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Adam or Torres
Is Adam worth more than Torres?
Lee Bennett
The final hours of the 2011 transfer window were a feeding frenzy that smashed records and left Sky Sports News's Jim White with a litter of kittens.
Fernando Torres moving to Chelsea and Andy Carroll filling the void at Anfield put the cherry on the transfer cake and took spending in this latest window to an all time high.
While Torres was being helicoptered down to London, speculation was rife about where Blackpool captain and former Rangers player Charlie Adam would be playing his next game.
Half the clubs in the league had been linked with the influential midfielder but by midnight Adam had gone nowhere. He stuck around to help Blackpool build on an impressive first half of a fairytale debut season.
Fast forward four months and on the penultimate weekend of Premier League fixtures two contrasting stories are reaching their seasonal denouement.
Torres has scored just one goal for his roubles. He has looked out of sorts and short of fitness, failing to gel with his new team mates and causing a major headache for Carlo Ancelotti who has strived for the formula to challenge Manchester United for the title. That formula, it appears, does not include £50m Torres.
At the other end of the country, and the other end of the table, Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has been striving for a formula that will keep Blackpool in the top flight for another year. His formula most certainly does include his captain and talisman, Charlie Adam, a snip at £500k.
In the time that Torres has earned roughly £3m in wages alone for his solitary goal, Adam has netted seven times to keep the Seasiders in with a chance of survival. His latest strike, the winner in the 4-3 win over Bolton, was his twelfth of a fine season and equalled Torres's haul.
With newly crowned champions, Manchester United, to come on Survival Sunday there is every chance of Blackpool facing a reserve United side with more than one eye on Wembley and Barcelona. Should they get a favourable result at Old Trafford and retain their Premiership status it would be worth around £60m to the club.
The impact of a £60m windfall for a club like Blackpool is infinitely greater than it is for a club bankrolled by one of the world's richest men and at £10k a week Adam earns around twenty times less than Torres. The maths is simple and the conclusions are easy to reach.
Charlie Adam's inspirational performances and critical goals have helped carry Blackpool to the cusp of unlikely survival. Fernando Torres's sensational arrival in West London did nothing to improve Chelsea's problems on the pitch and their upturn in form coincided with Torres being benched.
Whether Blackpool survive or not it is unlikely Charlie Adam will be plying his trade at Bloomfield Road next season. His transfer fee will be nothing like the £85m package splashed on Torres but it can be argued that on this season's evidence Charlie Adam is worth more than the misfiring Spaniard.
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