Ladies and Gentlemen, Fernando Torres has scored....Twice!

Fernando Torres' embarrassing open net miss vs Manchester United

[photo by Ronnie Macdonald]

• by Adam Huntington, writing from Dundee, Scotland

The summer transfer market is now open, and it's already throwing up some of the most ridiculous deals in modern times. With January's preceding it, it was never going to disappoint. The winter window witnessed a struggling, out of form Fernando Torres secure a deal to Chelsea for the incomprehensible amount of £50 million. After his wages of £175,000 p/w have been factored in, Torres will cost Chelsea a total of £95 million. There was a lot of talk at the time, some saying that he could possibly validate his value, other's saying that it was an offensive amount of money to pay. As the season rolled out to a finish though, the stats said it all. One goal in fourteen games for Chelsea, three shots on target, the equivalent of £16 million per shot on target. It would have seemed that Liverpool definitely got the better end of the deal, but they squandered it on Andy Carroll who, due to injury, only played six times after the transfer. Admittedly though, Liverpool did also buy Luis Saurez, who was inspirational.

Money within football, always pretty ridiculous, has reached sickening new heights. Due to my dislike of how the English media inflate their own players talent, and how all Premier League clubs have a seemingly bottomless money pit to dip into, I'll be focussing solely on deals inside the English League. Earlier this month, Jordan Henderson and Phil Jones completed dreams moves to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively. Two young English players making it to two of the biggest club teams in the world, which is great. The money paid however, was so ludicrous it verged on pathetic. Henderson cost Liverpool £20 million, a bright talent he may be, but he's no where near proven enough to justify that amount of money, having played something like seventy games in his entire career. Jones, a good centre back, cost United a reported £17 million despite only playing for Blackburn thirty five times in total. Talented though they may be, these players are nothing more than expensive gambles. There's no guarantee at all that Jones and Henderson will develop into world-beating players.

The hype that young English players get from the press is nothing short of astounding. When we look at the last four relatively high-profile and high-costing transfers regarding young English players, we see Henderson, Jones, Carroll and Smalling. Combined, the total price these players cost is £80 million. How many England first-team caps do they have between them? Three. Completely unproven internationally, but somehow they've found themselves with a huge price tag around their neck. Compare this to a selection of Scottish players transfers; Mark Reynolds, James McArthur, Kenny Miller, Charlie Adam and Gary Caldwell. With the exception of Miller, all moved from Scottish clubs to English ones, however they cost peanuts in comparison. These five players cost an approximate total of £2 million. However between them, they have one hundred and ten Scotland first-team caps. Admittedly Scotland's national team isn't as good as Englands, but these Scottish players feature regularly for their new teams; Caldwell and McArthur usually start for Wigan and Charlie Adam has had superlatives thrown at him all season. However, when reports came out in January about Adam leaving to go to Liverpool, the price was rumoured to be about £9 million. This is where the price to talent ratio comes heavily into question. Charlie Adam was undisputedly better than Jordan Henderson, this season, so why would his value less than half of the young Englishman's?

Watching England take on Ukraine in the Under 21 European Championships through the week, in which they struggled to a boring 0-0 draw, I was seriously unimpressed with the players on show. Mancienne looked very uncomfortable, Sturridge seemed hell bent on scoring from 30+ yards, and Welbeck choked when he had a golden chance. Jones played pretty well, had a huge lapse in concentration that could have resulted in a goal, and got needlessly booked, but was never really troubled. Henderson didn't really do anything to justify any part of his transfer fee; he did nothing wrong, but nothing right either. Compare this to Spain's Juan Mata, who has easily been the tournament's best player so far. His excellent vision, passing and technique gave him two assists in their 2-0 win over the Czechs. Or the Spanish captain Javi Martinez, who looks like he's going to be an incredible defensive midfielder, already comfortable in breaking up the opposition's attack. How much would they be worth if they were English? I wonder.

[photo by "AtilaTheHun"]

• by Hiten Mandalia, writing from West London

Goals fom Ryan Giggs and Park Ji-Sung allowed Man Utd to progress into the semi-finals of the Champions League for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

Manchester United took a slender 1 – 0 lead coming into the second leg, but the vital away goal they scored at Stamford Bridge was an important goal. The stage was set at Old Trafford for both Man Utd and Chelsea.

