Filed under: Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle, Betting, Premier League, Football
The transfer market has gone loco. If El Nino is worth, £50 million, Andy Carroll (El Vino) £35 million and Darren Bent £24 million little wonder the January transfer window is known as the Panic Window. Sky Sports News reporters, stationed outside football clubs all over the country, managed to maintain admirable levels of enthusiasm as deadline drew its last breathless reports from the men with microphones. It must be the most fun anyone has had in a car park since Stan Collymore's playing days.
Veteran presenter Jim White's feverish reaction to news of James Beattie and Andy Reid joining Blackpool bore an uncanny similarity to the insincere enthusiasm with which my estate agent greets me, the git. The arrival of Beattie and Reid would boost any manager in the league, specifically if the manager in question was Championship Manager circa 2003.
Deadline day was dominated by the protracted and prohibitive transfers of Fernando Torres and Carroll who were both sighted in choppers at various times of the day. It makes a change from reports of Premier League players sighted with their choppers in other things.
Torres won't be forgiven by Liverpool fans for leaving Anfield without so much as a backward glance. There were reports on Monday night that the helicopter taking him to London had been damaged by angry fans, with Richard Keys enquiring if they had smashed it.
Carroll, Newcastle's calendar boy for February, enjoyed the same mode of transport to get to Liverpool. As yet the rotors have not been returned.
Carroll must have enjoyed living with Scouser Kevin Nolan so much that now he's now going to live among thousands of them. Hopefully he'll have learnt some useful lessons from his former club captain, like making sure his door is locked. Hills have cut his odds to be next Premier League player arrested from 7-1 to 6-1 after his move to Liverpool, where the most commonly-used phrase is 'don't worry - it's only a flesh wound'.
Carroll is 11-8 to outscore fellow Anfield new boy Luis Suarez. With Torres gone and Carroll injured, centre stage will be taken by new signing Suarez. The Uruguayan World Cup star has been an Eredivisie sensation - for the unenlightened, Eredivisie is a Dutch lager - and Kop fans will be in wonderland if the Luis-Carroll partnership bears fruit.
Torres has scored nine Premier League goals this season compared to the 11 chalked up by Carroll yet Torres is 1-2 favourite to end up with more than Carroll. The Geordie hit-man is 6-4.
Torres will now have to live up to the price tag of £50 million slapped on head - the impact put him on the sidelines for another three weeks.
What will irk Liverpool fans is Torres' claim that he has joined a bigger club. Liverpool have bagged five European Championships whereas Roman Abramovich hasn't been able to buy one.
The acquisition of the sulky striker is presumably is a signal of intent. But to all intents and purposes Chelsea's cash rich owner should have splashed out at the start of the season.
The Blues are 10 points behind United in the title race. That lead looks unassailable when you consider United have been playing well below their peak, are unbeaten and their number 10 is just beginning to find his shooting boots..
This would mean that Chelsea's decision to recruit Torres now, the man who combines the killer instinct of a paid assassin with the looks of a lesbian (I speak as someone who has seen numerous movies containing both), can be classed as an attempt to boost the Blues' Champions League chances.
To do that Chelsea would have to beat Barcelona, you would think, at some stage and the Catalans boast six players in UEFA's team of the year as well as six in the national team. Spain use Villa as an out-and-out striker, Torres is more an in-an-out striker. Bet365 offer 2-1 that Torres scores three or more Champions League goals for his new club. The Blues are 11-2 to win the Champions League.
Paddy Power offer 5-6 Torres outscores Suarez and Carroll this season, a fair price when you consider Carroll is injured and Suarez will need a period of time to adjust to the pace of the Premier League.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/02/02/football-betting-fernando-torres-luis-suarez-and-andy-carroll/
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