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Tuesday Kickoff: Chelsea attempt to offload Torres; Napoli pursuing Fellaini; and more

FernandoTorresChelsea1-UCLAtleticoMadrid2014 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

With the signing of Didier Drogba late last week, Chelsea are left with a conundrum.

The club is only allowed to register 17 foreign players over the age of 21 and the club currently has 18 players vying for a spot. As such, manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he will look to sell one of his foreign players, with forward Fernando Torres at the top of the list.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Torres would be available for a £20 million transfer fee but his age (30) and wages (reportedly £175,000 per week) have made other teams shy away from trying to sign the Spanish international. If Chelsea can’t offload Torres this summer, they may have to part ways with either John Obi Mikel or starting goalkeeper Petr Cech.

“From the group you are expecting us to have as a squad, I have to send one away because we have one extra foreign player,” Mourinho told the Telegraph. “So from all these players, if you think all of them have to stay, you are wrong. One of them has to go.”

Here are some more stories to kick off your Tuesday:

NAPOLI IN DISCUSSIONS WITH MAN UNITED OVER FELLAINI

Marouane Fellaini’s disastrous spell at Manchester United could be over less than 12 months after he arrived.

According to reports in England, Napoli is in talks with Man United to acquire Fellaini, with a bid in the region of £15 million expected to be enough for Man United to part with the Belgian international. Former manager David Moyes signed Fellaini on deadline day last summer for £27.5 million, but Fellaini never truly settled at Old Trafford and struggled with back and wrist injuries during the season.

Napoli have to hope that Fellaini will consider taking a pay cut, as he is reportedly earning around £100,000 per week at Man United.

In addition, Shinji Kagawa could be on his way out of Man United, with a potential move back to Borussia Dortmund being rumored in the English press.

QUICK KICKS

FC Schalke will be without World Cup players Bendikt Howedes, Julian Draxler, and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for their Bundesliga opener on Aug. 23. (REPORT)

Barcelona announced that they’ve recorded a club record income of 530 million euros ($711 million) with profits of 41 million euros over the last fiscal year. (REPORT)

The Argentine FA has offered Alejandro Sabella a contract extension to remain as the national team manager. If he doesn’t accept, the FA may try to rehire Jose Pekerman. (REPORT)

Man United head coach Louis Van Gaal has put Luke Shaw on an individual training schedule to get his fitness up to par with the rest of the squad. (REPORT)

Everton have wrapped up the signing of Bosnia and Herzegovina international midfielder Muhamed Besic on a five-year contract. (REPORT)

Ghanian forward Jordan Ayew has signed for FC Lorient. (REPORT)

With their stadium being renovated for Euro 2016, RC Lens will play this season’s matches at Amiens SC’s 12,097-capacity Stade de la Licorne. (REPORT)

The Serbian FA has officially appointed Dutch coach Dick Advocaat to be their next national team head coach. (REPORT)

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What do you think of these reports? Do you see Chelsea selling Torres? Think Cech is most likely to go? Do you expect Fellaini to leave Old Trafford?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Torres is going to end up like Nicholas Bentner…getting paid huge cash to not show up. But granted, they are the two best strikers in the world / HAAAAAAA

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  2. i can’t believe the cost of Torres. would love to see him in MLS but not for £20M! not to mention a salary of £14M/year ($24M). i’m not sure ANY club, let alone MLS, would pay that for him. i think the best he can hope for in MLS is $10M/year.

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  3. Torres could use a detachment to the States to find some type of professional peace (and form) again. The guy has become a complete headcase and lost his mojo not unlike Tiger lost his golf mojo (for different reasons).

    If MLS can get Torres for minimal/no transfer fee and I’d love to see him come over. Otherwise, any substantial fee is a huge risk considering his mentality.

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    • Lol are you serious. You want him for what a 3mil transfer fee, get real. Either MLS has to step their game up or continue to be a second rate league. And quit being so dam scared people. Everything is a risk. You guys want everything to be a sure bet, well that’s not life. Great risk equal great reward or great failure. I’d rather reach for the stars and fail then sit on my hands hoping for the stars to come to me.

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      • Not everything that shines in the night sky is a star. It could be a worn out Russian satellite coming to earth. Or a broke down, damaged goods, has been player. Don’t reach for it.

    • I have to disagree with you. I don’t think Torres is a “headcase” at all. Before his knee surgery in April 2010, Torres was one of the world’s best players. Since then, he’s been a shadow of his former self. I’m no doctor, but I think it’s clear that he never really recovered from whatever his ailment was. One can draw a parallel between Torres’s situation and Charlie Davies’s. Davies today may officially be recovered from his injuries, but he obviously is not the same player he was. (Davies is obviously a more extreme case, but the principle is the same. They are both “recovered” from their injuries, but they’re just not the same.)

      I don’t see anything to suggest that Torres’s mentality is problematic. Actually, he’s always struck me as a relatively humble and grounded sort of guy (as much as it’s possible for a millionaire athlete to be humble and grounded). He’s not a loudmouth attention seeker, he doesn’t get into trouble off the field, and you never hear about him being a problem in the locker room. He went from a stud to a squad player overnight because his body let him down.

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    • Everything AVB did is being undone, rightfully so. CFC has talent but lacks striking.

      FWIW on Drogba’s part he’s probably chastened by going unpaid in China and then bouncing over to Turkey, where he was quite productive but playing on the margins of Europe.

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      • Unrealistic? Yes. Would it be fun to watch though? Yes. Come on Arthur Blank, go secure a player for 2017…lol.

      • He’s not worth 20 but 10-14 sure and NYCFC sure has the cash to do it. I’d say if they want him let them go for it. They can’t buy a whole roaster but if a team wants to ball out for their DPs them let them. Remember Bradley is at 6 million and Dempsey is 8 and Torres is better then both of them. If a Seattle either New York team or a LA want him ley them go for it. It’s time MLS start wading deeper into the pool.

    • I thought about MLS going after him too. Obviously, the league shouldn’t pay 20 million pounds for him, but there’s no way Chelsea is going to get that for him.

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    • wooow! slow down there.

      let some $$$ euro sucker team like Monaco or QPR take Torres’ contract.. no MLS club is breaking any transfer record on Fernando Torres.

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    • Chelsea paid 50 million Euros for him (plus salary) and got roughly 20 league goals in 4 years. Setting aside that MLS is historically a selling league that is barely starting to pay fees, why on earth should we overpay for this massive symbolic boondoggle ourselves? He isn’t horrible but he can rehabilitate his image on a free transfer here. Paying tens of millions for a flop is crazy. It would make us as dumb as CFC and at least they had a Liverpool-production excuse.

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  4. I’d say you could read the writing on the wall as soon as Mou started making Torres train in that “Shevchenko” jersey

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  5. The foreign player limit is the nominal excuse for summer cleaning because if you go down the roster there are far worse players like Moses, Romeu, and Schwarzer if you were cutting down to the limits on merits. Granted, I am no Torres or Mikel fan, and Cech is on the way downhill, but that strikes me as more standard transfer discontent…..I wish I could offload some expensive white elephants and bring in some people I like…..than oh, how horrible, I can’t have this many foreigners, I will cut my worst ones. But invoking a rule gives a more neutral sounding excuse than outright saying I would rather have a better player. But then, has Mourinho ever been that sentimental?

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  6. Ligue 1 sounds like a mess right now, Amiens is an hour from Lens, and OM will play its first game two hours away in Montpelier, unless they work things out.

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