Torres has been one of the hottest properties in Spanish football for six years, and in European football for about four.
Each summer the madrileño from the Fuenlabrada area of the city has declared his love and loyalty to Atletico, each summer the words have seemed a little less certain. In the same way that it is assumed that any Scottish player with a modicum of talent would end up with Celtic or Rangers, it was expected that Torres would eventually sign for Real Madrid or Barcelona. Torres's affection for Atletico was genuine enough to preclude him signing for another Spanish club.
He also shares the general Spanish disdain for Italian football. The English clubs, in a position to afford the transfer fees, became the likeliest candidates for his signature. Atletico's failure to qualify for Europe again this season underlined to the player that he had exhausted all the possibilities of developing with his first club. Perhaps more significantly the club themselves indicated a readiness to cash in their only significant asset. Previously the buyout clause in his contract had been a prohibitive € 90million, an obvious hands- off message to potential buyers.
By reducing it to a still daunting but at least feasible € 40m, they indicated that it was time to do business. Liverpool seem to have taken the bait. It is doubtful that Rafael Benitez rates the player at £ 28 million. Almost certainly he would have preferred to sign Torres's international team- mate David Villa, but Valencia's price is over the hills and far away. The bid for Torres amounts to the manager testing whether the American owners are prepared to honour their promises to finance this kind of huge transfer. With relatively few world- class players for sale, Benitez wants to establish Liverpool as a club who can compete with Chelsea and Manchester United in the market, in order to suggest that they can compete with them in the P rem ie r sh i p.
Benitez's other task would have been persuading Torres that Anfield was a suitable destination. Chelsea tried to sign him last summer, and Torres, according to his own account, turned them down, saying it would be easy to take Chelsea's money, but he preferred to stay in Madrid. Perhaps he was canny enough not to want to engage in a weekly battle with Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko to win Jose Mourinho's approval.
Arsenal, a whole year before Thierry Henry found his ego accruing excess baggage charges on a flight to Barcelona, seriously contemplated Torres as the Frenchman's replacement. Atletico's valuation exceeded the North London club's habitually frugal transfer budget . In February, when he came to England with the Spanish national team, Torres let slip that he thought Arsenal was the only Premiership club that would suit his style of play.
He has obviously rethought that opinion, or has seen beyond the prevailing stereotype of Liverpool as a crude defensive outfit, perhaps encouraged by their enterprising display in a Champions League final they eventually lost to Milan in May. Torres's record in La Liga is impressive, without being incandescent. Fourteen goals for Atletico last season brought his total to 75 in five full seasons. The figures are made more respectable still when you take into account Torres's occasional lengthy absences through injury and the fact he was playing for a team that could never guarantee a reliable or regular supply line.
El niño's goals kept Atletico competitive, and he carried the burden of expectation with considerable grace. Benitez is gambling that, with more consistent support, Torres can be the 20 goals- a- season striker that Liverpool have been missing. If he is to do so, Benitez may need to suspend his natural inclination to change around his forwards for every match. Torres is a confidence player who needs to feel appreciated. At Atletico he thrived on being the darling of the fans and the biggest fish in a relatively small pool.
Arriving at Liverpool where Steven Gerrard's considerable presence dominates the dressing- room, Torres will have to adjust to being just another team member, even if he is carrying a club record price tag. The lengthy contracts handed to Jose Reina, Xabi Alonso and Spanish-speaking Mohammed Sissoko, confirm that Benitez is maintaining his policy of building a La Liga side on the banks of the Mersey.
If Torres arrives, the Liverpool delis should replenish their stocks of manchego, jamon serrano and chorizo. El niño will need feeding up.