Chelsea announced a £65.7m loss for last year, a staggering sum, particularly as it marks an improvement over the loose-pursed past.  Though the tangible sum is less, the impact will be felt more, after Roman Abramovich as billionaire Roman Abramovich potentially lost the bulk of his fortune. 

Abramovich’s woes have already affected Chelsea.  The Russian owner gutted the scouting department, and considered forcing players to pay for their own lunches.  His own contribution, the £23.1 million paid to Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant not to manage the club, undoubtedly escaped censure.

The summer will see changes, especially if Chelsea do not qualify for the Champions League.  The primary target will be the substantial wage bill, £148.5m – Manchester United’s is just over £100m.  The payroll accounts for over 70% of Chelsea’s turnover.

Chariman Peter Kenyon admitted there would be sales in the summer.  

“Any squad structuring in the summer will be funded prominently by sales,” Kenyon told the Telegraph.  “We have set ourselves ambitious targets, to require zero cash funding from the owner at the beginning of the financial year 2009-10. 

The question then is not whether Chelsea sell, but who they will sell.  The first group, whatever the transfer fees, will be the malcontents.

Didier Drogba comes immediately to mind.  Making nearly £100,000 per week, he has scored three goals in 18 appearances this season.  He’s not the 2006-07 dynamo, nor is he even the occasionally effective player from last year.  His performance alone warrants an exit.  Add his abrasive personality and he’s a net negative waiting to be excised.

Florent Malouda is another candidate for dismissal.  He’s been the mystery man, so awesome before he came and so terrible since he arrived.  Only the illustrious Shevchenko saves Malouda from being the biggest transfer disaster of the past few seasons.  He can’t make the squad regularly and does not deserve to do so.  Chelsea should sell him before everyone sees him as irredeemable.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech could be on his way out as well.  He’s been off the pace this season.  He really has not been right since his horrifying head injury.  Cech was one of the players who reportedly submarined Scolari.  He has played poorly.  He is expensive.  You can get a goalkeeper for cheaper.

If Chelsea are looking for straight ego excision, they may try to offload Anelka, Deco and Michael Ballack as well.

Chelsea may want rid of these players, but they won’t get very much money for them.  If they are looking for instant book-balancing, or a substantial restructuring kitty, a marketable asset, one they’d like to keep, may be required.

Barring sentiment, John Terry should be the prominent candidate here.  He’s not leaving England, so his market value is limited, but Manchester City seem to want him and £40m figures are floating through the rumor mill.  Purely as a player, he’s replaceable.  If Chelsea can get even £20m for him while removing his salary from the books, they should do so.  Peter Kenyon says Chelsea won’t sell Terry.  Who knows if Peter Kenyon will be there?

Michael Essien may fit here as well.  Chelsea won’t want to sell Essien.  Assuming he recovers from his injury, he’s their best midfielder.  He’s versatile.  He can hold with the backline or move forward and make plays.  He would feature in any team in the world’s starting XI.  At just 26 years old, every big side in Europe could use him.  If Chelsea want substantial restructuring money, that may be their only option.

Chelsea have a hodgepodge squad, constructed with conflicting visions.  What they really need is a long-term manager who can work with a reasonable budget to refashion a coherent squad, possibly David Moyes.  Does a liquidity-crazed Roman Abramovich have the patience?

Is there anything Tim Cahill can’t do?

Tim Cahill’s week defines the word jet lag. From Liverpool to Japan for a World Cup Qualifier. His performance for Australia wasn’t exactly great, then again neither was Australia’s. Cahill had to be thankful Everton’s FA Cup tie against Aston Villa was on Sunday, I don’t think he would have played had the game been Saturday.

Despite the fatigue Cahill obviously had, he willed Everton into the Quarterfinals with a 3-1 thrashing of Aston Villa. It wasn’t his best day, but it was a day we are all too use to from Cahill. He set up the first goal with a header that Stiliyan Petrov should have been sent off for, only for Jack Rodwell to finish. You could almost not blame Cahill for the yellow he received in the first half, knowing there is a UEFA Cup game midweek, he could use the rest against Newcastle United. However with Steve Bennett’s allegations last week, one could wonder if he intended to get booked on purpose.

Everton’s third goal was a typical Cahill goal, right place at the right time. You would think teams would know to find him at the far post. But the way he ghosts onto said far post, he’s easily forgotten. His finishing though isn’t.