Chelsea came into the game knowing they had to win, so therefore, Ancelotti stuck to Chelsea’s favoured 4-3-3 formation and went out to attack right from the word go. Manchester United knew they couldn’t sit back all game because they don’t operate in that sense, especally when playing at Old Trafford. Ferguson stuck to his 4-4-2 formation with many determined and energetic players in the team.

The game started with a high tempo, which was signs of things to come. The first real chance of the first half came when Malouda ran through three to four Man Utd players and laid a pass to Lampard, who struck a weak shot. It was a simple save for Van Der Sar but Lampard should have done better. With tackles flying in from Chelsea players and with a few yellow cards being shown to the players in blue, it was alwalys likely that someone was going to get sent off in this game.

At 40, Van Der Sar still shows that he’s still got that magic touch. Taking a risky decision by coming out of his area and going for the ball, he had to get it right in order to avoid being sent off. His slide to get the ball off Anelka was pin point perfect, which resulted in a big applause all around Old Trafford. Had he got that wrong, he could have seen red, or at the very least, a yellow.

[photo by "AtilaTheHun"]

Hernandez got the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled out for offside. However, Hernandez would soon get his goal. Great build up play from Man Utd led to a corner. It resulted in Giggs passing it to O’Shea, who then reversed it back to Giggs, who was in acres of space by the byline and crossed it in, allowing Hernandez to get his boot to the ball. That was just before half time, which relieved some of the pressure. Utd were 1-0 up at half time and Chelsea had to score twice, at the very least

Tonight’s game further emphasised Giggs’ determiantion, passion and desire for the game. Despite coming to an age where he is consdering to hang up his boots, he still plays to the best of his ability. His first touch, his control, his crosses, his skill; Giggs has still got the potential to play at the highest level, despite playing for 21 years. This was emphasised throght the game, providing assists to both goals. His desire and motivation to win every game and his hunger to win trophies is still fresh, despite winning all the possible club competitions with Man Utd.

Ancelotti was forced to make a change at the start of the second half, with Drogba replacing the ever failing Torres. Minimal contribution again from the World Cup winner, which is starting to get frustrating to everyone associated with Chelsea Football Club. The second half started the way the forst half started, and both teams had their chances.

With the scoreline being 1-0 on the night and 2-0 on aggregate to Manchester United, Ramires made a challenge which earnt him his second yellow card of the game, which resulted him being sent off. Chelsea down to ten men and losing on aggregate, surely that was the end of Chelsea’s season.

However, six minuted later, Essien made an inch perfect pass to Drogba, before slotting the ball past Van Der Sar.

That was Chelsea’s away goal and a lifeline to get back in the game. As they say, you’re at your most vulnerable just after you scored and that proved to be the case in this scenario. 21 seconds later., Ji-Sung Park scored for the Red Devils after some nice build up play. 2-1 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate to Utd. That put the game to bed.

Manchester United fully deserved to go through to the semi-final of the Champions League as they were better then Chelsea over the two legs. They know how to live up to pressure and they’ve been in this scenario many times.

[photo by "AtilaTheHun"]

However, Ancelotti must be regretting his team selection. His decision to play Torres from the start backfired, as he was poor yet again. Torres was bought for these games and these occasions, but he doesn’t look like his former self. If Torres’ £50m was a flop, then Man Utd’s £6m signing of Hernandez has to be one of the best signings in recent years. Bargain, one must say.

This was Man Utd’s night to remember as they still look to win an historic treble for the second time, while Chelsea have to go back to the drawing board as their season looks as good as over.

photo by Secom Bahia

• by Mike Fontana, writing from Bowling Green, KY

Recently I was sitting at Barnes & Noble reading an H.P. Lovecraft novel when the idea of “The uglier the footballer the better the football he plays.” This thought quickly translated into a tweet which gave me the idea to write my first blog post for “The Pursuit of Victory” about how uglier footballers play better football.

