Yesterday Liverpool received an offer from Chelsea for Fernando Torres for a sum thought to be between £35m and £40m, which the Liverpool board swiftly rejected. Later in the day the Reds received a written transfer request from Torres, which was summarily turned down as well. Now this is the player that just a few months ago pledged his immediate future to Liverpool, it seems there is no loyalty or honour in modern football. Torres has said that he wants to be gone from Anfield by Monday, seems that he is chasing the money which Roman Abramovich can afford to pay him. Liverpool should put a price tag of £100m on Torres, see how much Chelsea really want the Spaniard. Torres still has 2 1/2 years remaining on his contract and no buy-out clause to allow him an easy route out. What makes the situation worse is Liverpool just spent out £22.8m on Luis Suarez specifically to play alongside Torres. I believe the player should do the honourable thing and remain with the club until the end of the season as Liverpool have no time to find a replacement for the Spaniard before the transfer window closes. Personally I believe that the FA should not allow mid season transfers, all transfers should be completed during the summer break!
The news from Home Park isn’t any better; Argyle slumped to their fifth defeat in six games, being beaten 1 – 2 by Bournemouth for a second time, how many more teams will do the league double over Argyle this season? To add insult to injury the winning goal came from Bournemouth’s assistant manager six minutes from full time. Plymouth are serious lacking in front of goal, there was plenty of good chances for Argyle but the finishing was atrocious; miss of the day goes to Rory Patterson who managed to slice over the bar from three yards out! Plymouth are now only three points off a relegation spot, Roy Gardner and Keith Todd have a lot to answer for; the players have not been paid on time for the third month in a row; although the backroom staff have been paid on time this month! It seems that 38% shareholder Yasuaki Kagami hasn’t made good on his promise to send £500,000 per month to secure Argyle’s survival! There has been lots of complaints about how the fans are not supporting the club in their time of need by attending the game today. But I don’t blame the local fans for not attending; ticket prices are expensive for a League One club and there is still a recession on. But the big problem is that many younger fans prefer the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, I don’t see too many Plymouth Argyle shirts being worn around Plymouth but I see plenty of Premiership club shirts. I am a Liverpool fan but if it came down to a game between Argyle Vs Liverpool, I’ll be wearing green! It seems supporting your home town club isn’t fashionable anymore, personally I’d love to go to an Argyle game right now, but the round trip cost would be rather expensive from Kansas!
At least there has been some good news in the Argyle camp, local boy Joe Mason has rejected a move to Swindon Town after the club had initially accepted Swindon’s offer. After recent performances from the young Plymouth lad I expected offers to come in and we’d see him leave Home Park, but to his credit he wants to stick to his roots and play for his home town club! Onismor Bhasera has also been subject to two offers but those deals fell through because he failed medicals at both clubs. I know that Plymouth have to sell as many of their players as they can to survive the winding up order but at what cost; will Peter Reid have to field a schoolboy XI?
And there is more Plymouth Argyle news, apparently some of the £2m that was promised by Kagami and Synan is on it’s way. Call me cynical if you like but didn’t Kagami also say this two months ago? He should have paid in £1m so far with another £500,000 payment arriving soon. I hope the money is on it’s way but I am not holding out much faith of the money actually arriving by Monday; as for the threat from Peter Ridsdale that he’ll quit if the money isn’t forthcoming by Monday is a useless one; Kagami, sat in Japan couldn’t give a flying fuck about Ridsdale!