Manchester United finished off Derby County by halftime, enough said.

So that leads us into the quarterfinal draw. With a fourth round replay to be had, and a fifth round tie still to be played along with four replays, fourteen teams are still alive for those four spots at Wembley. Not one tie is set in stone either, which adds to the uncertainty of this draw. I can only go with draws I hope for. I think Chris Coleman’s Coventry City hosting Chelsea would make an interesting tie. What would Roberto Martinez’s Swansea City do at home against Manchester United? Could Burnley’s wait for the fifth round pay off with a home tie against Sheffield United, or could we see Hull City back at the Emirates? Does Everton really mind which Premier League side they get?

And now the rest of the news.
In something I said last week, Luiz Felipe Scolri has come out and hinted that John Terry did not have full support in the dressing room at Chelsea. Color me shocked.

In further Scolari post Chelsea backstabbing, Nicolas Anelka has attacked Scolari for not trying to forge the ‘dream’ partnership between Anelka and Drogba up front. That goes to show Scolari didn’t have a plan b, but I also wonder if had Scolari partnered the two up front if it would have worked out…I don’t think it would have because the two had already tuned Scolari out.

And in one last bit of Scolari news, could Manchester City be his next employer? I guess they really are that desparate for Kaka.

I wonder how much Jose Mourinho is enjoying what is going on at Chelsea?

Avram Grant is eying up the Portsmouth job. It just seems the only way he’ll get it is if Portsmouth can’t come to terms in order to get Sven.

Speaking of Portsmouth, executive chairman Peter Storrie has been rearrested with regards to the bung scandal. I guess that would leave massive tax issues.

Add Gary Neville to the list of those who have signed another year contract at Old Trafford.

And finally, Dean Ashton admits his season is over.

The firings of Tony Adams by Portsmouth and Big Phil Scolari by Chelsea brought the total number of clubs that have changed managers this season to seven, and the number of managerial changes to eight.  That turnover rate seems quite high and quickly cycling managers seldom leads to success.  

It would seem that managers deserve a longer chance to get it right, but in the current financial climate, teams can’t afford it.

In Pompey’s case, sacking Adams was simple.  His managing made them relegation candidates.  They won just two of his sixteen league games in charge, and haven’t won since Nov. 30.  They are just one point from relegation, with 24 points in 24 matches.

Adams did a decent job in the transfer window, given his budget.  He could not help the Diarra and Defoe sales, but brought in serviceable players, such as Gekas, Hayden Mullins, Pele, Pennant and Belhadj.  His club also played decently, barring their chronic defensive brainfarts.

Theoretically, they have one of the clichéd “too good to go down” squads.  But, given the club’s perilous finances, Portsmouth could not entrust their fate to Adams’ experienced hands.

Scolari’s departure was similar.  Chelsea have played abysmally the past few months, winning just four of 12 matches, never beating a team above 14^th in the table.  Once the title favorites, Chelsea look poised to battle with Arsenal for the fourth Champions League place.

Part of this was Scolari’s fault.  Teams discovered the focal point of Scolari’s tactics overlapping fullbacks.  Pinning Cole and Bosingwa back, exposed Chelsea’s mismatched midfield and poor forward creativity.  Routinely running up three to five goals initially, they last scored more than two on Nov. 15.  Scolari never adjusted his tactics, nor did he display the acumen to do so.

However, not everything revolved around Scolari.  He inherited a hodgepodge, lopsided outfit.  He never got the funding to overhaul the club, as it required.

Maybe Scolari could right Chelsea eventually, but missing the Champions League would be too costly to offer for experimentation.

A club that has shown the manager patience is Middlesbrough.  Southgate took over after his retirement in 2006.  He guided Boro to a 12^th place finish in his first season and a 13^th in his second.  The club has been marred by inconsistency.  Southgate’s only skill seems to be outfoxing Arsene Wenger.

This season, Middlesbrough are relegation favorites.  They have 22 points from 25 matches, winning just five.  They haven’t won in the league since Nov. 9.  They have mustered just three goals since Nov. 22.  Their January acquisition of Marlon King won’t be the tipping point.  There’s no reason to argue they will stay in the league.

Steve Gibson likes Gareth Southgate, and has patience with him.  But, that patience could cost him heavily, if the club drops to the Championship next season.

