Ferran Torres has revealed his delight at completing a move to Manchester City, labelling them as a ‘club to win everything with’.
The forward completed a move from Valencia yesterday, becoming Manchester City’s first signing of what is expected to be a busy summer transfer window.
He arrives at the Eithad as the direct replacement for winger Leroy Sané, who elected to leave the club for Bayern Munich last month.
The youngster’s arrival in Manchester comes after several months of speculation about his future, with City having been linked back in March.
It’s taken intensive negotiations and an intervention from those in charge at City and Valencia to get a deal done, with Torres admitting there were some tense times for him and his family.
“They were very nervous days,” he told Marca.
“My agent was in Manchester with the club, he called me and told me that they had reached an agreement and that I would play at City.
“It is a club to win everything with and has the best coach in the world. I think I’m going to improve there and learn a lot of things.”
Key to the move was Pep Guardiola, with reports throughout the saga revealing that he had been key to convincing Torres to make the move.
That is something we’ve heard before, with the Spanish coach well known to get involved in negotiations to convince players to move to Manchester City.
He undoubtedly has strong pulling power, with his trophy-laden career and history of developing players something he uses to his and City’s advantage.
That was was certainly the case with Torres, who revealed Guardiola’s tactics helped calm things down for him.
“It was a very emotional moment for me.”
“He transmitted me a lot of tranquillity and gave me congratulations.
“That helped me to calm down and to have many more things to go to.”
That is now in the past for Torres, who can now look forward to starting his career at Manchester City under Guardiola’s leadership.
The move is a big one for the youngster, who will undoubtedly be playing at a much higher level than he found in Valencia.
And while he is excited to get started, he admits that there is a tinge of sadness about leaving his boyhood club.
“On the one hand, I’m very content and excited, although I’m also very sad because I’m leaving the team of my life,” he added.
“It is the team that has given me everything and has formed me since I was seven years old but also where I have spent hard times, in which I felt frustrated, which led me to take the decision to leave.
“But I would like to make it clear that I am very grateful to Valencia and will support them wherever they are.
“The problem is that there are people inside the club and a few journalists who are trying to make me feel bad and to damage my image.
“I refuse to leave Valencia badly because I am from Valencia.”
