Why Fernando, why? That was the question on all Liverpool supporters lips on the evening of Friday 28 January when it was officially announced by the club that Fernando Torres had handed in a transfer request earlier in the day. However, you did not have to be a rocket scientist to work out that Torres had looked an unhappy soul for the past six months - even after being handed a World Cup winners medal in South Africa in July where Spain lifted the World Cup for the first time in the nation's history.
Instead of having back a player with a huge smile on his face after lifting the greatest prize on earth, Liverpool took stock of an injured player who when he returned to action looked miserable and uninterested in the game. For the past six months, Torres looked like a sulky teenager as he led the Liverpool line with his head bowed and with half-hearted effort moaning at the referee everytime he was challenged by an opposing defender. Cast your mind back a few years where he was savaged by defenders and used to simply get up and get on with the game - answering back with goals rather than moans and groans.
The cause was a simple one as far as Liverpool fans were concerned. Fernando Torres had suffered more than his fair share of injuries over the past 18 months and to cap it all off he had a miserable World Cup and injured himself in the Final which would leave him out of action for a couple of months. The fans forgave him for the lacklustre performances that followed and said he needed match fitness before he would be firing on all cylinders again. After six months match practice, Torres wasn't even firing on one cylinder.
It looked as though the problem lay deeper as even the Liverpool faithful who worshipped Torres began turning on their messiah as his performances lacked any effort at all. The outstanding match was against Wolverhampton Wanderers in December where Liverpool lost to the bottom club at Anfield. Fernando Torres had little effect in the game and wandered around the halfway line back and forth for 90 minutes. Fair enough - this was Liverpool's worst game of the season as Roy Hodgson, once again, got all his tactics wrong and the team as a whole had a nightmare - but Torres showed absolutely nothing and the fans could see that and began to turn.
Something had to change. Liverpool at this stage were facing a relegation battle as they were just a few points off the bottom and the team were turning in poor performance after poor performance. Roy Hodgson was being turned upon by the fans (unheard off at Anfield - even during Graeme Souness' ill-fated term in charge) and something drastic had to be done. On 8 January 2011, the new American owners removed Hodgson from position and replaced with with a 'caretaker' boss, Kenny Dalglish, until the end of the season. This proved to be a huge move by John W Henry and Co. And the masterstroke that the fans had been demanding for six months previous worked.
The players began to believe in themselves after an initial poor start (losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup and Blackpool in the league within 4 days) - even Fernando Torres looked like a man reborn. Torres looked somewhere near his best as he terrorised the United defence and then got an early goal against Blackpool a few days later. In the Merseyside Derby, Torres produced another standout performance and almost capped it with a magical piece of play only to be denied by the post. Against Wolves at Molineux, Torres scored a brace and looked like he was enjoying himself again as the team had been given licence to roam and were let off their shackles by Dalglish. Was this the turning point?
Yes for Liverpool but no for Fernando Torres.
The new owners were in town come the New Year and had a list of targets, drawn up by Dalglish and Director of Football Strategy, David Comolli, to gun down and bring to Anfield. Luis Suarez was the prime target along with Charlie Adam of Blackpool. Fernando Torres and a few other players had been harping on that Liverpool needed at least 4-5 quality players before they could challenge for the Premiership title once again. The cancer that was Hicks & Gillett were warded off as Fenway Sports Group, headed by John W Henry and Tom Werner, bought the club in October and removed the £200 debt that had been on the clubs head for a while now. The new owners came with a huge reputation having transformed the fortunes of the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball to lead them to the World Series Title after an 86 year wait and the onus was on doing the same for Liverpool Football Club.
The new owners drew up a working plan but indicated it would take time to get the club to the top and challenging again. However, having spent $296m on two baseball stars in December 2010, it certainly showed that they would fund moves for the best players in the game. At the Boston Red Sox, the emphasis had always been on buying young talent and nurturing them into the best players in the world but FSG would also occasionally buy older, world class players if it benefited the team and this showed as one of the stars signed up was 29-years-old. Surely this was the news that Fernando Torres and Co wanted to hear - but in Torres' case it wasn't enough.
