Torres loan deal made permanent

Come January 5th, Fernando Torres will officially have nothing to do with Chelsea anymore. The club has announced that AC Milan, who took him on loan this summer, have made the deal permanent, presumably with no transfer fee. This is almost certainly a precursor to a further move, as the Serie A side are planning to ship the striker out to Atlético Madrid in short order.

In other words, this is housekeeping ahead of the proposed Atléti loan rather than anything truly meaningful, but the Blues will take a small FFP hit as the entirety of the remaining transfer fee on his original contract with us (£50 million, amortised over five-and-a-half years from 2011) becomes due all at once on the 5th. That's not a big deal so far as our finances go, however, and it means he's officially off our books come the 2015/16 season.

Torres' time at Chelsea might not have been much fun for anyone, but, at the very least, it was certainly a fascinating experience. All that's left in this story is for him to score an annoying goal against us when we inevitably get drawn against Atléti.