Liverpool‘s clash with Manchester City feels like more than just a football match, a clash of ‘good against evil’ following the bombshell news of the Premier League‘s guilty verdict.
City continue to plead their innocence, launching an immediate appeal last week, but the stain of this saga isn’t one that can ever be washed away by the Abu Dhabi regime.
The Etihad side disrupted the fabric of English football following Sheikh Mansour’s arrival in 2008, raiding their Premier League rivals, including Liverpool, so ruthlessly and so damagingly for so long.
More than a decade of top-flight football has been tainted, with the Reds a key victim in all this. It’s time for a little vengeance on Sunday.
When Man City tried to sign Fernandes Torres from Liverpool
It wasn’t just titles that Liverpool lost out on to the Citizens, it was players too, memorably seeing a certain Raheem Sterling join their rivals on a £49m deal in 2015.
For top-flight clubs, there was almost a helplessness in preventing City from plucking their key men, with the Etihad side even attempting to sign Fernando Torres during his Anfield stint.
Signed from Atletico Madrid back in the summer of 2007, Torres had been an instant hit on Merseyside, scoring 33 goals in all competitions during his debut season.
He never quite reached that level again, not least due to injury, yet the Spaniard was still a key figure in Rafa Benitez’s side thereafter, notably hitting 18 Premier League goals in 2009/10.
It was that summer, following Spain’s World Cup triumph, that Torres really started to get itchy feet, with Man City one of a string of clubs to have come calling.
Indeed, then-boss Roberto Mancini even admitted, as reported by The Guardian at the time, that City were ready to pay a British record transfer fee to pluck the striker from Anfield.
Mancini didn’t hide his admiration for the player, despite Torres being contracted to Liverpool, describing the former Atleti man as “one of the best strikers in Europe” at the time.
It was, of course, Chelsea who ultimately got their man in January 2011, but that City example highlights how brazen their free-spending approach was, particularly in those early years, having thrown money around with little consequence at the time.
Let’s hope Liverpool’s modern-day Torres can help Andoni Iraola’s men to defeat the Manchester side this afternoon.
How Liverpool “hit the jackpot” on the new Torres
As noted above, while it ended sourly, Torres had been a sensation following his arrival from Madrid, instantly securing fan favourite status even at the age of just 23.
He struck up a fine, almost telepathic partnership with Liverpool hero Steven Gerrard too at the time, with Benitez fashioning an exciting, new-look side that was firmly in the title picture around 2008/09.
The now-retired marksman was a man for the big occasion too, proving a particular thorn in the side of the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Man City and Arsenal.
|
Torres Premier League Record vs Big Six* |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Club |
Games |
Goals |
|
Arsenal |
11 |
3 |
|
Chelsea |
4 |
5 |
|
Liverpool |
7 |
0 |
|
Man City |
11 |
4 |
|
Man Utd |
14 |
4 |
|
Spurs |
11 |
3 |
|
*including time at Chelsea |
||
It’s certainly a big occasion against Enzo Maresca’s men this afternoon, with Iraola no doubt thankful that the Reds are set to have Jeremy Jacquet back in the mix, with the Frenchman fit to feature by all accounts.
There had been concern over the £60m man after he sustained an injury on international duty, although Iraola confirmed on Friday that the youngster is available to play.
It is still early days, but it already feels like Jacquet, even at just 21, is essential to this Liverpool team, with the defender proving worth the wait after the deal was originally struck back in January.
The parallels with Torres are evident to see, with this another young arrival from his homeland who has proven an instant hit on Merseyside, a real world-class talent in the making.
That’s the view of talent scout Jacek Kulig, at least, the respected insider suggesting that Liverpool have “hit the jackpot” with Jacquet’s signing, with the player a “world-class centre-back in the making”.
Like the Torres-Gerrard combination too, the spine of this modern Liverpool side is now built around Jacquet and Virgil van Dijk, the skipper looking far more settled this season after the chaos that Ibrahima Konate brought last term.
The Reds have already kept three clean sheets in five league games this season, having only recorded ten in total across the entirety of 2025/26.
The introduction of Jacquet appears central to that, and with Iraola confirming his availability for this weekend’s clash, he surely has to be thrust in from the start again in what is such an eagerly-anticipated clash.
Having been so wounded by missing out on new City star Marc Guehi last summer, perhaps Liverpool have had the last laugh by ending up with young Jacquet instead.
Let’s just hope this modern-day Torres figure is here to stay at Anfield.
