With the World Cup edging towards its latter stages the transfer rumour mill appears to be in full swing. As usual, we?re being linked with practically every defensive midfielder in Europe ? Petit, Carrick, Duscher, Mascherano, Diarra, Senna and Muntari, to name a few ? but with the likely exit of Ruud van Nistelrooy, rumours abound that a top-class striker could soon be arriving. Werder Bremen?s Miroslav Klose has recently been linked, but there is one name that?s been linked with us for a while now and the rumours refuse to go away. That name is Fernando Torres.

According to the BBC Sport website, Manchester United are very close to tying up a ?20m deal for the Atletico Madrid frontman. Undoubtedly, this signing, should it go through (and it must be stressed that the deal is far from sealed) would go some way to easing the pain of the prolific van Nistelrooy?s almost-inevitable exit, but I must confess that I?m still to be convinced that Torres is a ?20m player. In Spain he is a player who divides opinion ? for some his is Spain?s best striker, quick, strong and a great finisher, but for others he is over-hyped and inconsistent. His tally of 13 league goals for perennial underachievers Atletico last year is a respectable amount, and at 22 there is still plenty time for him to improve as a player, but more worrying is the stat that he was guilty of giving the ball away 396 times in the season just gone, more than any other player in La Liga.

Obviously a forward?s job, first and foremost, is to score goals but it is worrying to imagine move after move breaking down at Torres? feet. Still, despite my reservations I?ve been impressed with Torres in the World Cup so far and if we do lose van Nistelrooy then Torres would certainly be an adequate replacement and would add more pace and directness to our forward line, which can only be a good thing. Still, we?ll have to wait and see what develops but this particular rumour appears to have more than a ring of truth to it compared to some that I?ve heard lately. All I hope is that our spending doesn?t end with Torres and that we can begin to improve the midfield, because right now that?s the area in which we are truly lacking.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under Manchester United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.