English Premier League: Fernando’s Future Still Clouded
Liverpool recently signed Joe Cole, who has been touted as a catalyst for a revival at the Merseyside football club. Liverpool finished last season’s English premier league as the seventh placed team and also parted ways with their ex-manager Rafael Benitez during the presently open transfer window.
A lot of controversy has surrounded Liverpool lately. Firstly, their decision to meet Joe Cole’s demands of a wage package of 90 thousand pounds per week has been branded as naïve by some media outlets in England, while others say that Cole’s real value lies in his appeal as a star player which will encourage Torres and Gerrard to stay at Anfield.
Secondly, their seventh place last season, now means that they (Liverpool) won’t be able to participate in the next season’s UEFA Champions League. There are two major draw backs to this for the most successful club in England. Firstly, all the best players in the World want to play in the best European club cup competition, which is the UEFA Champions League. And also, Liverpool might face financial problems as the current owners have been in the headlines due to their lack of financial input into the club. After the club failed to qualify for the Champions League, they forfeited the chance to earn economic gains from such a large scale European competition.
Liverpool’s captain Steven Gerrard, also confirmed this week that he will be staying with his home-town club, after his future was also in doubt earlier on in the summer. Clubs such as Real Madrid were considered to be interested in the English midfielder but their club representatives ruled out a move for the 30-year old, stating that his price tag was not in accordance with the players evaluation that Real Madrid had came up with.
In the midst of all this jolly news for Liverpool, Fernando Torres’s future is still under doubt. Club authorities have yet to hear from Fernando about his potential plans for a move away from the Merseyside club, who bought him from Athletico Madrid in the summer of 2007 for 20 million pounds.
Liverpool’s new manager Roy Hodgson told Skysports that Liverpool’s managing director Christian Purslow has been talking to Torres. Hodgson said that, yesterday i.e. 21st of July 2010, has been a great day for Liverpool because the club signed Joe Cole and Gerrard also confirmed that he would be staying with the Merseyside reds. He added that, he hopes Fernando will also follow suit and commit his future to Liverpool despite the club’s lack of success in recent times.
The former-Fulham manager went on to say, that Liverpool can hopefully meet with some more of their World Cup stars next week and also work towards signing a few more players to strengthen the squad. Hodgson also commented on Javier Mascherano who is thought to be a target of the current European champions, Inter Milan. Roy said that, Mascherano will come back to the club after getting done with his holidays on the 5th of August, 2010, the Englishman also stated that he will not be speaking to the Argentinean captain anytime before that date.
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