Liverpool slap £100 million price tag on Fernando Torres ahead of World Cup final

By Bob Cass Updated: 18:53 EDT, 10 July 2010

Liverpool are claimed to have put a world record £100million price tag on Fernando Torres in a bid to hold on to their star striker after tonight's World Cup final.

Amid doubts about the plans of the club's American owners, new manager Roy Hodgson is desperate to build a team around the Spaniard and England captain Steven Gerrard.

Despite admitting that he will have to wait until after the World Cup for talks with 26- year-old Torres, Hodgson is prepared to dismiss Chelsea's recent £30m offer out of hand.

High price: Spain's Fernando Torres goes past Arne Friedrich of Germany

But another enquiry from a Premier League club was met with the response that the fee is now £100m, which is £20m more than the record Real Madrid paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo last summer.

'It seems Liverpool are trying to price Torres out of the market,' said a source. 'The impression they gave is that Torres is going nowhere.'

The more immediate worry for the Spain striker is whether he will get the chance to put behind him a disappointing World Cup in tonight's showpiece final. Torres, who has failed to score, was reduced to holding talks with coach Vicente Del Bosque on Friday in a bid to secure a starting place.

He is due to discover his fate just hours before tonight's final but Del Bosque hinted that Torres may miss out, saying: 'I can't see that we'll deviate much from the semi-final. I have 23 excellent players, all of whom can do a job on the pitch.'

Despite playing in all six of Spain's games so far, Torres has managed just 277 minutes on the pitch, with only two shots on target.

Peripheral: Fernando Torres comes on for David Villa in the semi-final against Germany

He was dropped for the semi-final victory over Germany, with five-goal David Villa moving into the centre, and came on only as a late sub.

A knee operation just before the World Cup has hampered his form, but Hodgson is more concerned that he is at Anfield next season.

He has had frank talks with Gerrard in an effort to get him to stay, despite Jose Mourinho's determination to lure him to Real Madrid.

Hodgson must now convince Torres to shelve his desire to play in the Champions League.

That priority put paid to Manchester City's hopes of landing a player they had coveted, knowing they could outbid Chelsea, Barcelona and other suitors.

'Torres won't go to City because they cannot give him what he wants, which is to try to win a European Cup medal,' added the insider.