Chelsea FC Transfer Rumours: Fernando Torres Could Become Highest Paid Chelsea Player In History If Liverpool Let Him Go.

Fernando Torres would most likely become the highest earning player in Chelsea history if his transfer from Liverpool goes ahead. Matt Lawton and John Edwards are reporting that Torres would earn a guaranteed £45M over five years, around £175,000 per week.

It would be an astonishing contract which would demonstrate how badly Roman Abramovich wants to land his man. Torres would be earning more than any other player at the Club, including captain John Terry.

Graham's note: This is insane. This is totally and absolutely insane. Torres is a fine, fine player, but spending £100M on a football player when you could realistically buy four or five world-class talent is madness unless money means nothing. Abramovich has demonstrated in the past that he's willing to spend, but this would be an unprecedented investment of resources on one player from Chelsea.

Presumably, the club operates under a budget. There is no way spending £20M a year on Fernando Torres doesn't have a major impact on said budget - remember that we let Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack, and Deco (amongst others) leave during summer to save money. Bringing Torres' salary up from £110K per week to £175K seems completely unnecessary and might possibly suggest that Chelsea had been in contact with Torres ahead of their initial bid being made formal.

I'm not suggesting Chelsea have done anything untowards, but I would say that if money is the reason Torres wants out of Anfield and into Stamford Bridge, there's going to be a lot of talk about this.