galés rojo

Nicked this from RAWK CHELSEA and West Ham are at the centre of a transfer sensation - after Spanish giants Atletico Madrid revealed an offer of £22million for striker Fernando Torres. The deal is believed to have been put to Atletico by mystery group MSI, who are launching a takeover of the Hammers but have strong links with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The Spanish club have been asked to take the cash now and then let Torres move - to a club MSI decide on - next summer in a deal that has stunned football. MSI is owned by Iranian Koo Joorbachian, who is bidding to buy control of West Ham and is closing in on a £60million deal. But the motives of the investment company and their connections have been put under the spotlight by the Torres transfer bid. Joorbachian and his advisers, who include super agent Pini Zahavi, are looking to buy up top players round the world and then place them at the clubs they want. West Ham would obviously benefit if British citizen Joorbachian succeeds - and Torres may be their welcome present to the fans. But Joorbachian's links to Abramovich, through Zahavi, suggest that Chelsea may be his home eventually, especially as Abramovich loves Torres. Zahavi has always dreamed of buying players and 'owning' them before making commissions on selling them to other teams. I understand the Israeli has found backers to make this happen - and Torres is just one of many they want in the MSI stable. MSI already have Brazilian club Corinthians in their portfolio and snapped up some top South American talent, which they plan to sell on. The cut from such deals makes the investment business work. If Torres is bought by MSI they could make even more by moving him on next summer. Should Atletico sell Torres' rights now for £22million there could be a profit within a year if Chelsea take him for around £25m, or even more. A mark-up of £3m in 12 months is an interest rate of 14 per cent, better than any High Street bank is offering. It is an astonishing twist in how clubs do deals. But big and independent money talks more than ever - especially as banks are reluctant to lend cash to football clubs. West Ham fans will be watching MSI's moves with amazement. They may hope that their club is the next Chelsea, with top names arriving. But it seems more likely that Joorbachian and friends will bring in some of the rising stars around, but use Hammers as a super shop window. If MSI do win control at Upton Park it seems likely there will also be a change of management, with bosses close to Zahavi bound to be linked with the post.

Vogel would have been good back up for Xabi.

..have seen Villa mentioned as well. Corinthians only own a percentage otf their big names such as Mascherano,Tévez etc the majority of their registration belongs to MSI or summit. Its all a bit dodgy and i believe John Gregory is involved wth them in some manner.

undisclosed fee (believed to be in the region of £3.5 million. He has good reputation but i believe he had a bit of a mare the other day.

they don't know s***, probably just copied Bascombes piece in the echo or summit.

They were after Trezuguet in the week as well,although Juventus say he' s staying. Mancs think it's Tevez with either Mascherano or Reo coker for center mid. it's ok mate I wasn't having a go, i guessed you were on about Reyes/Ramos etc and was just pointing out some of their latest talents

They still have plenty of quality players and should do well. Alves and Navas are class. Adriano,Escude,Poulsen,Fabiano,Maresca etc are very good players and I think they have signed Chevanton who looked very good when he played in Italy before he went to Monaco. Seville also have a good record of bringing young players through Diego Capel been one of the latest although he is pretty light weight and goes to ground a little often. Incidentally Seville turned down a £10 mil bid fro Lyon for Jesus Navas today. Also Real Madrid linked with a move for Ayala.

I personally think he's best as an energetic box to box midfielder, offers a lot of the qualities that Arsenal lacl such as power and aggression.

Why? as past it as Ronaldo seems, he will probably still score more for Inter than Adriano did last year. Defoe is s***, and would rightly be fourth choice at spurs.

Yeah he's a good player, thought he'd go to a bigger club so perhaps his injury has put teams off. Mourinho thinks he's great and i'd guess he would have signed him if he was entirely in charge of transfer matters at chelsea.

Good luck Neil. Hope you stay fit and score plenty of goals. YNWA

Spurs finally get Chimbonda here

Anyone more creative than me able do something with that Fratellis Dagger song?

Thought he was gonna be great for us, shame it never worked out. Just don't think he liked it England, never settled and the niggling injuries didn't help. He'll do well at Valencia, should get a lot more time and space on the ball.

yep,up front with Villa.

Spanish league starts again tonight. Sky sports xtra. Valencia V Betis kicks off at nine, should be a good game.

Looks like he's signed for£8 Mil. mentalist

They have shown Madrids pre season games and will show their Anderlecht friendly sometime as well. This programme looks worth watching: 3:45(cet) REAL MADRID PEOPLE: David Beckham teaches mathematics

Launching on sky at the end of the month, you can watch it by doing the following: Go to services | System Setup | Add Channels | Change frequency to 11.681 | And go to find channels | Store channel 51147

Sami was pretty awful yesterday, I think he missed having the option of Xabi in front of him. Without Xabi in the team are defence were required to start the play off and it just didn't work,we lost possesion from aimless hoofing Agger coming on gave us a noticeable improvement in distribution and possesion, he looks so comfortable on the ball.

based on anything, or just who you would like?

I think Trabelsi went to Man City.

Personally i would play 4-5-1 with Pennant right,Gonzalez left and Garcia as the attacking midfielder. Central midfield would be Gerrard plus one of Sissoko or Alonso dependent on the opposition. 4-5-1 ------------------Reina------------------------- Finnan-----Carragher--Hyypia--Riise/Aurelio -----------Gerrard--Alonso/Sissoko--------- Pennant----------Garcia------------Gonzalez ----------------Bellamy----------------------- If you want to play Gerrard,Xabi and Sissoko I would like to see this tried. 3-4-3 ------------------Reina---------------- ----Carragher--Hyypia--Agger------ ----------------Alonso----------------- Gerrard------Sissoko--------Aurelio ---------------------------------------- Pennant------------------------Garcia --------------Bellamy-----------------

Where would Kalou play if not up front? Not worried about Kuyt going to Chelsea at all.

We can probably afford this one .