Weak exclusives: Manchester City want Torres and Gerrard

See you at Eastlands next year - in Liverpool colours

A brilliantly emotive piece hit the News of the World this Sunday. Who would have thought it - the day that Manchester City were due to face Liverpool was the same day that the paper would unearth an extraordinary exclusive about Liverpool’s two star players?

City set up every Liverpool fan’s worst nightmare

And of course, NotW are not in the business of inducing nightmares in people unless it’s strictly necessary. Which explains the mock-up photo of Torres and Gerrard hugging each other in City colours.

WHEN Garry Cook courted Kaka, he became the laughing stock of world football.

But the sniggering has stopped.

Possibly as contentious a claim as the one that City will be signing Torres and Gerrard for £140m. When did the laughing stop, exactly?

It’s not even a secret within the City corridors of power that the hierarchy are plotting a £140million double swoop for both Torres and Gerrard this summer.

A little bit cheeky calling it an ‘exclusive’ then.

City officials are already planning how they can pull off what would be one of the most audacious transfer coups of all time.

Now here is when we start entering the ‘if’ territory. Remember, the article suggests this is all ’set up’. Let’s see what would need to happen:

Fourth place and Champions League football would inevitably help sugar the pill of an Anfield parting but even without the lure of football at the highest level, City believe they hold more than a few aces.

So if City are in the Champions League and Liverpool are not, the deal would look more compelling for the players. True, though currently neither side is in the top 4, and City are only a point ahead of Liverpool, albeit with a game in hand. And there are the small matter of 11/12 more fixtures left for the sides. But maybe we’re wasting time on this, because it’s not going to matter anyway:

If the injured Torres chooses to watch the game from the Eastlands stands, he will be taken by the modern facilities and the potential to increase the capacity to 65,000 - while visions of a new state-of-the-art Anfield remain a pipedream.

Brilliant. If Torres watches the game live, he might like the stadium. He has played at Eastlands before, you know. And even if he moves, it won’t be to attend games. Will he really be watching Liverpool’s struggle towards the Champions League places and think to himself - “If they turn this ground into a 65,000 seater it’s going to be a-maz-ing“? Of course, that will only happen if he goes to the game. And did we mention that the Vicente Calderon, home of his previous club, Atletico Madrid, has a capacity of 54,851? Capacity of ground may conceivably be irrelevant.

Then he will look at Emmabuel Adebayor, a striker not remotely in his class, who picks up £140,000 a week, substantially more than the £95,000 a week Torres earns from a four-year deal signed last summer.

Money is a reasonable consideration, and could sway a player. It didn’t sway John Terry last year, though, nor did it Kaka, and generally City have only been able to sign players from the level just below world class. Torres seems to have genuine affinity for Liverpool, and there’s no express reason to speculate that he’s more money-driven than loyal to his club.

Torres might then just to do some calculations not entirely based on money. He will wonder where Liverpool are heading.

That’s exactly the question one of Torres’s advisors put to the Liverpool hierarchy recently.

That’s the most compelling question posed yet - but it’s a big if, and would surely be placated by the Champions League. And even if the answer is not Liverpool, it doesn’t stand to reason that the answer is Manchester City.

Last summer, Liverpool rejected an £80m approach by City for their Spanish striker but this time around the club simply may not be in a position to refuse such an offer.

Our heads are spinning from that heady cocktail of the speculative and the unsubstantiatable.

Even if Torres could be lured, Gerrard would be much more reluctant to follow him down the M62.

Ah, now we turn to Gerrard. And remember, if what the NotW came up with above seemed to rely on any number of uncertain factors, they want  you to remember that anything they say about Gerrard is even less likely to materialise. What follows could lead you to believe spring has sprung, so often will you see the word ‘May’. We’ve put the speculation words in bold for emphasis:

Part of Gerrard may still regret not moving to Chelsea five years ago. And while his red-blooded Mersey roots prohibit even the thought of defecting to Manchester United, the prospect of becoming part of City’s adventure would not be out of bounds.

The plain fact is, unless things change at Liverpool - and change quickly - Gerrard, 30 in May, might have to resign himself to never winning a Premier League winner’s medal, while at City the potential is now palpable.

Those who counsel Gerrard may suggest that if he did opt to leave Liverpool it would only be to play abroad, with Real Madrid a distinct possibility.

Yet why not City?

Of course, it could happen. But it might be that it was just a spicy story to get excited about on the day of the fixture between the two sides. That, by the way, was a pretty dull goalless draw.