Perhaps, clubs lose faith in managers too early.  But, in the perilous financial world of topflight football, it’s hard to blame them.

I can sum up in two words why Roman Abramovich may have sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari: Aston Villa.

Seeing Aston Villa in third place, two points ahead of Chelsea, must have been eating Abramovich up. Here’s this Russian oil tycoon who has spent hundreds of millions of pounds to try to build the world’s biggest football team, and he’s being made to look like a fool by Martin O’Neill’s team who not only are further ahead but are playing a brand of football that’s more appealing to the eye and more exciting than Chelski.

If you were a businessman like Roman Abramovich and you saw one of your “lesser” competition beating you in the business world, what would you do? Would you try to buy that company out or hire a headhunter to steal away their talent? While Chelsea won’t be able to buy Aston Villa, of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if Abramovich had Peter Kenyon and his staff put some feelers out to see if O’Neill would be interested in becoming the next Chelsea manager.

O’Neill is in a different league as a manager and isn’t used to working with some of the biggest superstars in world football. Plus, he’s very much from the Brian Clough school of management where you can take a team of underachievers and you make sound purchases to fill in the weak spots, and then work on your man management skills to get the most out of your other players.

But, if O’Neill can work his magic at Aston Villa (as he did previously at Celtic and Leicester City), why not give him an opportunity with Chelsea? The challenge for the Blues and a reason why they would avoid the Northern Irishman is that Chelsea is running out of time. They can’t afford to bring in O’Neill and give him time to meld a team together and get them purring by the summertime. Chelsea needs a world-class manager who can hit the ground running.

My prediction: Roberto Mancini. But if O’Neill gets the job, remember where you heard it first.

One more thought: It’s nice to see a Big Four side squirm. Aston Villa are mounting a true challenge to the Big Four monopoly and in doing so, they’re helping heads roll. If Villa weren’t as good this season as they are now, Chelsea would be in third place and within distance of making a run for the title. Right now, they’re floundering. Was it the correct decision to get rid of Scolari? In my opinion, yes. But only if you have a replacement who’s available to step in as quickly as possible to get the ship back in order. If not, it’s poor timing and poor planning by Chelsea FC.

Luiz Felipe Scolari has been sacked by Chelsea.

The last straw for Chelsea FC was the club’s uninspiring 0-0 draw at home against Hull City. The draw pushed Chelsea further behind in the league title race after Liverpool and Manchester United both recorded wins. The club are now seven points behind league leaders Manchester United.

Scolari joined Chelsea seven months ago as replacement for Avram Grant.

Ray Wilkins will take temporary charge of the side for this Saturday’s FA Cup game against Watford.

What’s your reaction to the breaking news? Click the comments link below and share your feedback.

 Late Liverpool Halt Chelsea’s Faltering Challenge

It’s a cold Sunday afternoon and I’ve parked my backside on the sofa to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea, a clash of the title contenders. Man United’s ominous form coupled with their rivals inability to keep pace means we all know that the team that loses Sunday’s game is well and truly out of the title race…in January.

The game itself is perhaps no thriller, Chelsea apparently toothless in attack registering a meagre 2 attempts on target to Liverpool’s 9. The first half was far from an enthralling affair but from the first whistle a hungrier, more dyanimic Liverpool were the only side who could have saved the game from being labelled a bore-draw.

The London side’s supporters were clearly never going to leave Anfield happy. An indifferent performance by goalkeeper Petr Cech, who was twice nearly caught in possession and Didier Drogba again left on the bench as Chelsea lined up 4-3-3 with Anelka, Malouda and Kalour preferred, no doubt to the Ivorian’s frustration to lead the attack.  The Blues created nothing all afternoon, Pepe Reina a spectator in the Reds goalmouth for much of the game.

Just after the hour mark Chelsea’s midfield finally featured in one of the games major talking points but not in the way that manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari would have wanted. Frank Lampard lunging for 50/50 with Xabi Alonso catching his opponent in the follow through was bizarrely adjudged by trigger-happy official Mike Riley to be worthy of a red card, Lampard and Chelsea justifiably furious.

