Fernando Torres breaks Liverpool fans' hearts with move to Chelsea
Oh Fernando, how could you? Fernando Torres’s departure to Chelsea hurts deeply, even if Liverpool fans like me are reluctant to admit it.
Yes, the captures of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez soften the blow, and yes we are excited by their potential partnership, but we loved you like a son, Nando.
OK, your form over the last 18 months has not been as good as it was in your first two seasons, when you were sensational. And your work-rate has come in for some criticism this season. But we put that down to you feeling your way back from injury, and you rebuilding your confidence after a below-par display (personally) at the World Cup finals.
We would have excused you anything …
But it’s the manner of your departing that is really upsetting.
Upon arriving at Stamford Bridge, you said you hoped to score against Liverpool, which is fine; after all, Chelsea are your employers now and it would be unprofessional of you not to want to make a flying start for your new club.
But after saying, “I will never say anything bad about Liverpool”, you then slip in: “I am joining a team that is at the top level. There is not another level after Chelsea.”
Implication: Liverpool – 18 league titles (albeit none in the Premier League era) and five European Cups – are no longer at the same level as Chelsea – four league titles (three of them in the Premier League era) and no European Cups.
Fernando, your words could not hurt us more.
We can (just about) understand your thirst for immediate Champions League football. Yes, it’s unlikely we can offer you that for another 18 months as rebuilding continues.
Leaving this summer we could just about understand. Even last summer, if the appointment of Roy Hodgson failed to inspire you. But did you have to put in a transfer request just four days before the transfer window closed … threatening the sense of optimism that the new owners and Kenny Dalglish have installed after the hapless reign of Hodgson?
It is bad enough seeing Liverpool slip out of contention for the Premier League, Champions League and even Champions League qualification … and most fans point the finger of blame at Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and their leveraged buy-out.
They denied Benitez the funds to add to his previous exciting signings of Torres, Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano.
Hicks and Gillett destroyed a lot of the achievements of the Rafael Benitez era (even though the Spaniard’s critics say he brought some of his downfall upon himself by falling out with Xabi Alonso, among other things).
But to hear Torres exacerbate the pain with this put-down. It makes you want to turn the air blue.
And now an irony is that you could be the only thing that stands between Manchester United and a record 19th league title. Football can be a cruel game.
No comments:
Post a Comment