverpool, who insisted that the player was not for sale.

As in previous cases though, this time things didn't end there. As reports from Holland suggested that Liverpool and Ajax were still negotiating the Luis Suarez deal, a much-respected Spanish journalist Guillem Ballaque broke the news that Fernando Torres had asked his representatives to talk to Liverpool to have a further look at the offer made.

Now, this is where a lot of confusion arose. Unlike their Spanish counterpart, the English media close to Liverpool FC firmly believes that Fernando Torres does in fact have a "buyout" clause in his contract and sums of about £50M have been discussed.

Although well-informed sources still hold the opinion that it will take some doing for Fernando Torres to be a Liverpool player next season, losing the player now suddenly with practically hours to go would be highly unsettling and a bid of £35-40M bid for the player is unlikely to go through anyway.

Considering Torres' viewpoint regarding all this is critical.

The Spaniard has improved leaps and bounds even from the very good player he already was at Atletico at Liverpool, and especially under the management of Rafael Benitez, who is considered to have played a key role in signing the player.

Torres had also been very vocal about Liverpool's plight and even under the reigns of Hicks and Gillett, he had always asked for better reinforcements in the squad to improve it so as to compete on the highest level. Although most of it did evidently fall on deaf ears.

Barring injury concerns, which kept the player out for some spells, Fernando Torres had always excelled as a Liverpool player until Roy Hodgson came in, whereby Liverpool FC began to flounder and Torres looked completely inept.

Thanks to the new and pro-active owners though, Hodgson was sacked and Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool legend, was given the job and has no sooner had the formation and style of play changed, Torres again found form, and is back to scoring! Not only that, his body language also improved massively.

Even as late as Jan. 9, before King Kenny had even taken him to his thus far mini-run of form, Torres went on record saying that he would honor his contract, which extended till 2013!

At the moment though it seems to be a different story. Reports say that the player has become frustrated by the Reds' repeated failure to make it big, and wants to move on now that Liverpool have a suitable buyer.

"Why now?" is the question that most fans would be asking. Why after gaining form and now having the luxury of a world-class partner unlike ever before does he want to quit Liverpool FC for good? Has he not seen that even Chelsea are not guaranteed of a Champions League spot yet?

Whatever it be, the reports cannot be refuted so easily judging by the sources. As dreams of many a Liverpool Football Club fan of seeing the deadly combination of Suarez-Torres up front threatens to get trampled, it remains pretty unclear as to why Chelsea had to wait till so late in the window to place a bid.

Clearly Torres doesn't need to quit in these given circumstances, and it would really be disheartening to let Torres go and even though a £50M move for the player may get him in the summer, at this moment under the banner of FSG any move looks highly unlikely even if Torres hands in a formal transfer request. Much like the cases of Rooney, Tevez and even Charlie Adam!!

Liverpool thus also has a strong case to discuss with Torres too, in case of a showdown the club has no front-line strikers and Suarez is yet to adapt to England, so shouldn't the Spaniard be understanding of these facts before behaving in such an unsporting manner to force a transfer from a club, which has obviously contributed to a huge rise in his career stats? The message is clear, Fernando Torres is and forever will be a Liverpool legend, but if he were to force a move just now, he would rightly lose a lot of respect from Liverpool fans all over the world.

P.S. In all the above though, I have considered that reports circulating in the press about Torres are true. His recent games didn't tell that though.