How did he agitate for a move? 
He wanted to go the previous season, stayed and then we sacked Rafa and hired Hodgson. As far as I remember he asked to leave and wanted to go to Barca. He didn't refuse to play, so I don't know how he agitated for a move besides saying I'd like to go to Barca.
People believe what they want to believe. Masch forced above to a club he wanted to go to, and we forced Torres to move to a club he didn't really want to join. End of the day, the club made the deal so the buck ends there. As this summer proves, if a club wants to keep a player because their requested price isn't met they can do.
What the club was doing at the time knocks any speculation about Masch into a cocked hat because we KNOW how dodgy they were, not just guessing.
I am unclear about what you mean by dodgy in this context. Do you mean corrupt? Where would the benefit be, from a dodgy point of view, in selling a player for less than he was worth? If you mean that they were bleeding the club and would rather liquidate the player at whatever price they could get, why not Torres as well? I'm open minded on this btw.
By agitate I mean making it clear that he has no intention of signing a new contract, Using the South American staple of the unhappy wife. Relying on a Committment he claimed was made the previous year as leverage despite the fact that nobody involved envisaged that this should mean selling him for less than he was worth. And openly courting Barca.
This season has showed that if you don't want to sell you don't have to. This is correct but back then these scenarios only had one outcome. In fact most people thought that the Suarez saga would result in him going even though he never actually handed in a transfer request. That's because this is what we have been used to.