Enter the 88th minute and it’s still Liverpool on top as it had been from the first whistle and Liverpool finally deliver a telling blow in the shape of a Fernando Torres’ late double. First a fantastic glancing header at the near post from Riera’s cross, minutes before Ashley Cole’s poor judgement not to clear first time let the ball fall to Yossi Benayoun to nip in behind and although Cole did well to get a foot in the way the ball fell into the path of the £20 million Spaniard to slot in his second.

Moments later and cue the final whistle, Anfield in raptures and Rafa Benitez delighted with the pressure momentarily eased on their own faltering title challenge. Scolari and Chelsea fans have to wonder why they have only taken one point in any of the games against the so-called ‘big four’ in five games so far this season.

Scolari though in his first season in charge (with glistening C.V in his defence) can be the only man to rationalise why Anelka and Drogba have never been paired together for any significant amount of time as  a traditional front two and the lack of starting opportunities for the effervescent Joe Cole. The board at Stamford Bridge have certainly tightened the purse strings after previous years of free-flowing spending and this is no major surprise, no club could ever sustain this (I’m sure Man City fans may not agree for now!) but the budget transfer budget needs to be at least £30-£40 million in the current climate to stay with the pace. The Portuguese duo of Deco signed (free) and Bosingwa (16 Million) the only Major arrivals at the bridge this summer.

My personal opinion of why Chelsea don’t score enough goals, is the absence of Essien in the engine room coupled with a three -prong attack that often resembles a negative looking 4-5-1 leaving Anelka isolated. Kalou and Malouda simply do not look like players who belong in a title winning team.

Should Scolari still be at The Bridge this summer in what is current an uncomfortable climate to be a manager at a top club, then a major rebuilding job is needed to make the Blues currently feeble title ambitions realistic.

In life, attitude is everything. You can be one of the most gifted artists in the world, but unless you’re willing to work hard and have the right attitude, your chance of success is slim. The same applies to football.

A perfect example of this is at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea have a talent pool of football millionaires who are playing like spoilt schoolboys. If this was international football, the gods known as Ballack, Deco, Anelka, Lampard, Terry, Cole and Carvalho would be lighting up the world’s stage for their respective national teams.

We all know that these players individually can be some of the world’s best. We’ve seen evidence of this for both their club and country. Personally, I don’t buy the argument that this is an aging or poor team. They’re playing awful but it’s not all down to tactics or whether they’re playing the zonal marking system or man marking system, or whether they’re match fit. Luiz Felipe Scolari is missing the bigger picture and that comes down to attitude.

As evidenced in their performance against Man United on Sunday afternoon, there are far too many Chelsea players who simply don’t have the right attitude. Sure, they want to win as much as United, but they’re lacking the focus and the determination to give 100 percent for the entire game.

For me, the blame needs to be aimed at Jose Mourinho. The legacy that Mourinho has left behind at Stamford Bridge is similar to a disease. If you were a fly on the wall at Cobham training facility or Stamford Bridge and you had a chance to listen to Chelsea’s players in private and I have no doubt that they’re constantly comparing what Avram Grant did and what Scolari does to Mourinho. The Special One was such a part of the fabric at Chelsea that I honestly believe that no manager, no matter how experienced or special he is, could surpass Mourinho’s achievements at Chelsea.

I’ve finally made time to read “Damned United” by David Peace, the amazing novel about Brian Clough’s reign at Leeds United. When Cloughie joined Leeds in 1974 to replace Don Revie, who took the England job, the confines of Elland Road were still alive with the memory of Revie. It was almost as if Revie had never left. In the book, Clough took the first steps in exorcising the demons of Revie by taking an axe to Revie’s desk and creating a burning pyre in the car park.

While I don’t recommend that Roman Abramovich or Scolari attempt a similar tactic, what I do believe is that Chelsea have two choices in order to turn to winning ways. Either they can bring back Mourinho. Or they need to start all over again. It’s as simple as that.

To rebuild from ground zero and to rid Chelsea of the players that have attitude problems, the club couldn’t afford it especially at their current lackadaisical work in the transfer market. Their better option is to admit, in private, that they made a mistake and to ask Mourinho to return. The challenge, for Chelsea, is that for Mourinho to return to west London would be a step backward for the Portugese national. The only way to win his heart would be to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. For Abramovich, this would be a less expensive option than completely rebuilding his side.

