Manchester City willing to break transfer record for Fernando Torres
• Roberto Mancini hopeful of signing Liverpool striker
30 Jan 2011 08:22:00
Roberto Mancini has confirmed Manchester City are willing to underwrite a British record transfer for Fernando Torres should the Spaniard decide to leave Liverpool.
Torres's future at Anfield remains shrouded in uncertainty with Christian Purslow, the club's managing director, holding extensive talks with the 26-year-old striker and the manager, Daglish , but conceding he can do no more to convince the striker to stay.
City's hopes of signing Torres .
Torres is settled in Liverpool but disillusioned with the club's failure to secure new investment having been told a takeover was imminent when he signed a new four-year contract worth £110,000-a-week last August. His insistence that Liverpool require "four or five" top‑class signings to compete for honours next season is unlikely to materialise and Purslow has spent several days attempting to pacify the striker.
It exploded on Friday night, as Torres handed in his transfer request. Here, too, even greater pain: he did not want to move to his boyhood club, or to more familiar climes, or to force his team’s owners to invest.
No, instead he wished to sign for City. One of those English teams he had said he would not countenance turning out for. A team who, it could be argued, are in need of rebuilding almost as much as Liverpool. A team who look highly unlikely to fulfil his desire for a league title this season, and whose chances of European glory are only marginally less slim. Their prospects may be brighter than Liverpool’s, but they are still an ageing side.