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Torres could fill Sergio’s shoes in the City attack
FERRAN TORRES has served notice he could be the solution to the problem of how Manchester City replace club legend Sergio Aguero.
The red- hot Spain star posted a first career hat- trick against Germany in Seville on Tuesday, the first player to do so since Michael Owen in 2001.
And while City signed Torres, 20, from Valencia as a winger, boss Pep Guardiola is understood to be open to the idea of converting him into a central predator to replace Aguero, who is out of contract next summer.
Torres admitted his first career hat- trick put him in dreamland as well as whetting his appetite for the rest of the season.
“We are thrilled with the group of players we have right now and how things are brewing,” he said of Luis Enrique’s squad. “I guess every single player dreams of scoring a hattrick for his country.
“That I could do that in a match of this importance... I’m extremely happy.” While some clubs can often be left counting the cost of an international break, City have instead been left wondering how they managed to get Torres so cheap.
And at £ 21m plus a possible £ 11m in add- ons, they have not only a worthy successor to Leroy Sane on their hands but a player capable of challenging both Gabriel Jesus and Aguero for the goalscorer’s crown.
And his City and Spanish teammate Rodri believes Torres is at the front of a wave of young talent that could prove irresistible in next summer’s European Championship.
“We’ve been asking for patience because we are the ones who see the day- to- day, who understand what’s been coming,” said Rodri.
“This is Spain, a team who can put six past Germany, and the final result could have been much bigger.”
There is undoubted delight among City’s hierarchy that Torres was plucked from under the noses of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
But it is the possibilities for his development as a goalscorer that are exciting the club.
Guardiola is likely to persist with Torres as a right- sided forward – good news for City but bad news for Riyad Mahrez – between now and the end of the season.
But with Aguero out of contract in the summer and Jesus yet to convince critics that he is capable of stepping into the Argentinian’s shoes, Torres could be converted.