Monaco join the hunt for Fernando Torres?

Time for another club to be linked to Chelsea's number nine. We've already had the Fernando Torres to Atlético Madrid rumours met with a strong denial, but now Monaco are in the act. Or so say the Daily Mail, whose assertion that the Ligue 1 club are in for Torres in their latest headline is backed up by a one-sentence assertion in the article itself. Reportage of the highest quality there.

Considering what happened when Eurosport claimed that Atléti were negotiating with Chelsea over the striker's signature, it's hard not to imagine that we'll be receiving a stern denial from Monaco at some point soon. They have the money for Torres, but unless they're planning to ditch Radamel Falcao and Dimitar Berbatov, they have no real need of him, and it's hard to imagine that they're seriously interested.

I don't think these stories are being made up by the papers, though -- what seems more likely is that the club are doing their best to drum up a market for Torres and are hoping that they can find a suitor by making it clear that he's available. In my view, it's unlikely that they'll manage it, but this is both worth an attempt and perhaps indicative of just where Torres' place is in the Chelsea hierarchy. Good news, perhaps, for Romelu Lukaku?