Ronaldinho, Rooney, Kuyt, and Messi. What do these players have in common? They’re all ugly and they’re all very talented at the football of today. I have a theory about ugly football players, the uglier you are the better you will perform on the pitch. Everyone is aware of the great Brazilian Ronaldinho who had a very successful time at Barcelona, Wayne Rooney who has enjoyed many goals and trophies with Manchester United, Dirk Kuyt who has just enjoyed playing at Liverpool and not winning anything, and Messi who is without doubt one of if not the best player in the world. This article isn’t just about those four players though look at Van Der Sar, the keeper for Manchester United, he could easily pass as an Elf on Lord of the Rings. Franc Ribery looks like he eats three square meals of buttered gravel every day. Carlos Tevez could be and probably has been mistaken for El Chupacabra. As ugly as those players are my personal favorite is Rene Higuita who looks like Ron Jeremy and Lionel Richey had a kid.

I have a theory about all the ugly successful footballers in the world and I think I’m pretty spot on with it as well. If you look at Lionel Messi he is not exactly the best looking of men, but he has obtained 50 goals this season and 47 last season which makes me think that the uglier the footballer the more focused on the game they are. Wayne Rooney, very ugly man, but continues to have success. Seeing as they are more focused on football rather than looking pretty they play better. The opposite example of this is Fernandita Torres, excuse me, Fernando Torres. I often mistaken him for a woman. Getting back on track, he is a fairly good looking guy and works to maintain his style and looks which in turn takes focus off the football pitch and is probably why he hasn’t scored a goal since Moses talked to the burning bush. I think Ashley Cole is the best example of this, I once heard him be asked “Who do you think the best looking player is on your team?” he replied “Me obviously.” Maybe if he wasn’t busy buying gold plated Cadillacs and trying to be pretty all the time Chelsea would be more in the race for the title and not 11 points out of first place. Don’t get me wrong whatever Chelsea are doing I hope they keep it up because so far it’s working for everyone else.

Maybe if some players wouldn’t concentrate on how they looks off the pitch and sometimes even on the pitch they would be able to focus more on their playing and being able to perform at such a high level. Until then football will be dominated by the Ronaldinho’s and the Rooney’s of the world.

Follow Mike on Twitter @Redevil92

[photo by Mark Freeman]

• by Braydon de Liberato, writing from Canada

Every year, teams are constantly looking to improve their squad. It can be done through scouting, but the quickest return on your investment is the transfer. Transfers are beautiful things, as they can quickly revive a team down on its luck, but can easily have their own consequences, like the Robinho-esque mega transfers that never pan out. We can’t tell at this point how each transfer will turn out, but we can see what each player brings to their new team. Here I am going to look at the big transfers from this year’s winter transfer window, and analyze what each player brings to their respective teams.

Antonio Cassano, AC Milan (undisclosed fee)

Antonio Cassano was transferred from Genoa-based Sampdoria to 17-time Serie A champions AC Milan for an undisclosed fee. He signed a three-and-a-half-year contract worth roughly €2.8 million a year. He was brought on to replace Ronaldinho, who was known to be disgruntled in Milan, and wanted a transfer back to his native Brazil. Cassano himself isn’t exactly low-maintenance, so don’t expect a very long tenure at the San Siro. At 29 years old, he isn’t going to get much better than he is. He doesn’t fit particularly well in any of the systems they’ve used, but can be used on the left in a 4-3-3 or in the hole in a 4-3-1-2.

Giampaolo Pazzini, Inter Milan (€12 million + Jonathan Biabiany)

Giampaolo Pazzini was also transferred from Sampdoria, however Pazzini joined AC Milan’s rival Internazionale. He joined the European champs for a fee of €12 million and French winger Jonathan Biabiany, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract that will keep him with the Nerrazzuri through 2015. He will join a very strong Inter strike team, featuring Diego Milito, Samuel Eto’o, and Goran Pandev, among others. He has the chance to become the best pure number 9 in Europe playing at Inter, playing well in a variety of formations. Pazzini has already proven to be a strong addition to Inter’s front line, scoring a brace and drawing a penalty in his first game, a 3-2 win over Palermo.

