Barcelona eye Torres bargain as they ready £38m move
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Barcelona eye Fernando Torres bargain as they ready £38m move for the Liverpool ace
Deadly duo: Torres and Villa (right) line up for Spain against Honduras and Barca hope to pair them at the Nou Camp too
Barcelona are preparing a bid for Liverpool striker Fernando Torres but are determined not to pay over the odds.
Sandro Rosell, who on July 1 takes over from Joan Laporta as Nou Camp president, has agreed with coach Pep Guardiola that they should take advantage of the uncertainty at Anfield by launching a raid for Torres.
Reports in Catalonia say the champions of Spain are not prepared to go above £38million for the 26-year-old, which is well short of Liverpool's valuation, but Barca are confident that Torres wants to join them.
Chelsea are also interested and would be prepared to submit a much higher bid, but the Catalans hope they are in a strong enough negotiating position to claim that Torres will only leave Anfield for them.
They have used the same tactic in pursuit of Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal, dismissing a potentially higher bid from Real Madrid because the Gunners captain has made it clear he wants to move to Catalonia.
Barca remain keen and patient in their bid to sign Arsene Wenger's captain and still hope to pay less than £40m for a player rated at about £60m in north London.
High riser: Fernando Torres rifles in his 17thy of the season
David Villa has already joined the Blaugrana from Valencia for £34m, but Rosell wants to make a statement and will help fund further signings by selling Yaya Toure to Manchester for £28m.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's exit will raise at least a similar amount, with AC Milan said to be the Sweden striker's favoured destination ahead of Manchester City and Chelsea.
Torres has repeatedly voiced his happiness and commitment to Liverpool, but it has often come with the caveat of the underachieving Merseysiders bringing in world class recruits.
'We need four or five top class players to compete, players better than the ones we have,' he said in March. 'If we do not reinforce the squad, next year all we will be able to do is fight for fourth again.
Top target: Fabregas (right) in Spain training with Barcelona captain Carles Puyol
'I want to be fighting for the Premier League, the Champions League or the Europa League, but to do this we need signings to come.'
On the contrary, there is little money to spend and reports of star players leaving rather than being brought in.
Steven Gerrard is wanted by Real Madrid, while Inter Milan and Barcelona are among the clubs keen on fellow midfielder Javier Mascherano.
Torres joined Liverpool from Atletico Madrid three years ago with the hope of winning titles, but has yet to add a winners' medal to the Euro 2008 title he won alongside a number of Barca players with Spain.
The delay over Roy Hodgson's appointment as manager at Liverpool is also a concern, but a deal for Torres is in any case unlikely till Spain's participation in the World Cup is over.
As with Fabregas, Torres's status as a premiere Nike-sponsored athlete is an added attraction to Rosell, who is a former executive of the sportswear manufacturer.