Having acquired Fernando Torres to help wean the team off their Drogba dependency (although that has failed so far) they are now looking for a player to change the tenor of their midfield play. That is the reason they appear determined to try to prise Modric away from Tottenham — he is a player to build a team around. If they cannot get him they will try for another playmaker — Javier Pastore of Palermo for example — because the team is perceived as being deficient in creativity and imagination in midfield.