Originally posted by Mike
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No allusion to Torres, Gerrard or Mascherano wanting out
I`m afraid I have to take issue with an article written by David Maddock published in The Mirror this morning. In his article, David has referred to a column of my own – published on Monday in the same paper – and stated that "on this site, my colleague Guillem Balague has alluded to the fact that the Liverpool manager believes Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano all want to leave Anfield."
This is simply not the case. I have never alluded, hinted or even suggested that Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano all want to leave Anfield.
In my article on Monday, I stated that "Rafa knows he can sell three of his regulars and bring in around £40-50million for them."
I really must reject the claim that this phrase is an allusion to the notion that `Rafa Benitez believes Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano all want to leave.` In fact, I struggle to see how anyone could even come to that conclusion from anything that I have written.
I did write that Benitez could raise £30 - £40 million from the sale of three players - and, if you think about it, I would have to be alluding to anyone but those aforementioned players, because if Liverpool were to sell Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano, I`m fairly certain we`d be talking about a figure somewhat higher than £40 miilion for the three of them!
Furthermore - it takes a fairly large leap of imagination to get from "Rafa knows he can sell to raise money" - to "Rafa believes the trio wants to leave.”
I did finish my article by stating that Javier Mascherano would follow Rafa - but, again, that does not mean that the Argentine wants to leave Liverpool; simply that he would like to continue playing under Benitez wherever that may be. I also wrote that Fernando Torres`s future is not linked to Rafa`s, which, in the context of my original column means that whether Rafa eventually leaves Anfield or not – does not mean that Torres will do the same and vice-versa. I was not stating that Fernando Torres wants to leave Liverpool.
I appreciate being able to respond to David’s article and I know that I am fortunate to have this website as a platform to make my point clear – it’s one of the reasons for maintaining it. But I’m also a little wary of getting drawn into an argument over the internet. But on this occasion I felt it quite necessary to make my point as the differences between what I had written and what has been inferred are fairly significant and consequential – as quite a few people emailing this site have pointed out. David writes an interesting article and makes some very good points of his own, but they are his opinions and I`m under the impression that an interpretation of my own views have been used to back them up.
When all is said and done, there are a lot of varying opinions flying about on what is a very emotive subject for all Liverpool fans and I invite everyone, including my colleague David, to let us know their thoughts here…
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