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After a disastrous career spell at Chelsea, ex-Liverpool scoring star of previous seasons Fernando Torres has been released by Chelsea who will be prepared to take a loss on the mis-firing striker. Torres never found his feet or indeed his scoring boots at Chelsea, and it seems the label of most expensive footballer EVER, was just too much pressure for a player who was already actually on a bit of a downturn in form in his later days at Liverpool. The heights of his debut season at Liverpool with a 33 goal tally and regular spell binding incisive killer instinct on display, in the later Roy Hodgson days Torres waned until the self-off to Chelsea, at that time in need of a world class striker to end reliance on Didier Drogba, and the £50M (yes, five-zero million - sounds like a bankers bonus doesn’t it) price tag was happily paid by Messrs Abramovich and Co, convinced this would lead them to Premisership and Champions League success. But how differently it ended.

Get the latest Odds on Fernando Torres at Ladbrokes

So, fast forward to December 2011 and Nando is up for sale estimated £20M this time if that, and SKYBET are the first bookmaker to bring out odds on which club he’ll go to. So far Athetico Madrid are favourites to give the wounded Spanish hero and International veteran a peaceful home for some convalescence. They are at odds of 5/1, also Malaga at 5/1, then Real Madrid at 7’s and surprisingly perhaps the odds for him to return to next Liverpool at 12/1 - there’s a precedent for successful returns of course with Bellamy now looking sharp as ever under King Kenny, but surely for Torres himself the humiliation would be too much - or would it..? 12/1 seems about right though, but as a boyhood Kop fan back in Spain you can’t rule it out.

OK so I didn’t get on Long Run in the Gold Cup today, but more success with my ante post bet on Fujin Dancer at Fakenham. So I win both ways in that the Gold Cup was a thrilling race, and then I round the day off with a nice spring winner for myself! Hope you followed my advice at least today and got on at 5/1 before the off. What a grand day!

The bookies have odds for a 2-1 win by Liverpool at Anfield tonight of 8/1 (Paddy Power), and Liverpool 3-0 Braga at 10/1 which seems a bit long. Now Liverpool v Braga comes at a time when the odds are favouring Liverpool very much - coming off a resurgence under King Kenny, betting on Liverpool just got a bit more exciting. If Suarez and Kuyt keep up the scoring form they showed against Man Utd, then Braga are in trouble! Latest live Liverpool v Braga odds available at Ladbrokes.com. Also as it’s Cheltenham week, Ladbrokes are offering a massive £60 Free bet promotion which you can use on Liverpool/Braga too!

First Goalscorers - Who’ll score first in the weekend matches? Odds from Paddy Power:

Portsmouth v Everton

6/1 Crouch

7/1 Nugent

9/1 Kanu

10/1 Utaka

11/1 Kranjcar

16/1 Pennant

16/1 Belhadj

22/1 Traore

22/1 Johnson

22/1 Davis

25/1 Mullins

25/1 Hreidarsson

33/1 Kaboul

33/1 Hughes

40/1 Campbell

40/1 Distin

40/1 Pamarot

Newcastle v Arsenal

7/1 Owen

9/1 Martins

11/1 Lovenkrands

11/1 Ameobi

12/1 Smith

14/1 Duff

18/1 Nolan

22/1 Guthrie

22/1 Gutierrez

25/1 R Taylor

28/1 Geremi

33/1 Butt

40/1 S Taylor

40/1 Coloccini

40/1 Beye

40/1 Edgar

50/1 Bassong

50/1 Enrique

Wigan v Hull

11/2 Zaki

11/2 Mido

13/2 Rodallega

9/1 Kapo

11/1 Valencia

12/1 N’Zogbia

14/1 Koumas

16/1 De Ridder

20/1 Scharner

25/1 Brown

28/1 Figueroa

33/1 Edman

33/1 Bramble

40/1 Boyce

40/1 Melchiot

Liverpool v Aston Villa

7/2 Torres

5/1 Gerrard

6/1 Kuyt

7/1 Babel

7/1 N’Gog

10/1 Riera

12/1 Benayoun

18/1 Lucas

20/1 Aurelio

25/1 Hyypia

28/1 Mascherano

28/1 Dossena

33/1 Skrtel

33/1 Arbeloa

50/1 Carragher

9/1 Agbonlahor

9/1 Carew

10/1 Heskey

12/1 A Young

16/1 Milner

16/1 Sidwell

18/1 Barry

25/1 Petrov

25/1 Gardner

28/1 Reo-Coker

40/1 Davies

40/1 Cuellar

40/1 Knight

40/1 Shorey

40/1 L Young