Fernando Torres

[Mike]

Always was a Torres fan, until he wanted to leave.

For me, it wasn't the fact that he wanted to leave, because i still love Xabi , it was the fact he said it three days before the transfer window ended - knowing it would make things extremely difficult for us to replace him in that short space of time.

Made up with the £50m, made up with Suarez and Carroll, not happy with how Torres left.

[Neil Young]

Always was a Torres fan, until he wanted to leave.

For me, it wasn't the fact that he wanted to leave, because i still love Xabi , it was the fact he said it three days before the transfer window ended - knowing it would make things extremely difficult for us to replace him in that short space of time.

Made up with the £50m, made up with Suarez and Carroll, not happy with how Torres left.

So you're happy with the fee and the replacements that fee bought but you're unhappy he left us with inadequate time to replace him with good enough players.

Someone's brain hurts and I don't know if it's yours or mine.

[Mike]

So you're happy with the fee and the replacements that fee bought but you're unhappy he left us with inadequate time to replace him with good enough players.

Someone's brain hurts and I don't know if it's yours or mine.

Its yours

I never said i was unhappy that he left us, i was unhappy with HOW he left us i.e. transfer request three days from the end of the transfer window - left us with a lot to do in a short space of time.

[Neil Young]

...which worked out fine so there was no problem.

No, it's yours.

[Mike]

...which worked out fine so there was no problem.

No, it's yours.

Not the point, he knew that putting the request in so late would put us in an unfavourable position; out of respect for the club, he shouldn't of done that.

[Neil Young]

You're looking for an excuse to hate him. Events proved the timing of his transfer request wasn't a problem so your starting assumption is wrong.

[dww]

You're looking for an excuse to hate him. Events proved the timing of his transfer request wasn't a problem so your starting assumption is wrong.

Perhaps not in terms of getting players in but it is possible we paid a premium for them given the timing. Although I tend to think we have to have been expecting it all and the blame has to be at least shared by the hierarchy of the club if this is the case.

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

Liverpool’s newly promoted Director of Football, Damien Comolli believes the atmosphere at the club has improved greatly since the departure of Fernando Torres in January.

The Reds ripped off Chelsea for £50million for the Spanish striker, who is yet to score for his new club, and Comolli believes the air of negativity Torres had at the club has now been lifted.

He said, “When you have someone who doesn’t want to be here and you swap him for people who want to be here the atmosphere changes.

“It’s like there is a bright new sky with no cloud over our head from the day that happened. So it’s been only positive.”

Comolli was given a promotion from Director of Football Strategy to Director of Football after impressive work since joining the club in November last year.

Comolli was intrumental in negotiations to bring Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez to Anfield, who has set the team alight in his first few games at the club.

Meanwhile, he is equally happy with the acquisition of Andy Carroll, who made his first league start for the club after injury in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

He continued, “I am very, very pleased for two reasons. First, because we got a top player. He’s young, English, with all the attributes you want from a modern centre-forward in the way we want to play.

“Secondly, because getting two players triggered the fact that we could sell one player who didn’t want to be here and get two who did want to be here. That was really a relief for those reasons.”

[RedReet]

Poor old Babel, it's as if he never even existed.

[dww]

Poor old Babel, it's as if he never even existed.

It's certainly a theory that would explain a lot. I always suspected his twitter account was just another Shaggy alias.

[RedReet]

No worse than some of the other ‘theories’ that are often referred to as fact on here.

[Mike]

Did we ever find out who Marky was?

[Neil Young]

Perhaps not in terms of getting players in but it is possible we paid a premium for them given the timing. Although I tend to think we have to have been expecting it all and the blame has to be at least shared by the hierarchy of the club if this is the case.

I'm sure Torres's transfer request wasn't a complete shock. The club "played hardball" (apologies for the Americanism but I suppose it's not completely inappropriate in this case) and getting Torres to hand in a request was part of that along with, of course, the high price Chelsea ended up having to pay.

The price for Suarez was going up throughout the whole month and making a crazy offer for Carroll was surely the only realistic way Newcastle were going to sell, even if they had weeks to sort out the deal.

Plus it's certainly arguable the short timescale made it harder for other clubs to go for Carroll because there weren't days or weeks of speculation about his availability.

[Angryred]

Did we ever find out who Marky was?

Erm...Marky?

[badpiggy]

PTP made what now appears to be a false confession when Marky was written out of EST.