Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger wants to bring Chelsea striker Fernando Torres to partner Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain at the Emirates, claims Dean Jones and Dave Kidd of the Sunday People.
You decide first how to react to it, because to me this news has hit the nadir of all transfer cooked up stories framed in the summer.
Before you scratch your head to fathom why on earth, Wenger would sign Torres, have a laugh at the suggestion that the Spaniard will partner Gonzalo Higuain, yes, Higuain – a player, who has yet to sign for the club while fears remain about his potential transfer as there are suggestions that Madrid may block the deal.
Chelsea are in need of a quality striker and are targeting top names across the Europe. Naturally, it has put pressure on Torres, who has expressed his desire to stay at the Bridge and re-ignite his career under Jose Mourinho.
However, the Spaniard may also leave the club, which won’t be a big surprise, if Chelsea sign players like Edinson Cavani or Robert Lewandowski. But, the suggestion of him joining Arsenal is simply quite bizarre.
Wenger has been given a transfer war-chest to bolster the squad and top names are expected to arrive at the club this season but a move for Torres to the North London club seems highly unlikely.
Further, when was the last time Wenger played two strikers together? Both Higuain and Torres are out-an-out centre forwards and Wenger hasn’t used that system for a long time now. It is also improbable to think that the Frenchman would allow such system to take shape at the expense of his favoured formations at the club.
Most importantly, would Arsenal be willing to pay Torres’ exorbitant wage fees, which he earns at Chelsea at the moment?
The 29-year-old scored 22 goals last season, but there’s no shame in admitting that he doesn’t give the impression of same old Torres anymore. And for a player whose game is solely centred on pace, his career can only go downhill from here in, unless he adapts brilliantly to get his midas touch back.
Wenger has devoted a major part of his managerial life in finding and nurturing young hidden gems from across the world, and such signings (the one mentioned here) do not bode well with the Frenchman’s philosophy at all. It seems a nice ploy to sell few copies on the final Sunday of June, nothing more than that.
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