So fast forward a few weeks and Chelsea put in an official bid for Fernando Torres of £40m on Thursday 27 January and the offer was flatly rejected by the owners. And then it was up to Torres to take matters in his own hands. He put in a transfer request on Friday morning and the rest is history.
So why did Fernando Torres move to Chelsea?
It transpires that Fernando Torres was close to departing Liverpool in the summer - only to be talked into staying by Roy Hodgson and Christian Purslow. Chelsea and Manchester City trailed the striker only to be told that he would not be moving that summer and was committed to Liverpool. It was reported that Torres had been guaranteed changes by Hodgson and Purslow during the summer with investment and new players top of the agenda. And indeed changes were made. Hodgson appointed four new signings in Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles. Clearly, these were not the players Fernando had in mind when he was told the club would be buying new players. Then out went the Old Guard (Hicks & Gillett) and they were replaced by FSG who promised to back the manager in the January transfer window. FSG kept their promise as they bought in Luis Suarez - although this was clearly not good enough for Torres - and he moved to Chelsea for a record £50m.
Fernando Torres' first interview in a Chelsea shirt proved a bad one as far as Liverpool and their fans were concerned. Saying he was going to a "big club" who were "winners" did not go down well at Anfield. A few days later Torres apologised and explained his reason for moving was that he was now 26-years-old and although FSG had come in and made progressive changes, it would take Liverpool a few years before they were challenging for the title again - time he could not afford to lose in helping Liverpool achieve their goals. The easier outcome would be to move to Chelsea who were already in a position of challenging for the title (albeit they suffered a huge dip in form which saw them go from 1st to 4th place in the Premiership) and were in the Champions League. These were fair points - although it would have saved a lot of hassle and saved face had he said these things before departing the club.
The Liverpool faithful were not happy and the man they once worshipped had now followed in Michael Owen's ill-fated steps as far as they were concerned and labelled Judas.
Cue Sunday evening and Fernando's first match in a Chelsea shirt - against Liverpool. The match was all about Torres and after 13 touches and one shot on goal (which was superbly blocked by the returning Jamie Carragher of all people) - Torres departed for the bench on 60 minutes. Cue Raul Meireles five minutes later scoring the winner after the second mix up of the game between Petr Cech and Branislav Ivanovic. And finally cue the travelling fans singing, "You should have stayed at a big club" at a despondent and stone-faced Torres sitting on the bench with a look of "what have I done?".
So what of Fernando Torres now? I have no doubt he will score goals for Chelsea - he is too good a player not to. However, Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti have their work cut out trying to accommodate Torres who will undoubtedly prefer the central striker's position. However, he has competition for that spot from Didier Drogba. It will be interesting to see which of the two will be pushed out as the wider striker in the three-pronged attack Chelsea seem to favour. Of course it could go the other way and we may see Torres revert to type if things do not go to plan and are not working out - playing without heart and fight and going through the motions. Nicolas Anelka's title of Le Sulk may be under pressure from the Spaniard.
Having sat down and thought about the past six months after the hectic January 2011 Liverpool have just experienced, it seems Fernando Torres had the ability all along but used it when it best suited him. Lets see. He was a prime target for Chelsea in the summer and could it have been pure coincidence that he saved his best performance for the Chelsea match at Anfield where he scored two goals? Likewise, his most productive month was January. This could have been in part to the arrival of Kenny Dalglish but it could also have been an opportunity to show would be suitors that he was scoring and looking back to his best. I guess we will never know the real facts but it certainly is food for thought.
What I can guarantee, though, is that Fernando Torres burned his bridges with Liverpool Football Club when he handed in a transfer request. He will never be loved at Stamford Bridge as he was at Anfield. In the short term it looks a good move but come the long term, Fernando Torres may rue the day he decided to leave Liverpool Football Club.
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