Chelsea, for the first time in their recent history, find themselves in a perilous position. Premier League teams no longer fear them. Chelsea’s current form will see them exit the Champions League to Juventus. And, overall, the team faces a crisis of confidence that will take them weeks to repair, if not longer.

Near the end of The Special One’s tenure at Chelsea, I was critical of the Chelsea players because they seemed to be playing for Mourinho FC instead of Chelsea FC. The manager was larger than life at Stamford Bridge, and the players were more commited to their leader than their club. While the expected exodus of players devoted to Mourinho never materialized, I believe it would have been better for Chelsea if that had happened.

In Tuesday’s Chelsea press conference, Scolari took the first step in trying to exorcise the demons left behind by Mourinho. While his words were a somewhat coded attempt to let clubs and agents know that Didier Drogba is available to be plucked away, there’s also an opportunity for other Chelsea players to be sold. With Chelsea’s current predicament and the club’s willingness to let some of their top players go, there’s no better time than now to purchase a superstar at a bargain.

To close, here are Scolari’s words from yesterday’s press conference. Read them and weep Didier Drogba:

“If one player does not want to stay at Chelsea then now is the time to go away.

“Until now no-one has made an offer. But come now and pay us. Don’t make a problem for me and Chelsea. Come now and buy the player. Now you can do it and make an offer.

“After January if no clubs have come in then it’s too late. So I say to the agents and clubs, come here and buy now because now is the time. Send a club here and buy and finish it.”

How would you like to have been a Manchester City or Blackburn Rovers fan heading from the north of England to the south, only to do a turnabout and head home after finding out your upcoming fixture was canceled? I know if it was me, a few words of the four letter variety would have came forth from my mouth. (If you were traveling to one of those two games, or any other game this weekend that was called off, what was your reaction to finding out that it was indeed canceled?)

While yes the cold snap in England last weekend took out a huge chunk of the English footballing schedule, there is no excuse in my mind for a club to have to call a match off because of a frozen pitch. If you are a top flight club, making sure your pitch can withstand a freeze should be something that is easily taken care of. Using heaters on the pitch (as was reported on the BBC Text Commentary on Saturday morning) should never happen.  As for Fulham, if Sam Allardyce is to be believed, they don’t even have underground heating.

With only the threat of fines being thrown about over this, to me this isn’t enough. The only two things a Premier League match should be called for is fog and the fact it’s raining harder than the field can drain (which with today’s technology would have to be one hell of a downpour). If it was up to me, both Portsmouth and Fulham would be losing the three points via forfeit. A strong message has to be sent out that unnecessary postponements will not be tolerated, and the only way for that to happen is if teams start losing the points they could possibly gain.

I would have thought that after Rafa Benitez went off on Fergie, saw his Liverpool side draw with Stoke, and then saw Manchester United defeat Chelsea this past Sunday, he would have kept his mouth shut. I guess I was wrong. Instead, Rafa has now turned his attention towards David Gill and his position within the FA. Look Rafa, after being humiliated in the manner in which you were last weekend, now isn’t the time to be turning the screws on a rival club. In fact, dare I say you’ve actually allowed this to turn into a major distraction to the club you manage?

Rafa is not the person to decide what is normal or not within the FA. Bringing David Gill up after your humiliating weekend only cries of sour grapes and desperation. Being top of the league and desperate is something you never want to show.

Other Stories
This story is just funny after the fact. What was Jose Bosingwa thinking when he said ‘we know what to do to stop him’ (him being Cristiano Ronaldo).

Is Manchester City fixing to buy up Andrei Arshavin away from Arsenal? Just remember the source of this story.

Phil Brown states the obvious when he says there are 14 teams in a relegation fight. That’s only for now, it’ll slowly start to clear up…eventually.

Stoke City welcome back James Beattie to the Premier League. How much help Beattie gives Stoke up front remains to be seen.

This is an interesting set of stories from Chelsea. While Nicolas Anelka is saying the Blues chances of winning the title are alive, one of the red top specials tonight speaks of a bust up between Luiz Felipe Scolari and Nicolas Anelka. While I wonder how much of that second story is actual fact.

If there is one story that I want to just be over and never have to hear about again, the Carlos Tevez saga with West Ham United and Sheffield United would be that story. When I first read that the FA and the Premier League were going to reopen the case against West Ham and Carlos Tevez, it felt like I was hearing fingernails on an old chalkboard. What more needs to be said about this case, but that has been nothing but one giant farce. As far as I’m concerned, this case has been nothing but hell on earth.

