Llorente reveals Liverpool contact Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Torres has confirmed Liverpool attempted to sign him during the January transfer window. Liverpool presented new £35 million striker Andy Carroll to the press on Thursday, with the former Newcastle man arriving at Anfield as a replacement for Fernando Torres, who joined Chelsea in a £50 million move. However, it appears Liverpool had a number of potential options in mind when searching for a new target man, including Llorente, who has enjoyed an excellent 12 months for club and country. After winning the World Cup with Spain, the 25-year-old has scored 12 goals in 21 La Liga games this season and also attracted interest from Tottenham at the end of January. However, he has revealed that it was Liverpool who made official contact regarding a possible transfer. "Representatives from Liverpool arrived in Bilbao and had talks with the leadership of our club, but obviously I did not want to be put on the transfer list. So to talk about this any longer makes no sense," Llorente told Marca. "I understand the fans of Athletic who don't like talk of clubs that are interested in me, but it shows that I'm doing my job well. At the moment my football future is associated with Athletic."
Must of been plan B, I'm glad we went for Carroll at least you know what your getting, Llorente would have been a bigger risk than the Geordie.
Llorente finds himself in the same situation as Torres when he was in Spain. A top dollar striker who scores goals in a side who do nothing more than challenge for a European place every season and make do with mid table. He is a big lump and has bags of potential. He is similar in many ways to Carroll but is certainly not as mobile. Carroll offers a real threat in the air, has a good touch and has pace. I think he suits Liverpool more than Llorente does as we cannot afford to have a lump up front who is not mobile. I'm happy with Carroll and all this talk from Llorente is wishful thinking on his behalf. Lets put all transfer talk aside to the summer.
Couldn't see him joinin us if torres was leavin for Chelsea...and with not many spanish players left at the club hard to see him comin.... christ sure the papers are fillin up with crap now bout Pepe wantin out and his release clause in his contract and all...
They have a great chance this season of getting Champions League Athletico Bilbao, remarkable achievement considering they only play Basque players. Different situation than what Fernando Torres had at Atletico Madrid.
Glad we got Carroll instead, like someone said above, at least you know what you're getting!! Llorente would have represented a greater risk of failure IMO!!
I'm not surprised and I would say he wasn't the only striker we were interested in after the tosser put his transfer request in
1 Barcelona 21 9 1 1 31 7 10 0 0 36 4 56 58 2 Real Madrid 21 10 0 0 31 5 6 3 2 17 13 30 51 3 Villarreal 21 10 1 0 26 6 4 2 4 15 15 20 45 4 Valencia 21 7 3 1 21 13 5 2 3 13 11 10 41 5 Espanyol 21 8 0 2 17 8 4 1 6 11 19 1 37 6 Athletic Bilbao 21 8 0 3 20 10 3 2 5 14 21 3 35 Just checked A Madrid league finishes and it's not a million miles off the Bilboa situation. There last four finishes before Torres went was 7, 11, 10 and 7 in the league. I think you will agree that regardless of were they are scrambling around 5 to 10 in the league he is by far their best player. This is the comparison I was making with Torres whilst he was at A Madrid. He'd be a good addition if he came in the summer?
I'm sure that I'm probably in the minority here, but anytime I've seen Llorente I've never been that impressed.