Yesterday, Rafa made a comment that brought a smile to my face and sent my head spinning (with thoughts). When asked if Liverpool intended to sell Torres, Rafa replied ‘Women (in Asia) go crazy for him. Thanks to him Liverpool has become much bigger in Asia. He’s the cornerstone for our sponsor.’
The transfer season has just begun and Fernando has been linked with Chelsea, Barcelona and Manchester City with bids rumoured to be up in the £70 million range. When I first heard of such high bids I was pretty much convinced that Rafa will be pressured to sell El Niño, that kind of money would help reduce our ever increasing debt. However the club is for sale, the biggest factor in determining the amount of money Hicks and Gillett can ask for the club is based on the total sales L.F.C. is able to generate. Anybody in finance will tell you that the Top Line (Sales) are more important than Bottom Line (Profit) when it comes in determining a value of a company and it’s growth potential. Given this and the fact that we have a new shirt sponsor (who want to see their brand plastered all over Asia) I am convinced that the club is not going to let Torres go this transfer season.
We are talking about Asia here, the largest continent on the planet, think about it, the club just needs to sell 1 million shirts to make around £70 million in sales. I strongly believe that they will even sell more than that, especially now that they are able to sell shirts in countries where alcohol advertising is banned (with Carlsberg this was not possible). Of course shirts are not the only thing, there is also other club merchandise and the lucrative T.V. deals which keep increasing year after year.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett do not care how many goals Torres scores however I am sure that after they saw the sales of No. 9 shirts they understand his worth. This was evident by the way Tom Hicks cheered when Torres scored against United, you could even see his pupils turning into dollar signs. The situation might change however if the club is not sold quickly, unless we can get the new stadium built or another good looking player who can score goals and capture the imagination of our female fans then we might be in deep trouble in about four years.
So thanks to our greedy owners Torres will most probably stay for now, not because of his goal scoring ability but rather because of his looks and sex appeal. The only question left is, does Torres want to stay? Hopefully he does and his injuries are also behind him.
Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine
antoine@empireofthekop.com