West Ham is correct in saying they have nothing to hide, that’s only because this whole situation has been vetted out in the numerous hearings this matter has had before. To me the questions I want answered are simple ones. What were the FA and Premier League’s intentions back when they made their initial punishment? Why did the two bodies wait until now, knowing what the latest panel ruled, to decide in relaunching this investigation? Does West Ham have any legal options should the FA and Premier League decide to punish the club two times over the same matter? And finally, what can the FA and or the Premier League do to prevent further embarrassment with regards to this matter?

The sooner this matter is over with, the happier I will be. This whole situation right now makes any world renowned circus seem like a man on a standard trampoline. The only hope for all of us is that every organization/federation involved has learned the lesson of this scandal and save those lessons for future use.

Other Stories
The day after Obafemi Martins gets away with driving 106 miles per hour without losing his license, Cristiano Ronaldo totals a Ferrari on his way to training for Manchester United. As the witness interviewed for the story said ‘It’s a shame about the car’. Thankfully Ronaldo was not injured in the crash…that’ll be his pocketbook when he goes to purchase another.

Speaking of Cristiano Ronaldo, when will this nonsense about Real Madrid also stop? Here’s another one of those ‘a verbal deal has been made‘ announcements that I’m sure will be changed in the next few days.

Add William Gallas to the Arsenal injured list. The hamstring got him this time. Funny that on the same day this news is made public, Gary Megson made his feelings know about Wenger’s complaining about Bolton’s physical style.

With the UK FA Cup Fourth Round ties having been announced, Kettering Town is not happy their home tie with Fulham was not picked up.  Hey look on the bright side, this has to be one of the international games picked up…right? (Editor Note: Setanta has offered this game up on delay in the UK. Once the FA gives the green light or not, we’ll let you know).

In a move that I can only think is a move to get him to leave the club, Chelsea are going to ask Michael Ballack to take a pay cut and earn his salary with an incentive based contract. Have a funny feeling the answer will be a loud ‘NO!’

Here’s a strange transfer for everyone. Manchester United must see this is a short term project to sign Ritchie De Laet from Stoke City. I wonder if their partnership with Royal Antwerp had anything to do with it?

Middlesbrough are holding firm to their promise that no one will leave the Riverside. Today it’s Gary O’Neil they are having to reject a bid for…this one from Portsmouth.

Here’s a move I would advise Tottenham not make…a move for Tal Ben Haim. I simply call him ‘the human turnstile’.

The next person to complain about this transfer window, Phil Brown.

And a column to go home by. Matt Hughes discussing Luiz Felipe Scolari and how he needs to prove himself (code word for win) in these big games.

It’s so rare these days that a football manager says anything new or remotely intelligent other than the rehearsed lines he memorizes from media training. Other than Joe Kinnear, of course.

But Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari said so many refreshing things on Friday that I felt compelled to write about it. When asked about the massive blow of Michael Ballack being injured, here’s how Scolari responded:

”Ballack is out for maybe two or three weeks. ‘I’m not angry. I’m happy because it’s a test for me that I’m a good coach. I need to change it, to improve, I need to put other players in, I need to motivate other players. It’s good for my job, it’s good for my work. It’s not difficult for me. For me it’s normal, I need to build every week, one different team. Many clubs have injuries from the national games because they are strong games. In football it’s normal.”

To me, those words are poetry to my ears. And I’m not even a Chelsea supporter. The words and perspective he brings is so refreshing. If I was a reserve player at Stamford Bridge, I would feel so empowered by his words knowing that there’s an opportunity to advance under Scolari’s tutelage.

Contrast Scolari’s words with those of Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez regarding the injury to Fernando Torres:

“I am very disappointed about this because it now looks like we will lose Fernando for three very important games. There are too many international games and the demands on the players are too much. Someone needs to analyse the situation because it is putting the players at risk of injury.”

What are the chances of changing international fixtures for World Cup qualifying matches? Practically nil. So why moan about it when you’re unable to change it? Why not think positive and consider Torres’s injury as an opportunity for Liverpool’s Robbie Keane, David N’Gog, Ryan Babel, Dirk Kuyt or El Zahr to shine up front for the Reds?