Edin Dzeko, Manchester City (€28 million)

Edin Dzeko was transferred from German squad VFL Wolfsburg to big-spending Manchester City for an approximate fee of €28 million. He signed a 4 year contract, which will expire in January of 2015. I find his signing an unusual one for the Citizens, with Carlos Tevez having recently signed a new contract and City having plenty of offensive depth, especially so considering their use of a one striker formation. Dzeko has so far had little impact on City’s form, good or bad, and is clearly still second fiddle to Carlos Tevez. I can’t see his stay in Manchester being beneficial to his career, but only time will tell.

Andy Carroll, Liverpool F.C. (€35 million)

Andy Carroll was transferred from Newcastle F.C. to Liverpool F.C. for €35 million. He is known as a classic number 9 with great aerial skill and finishing ability. He is likened to Alan Shearer for these qualities. I find this to be a risky move by Kenny Dalgish, as Carroll not only is unproven in the Premier League before this season, but also has had disciplinary problems throughout his short career. The transfer fee is surely inflated due to his great potential, but if his personal life gets in the way of it, his career will surely go down the drain. If it doesn’t, however, look for Carroll to be near the top of the scoring charts for years to come.

Luis Suarez, Liverpool F.C. (€26.5 million)

Luis Suarez was transferred from Dutch heavyweights Ajax Amsterdam to Liverpool F.C. for €26.5 million. Suarez is a goal scoring machine, scoring 111 goals in 159 competitive matches for Ajax. He is best known for his handball in Uruguay’s FIFA World Cup quarter final matchup against Ghana, which saved Uruguay the game, and earned them a semi-final berth. Suarez could be a risky move by Liverpool, because he may not be as effective in England as in other, weaker leagues. He does have some experience against stronger teams, having scored 16 goals in 32 games for Ajax in Champions League and Europa League/UEFA Cup play.

Fernando Torres, Chelsea F.C. (€50 million)

Fernando Torres was transferred from underachieving Liverpool F.C. to British champions Chelsea F.C. for a British record €50 million fee. He is a proven all-around striker, boasting the highest goals-per-game and goals-per-minute ratio of any player in the Premier League era. However, he doesn’t offer too much to Chelsea’s already potent attack, as top class players such as Didier Drogba, Nicholas Anelka, and Frank Lampard are all as effective as him. Torres does have something they don’t, however, in youth. The transfer for Torres surely means one of Anelka and Drogba (likely Anelka) will leave at the end of the season.

It can’t be guaranteed that signing these players will guarantee victory right off the bat (with Chelsea losing their first game with Torres), but transfers wouldn’t be made unless managers knew they would contribute to success. Scouting is the better thing to do, as is it no coincidence that teams such as Barcelona are perennial contenders in domestic and continental leagues with the majority of their squad being home grown. You could also go the way of Ajax, developing great players and selling them for a bundle. Either way, its obvious that scouting is the stronger choice.

[photo by Nigel Wilson]

El Niño is the warming of the Pacific Ocean, and things warmed up pretty quickly last night as Fernando Torres (nicknamed El Niño) joined Chelsea from Liverpool for a fee reported to be £50 million ($79.5 million). Liverpool supporters burned Torre's #9 in disgust and one supporter described the transfer stating that "It feels like the wife's had an affair, then rung to say he's better in bed than me." On the Liverpool official site another left this comment: "Fernando Torres, You'll forever walk alone!!"

The transfer is a British transfer record surpassing Andy Carroll's £35 million ($56.3 million) move from Newcastle United to Liverpool earlier in the day. Prior to both the record was Robinho's £32.5 million move from Real Madrid to Manchester City.

So what does this mean for Liverpool? Well to start the nice £50 million they recieved for Torre's transfer is going to help pay for their two new Forwards: Luis Suarez and the arguably over-priced Andy Carroll. Suarez is small and nimble and Carroll is big and powerful, so the two should complement each other nicely. Carroll will take the role of the main striker, and Suarez will be his support.

Torres has been struggling since the World Cup this past Summer, while Suarez and Carroll are arguably on top of their game. Do you think Liverpool were a better team prior to the Transfer Deadline, or after the Transfer Deadline? Leave your response in the comments section.