Chelsea to sell Torres for just £15m

CHELSEA will sell Fernando Torres this summer and are prepared to take a £35million loss on the misfit striker.

Torres has been a disaster since his move from Liverpool   Club owner Roman Abramovich has at last conceded that the £50m Torres experiment has been a disastrous failure after more than two years of frustration.

Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala are ready to end the Spaniard’s misery with a bid at the end of the season, but Torres would prefer a move back to his home country – which may yet provide a way for Chelsea to tempt Atletico Madrid’s Falcao to the Bridge.


Chelsea’s Spanish striker Fernando Torres (R) during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in London, on October 28, 2012. Photo: AFP

He has been a long-term target and Chelsea could offer Torres back to his old club as a makeweight in a £10m-a-year deal for the Colombian.

Last night, a source close to Abramovich said: “Roman will now sell Torres – if he can get the right offer.”

Abramovich has stuck loyally by his most costly purchase for all the 26 months that Torres, 28, who signed from Liverpool in January 2011, has been at Chelsea.

But now the owner has conceded that the time has come to cut his losses. Roman Abramovich is prepared to take a loss on Torres.

Torres endured yet another dismal night in Chelsea’s Europa League defeat against Steaua Bucharest on Thursday and has now netted just once in his last 18 games. His last Premier League goal was on December 23.

An initial burst of improvement after the appointment of interim manager Rafa Benitez in November – which saw a run of seven goals in six games – has long since faded.

He is now considered as a secondary striker to Demba Ba and will lose his place in the side to the Senegalese for Sunday’s (today) FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United at Old Trafford.




-- www.express.co.uk