At times in our lives we wonder if we could wish what would have happened had time stood still? What if we could help ourselves to a time machine which could take us to our past which would enable to live life once again the very way we wanted it. If there’s one player who gets up every morning and thinks exactly what I feel, it had to Chelsea’s number nine and Spanish striker Fernando Torres.
A flashback to his time in Liverpool: Somewhere in Anfield Torres picks up the ball from a sweeping Xabi Alonso pass, plays a one two with Gerrard, has a look and strikes with enormous venom. The ball ends up at the back of the net as the vociferous Anfield faithful go wild with joy. The Spaniard flanked by Gerrrad, Alonso and Mascherano has surely written his name in golden words in Liverpool Football History.
How times change! Come January 31st 2011, it’s official! Fernando Torres completes his British record £50million move to Chelsea late on Monday at the end of the transfer deadline day in which the Barclays Premier League went cash crazy. I still remember how Liverpool fans burnt his jersey influenced and overcome with extreme grief and were angry when one of their very own crossed the bridge to join rivals in North London.
Within a year, Torres’ price tag burnt him down, no longer was the same El Nino he was at Liverpool. Hurled the ignominy of disdain, it was hard to believe this same player who sent shivers down the spine of every Premier League Defence while being in Merseyside Red. Missing open nets, failing to score when it was harder to miss had become his staple diet on the pitch. No longer there were his silky touches, dazzling runs and mesmerizing finishes.
However if there would be any indication, from the Chelsea Manchester City game, we are sure to say, the player still lurks in him what he used to be at Liverpool. Take for example in the first half he got the better of martin Demichieles and fluffed his shot over the bar when it looked harder to miss. Two minutes later he takes the ball on the right side, goes past Nastasic as if he wasn’t there, lays a wonder ball to Schurrle who put Chelsea ahead on the night. Hardly some seconds later, the Spaniard again puts Demichieles to bet and rattles a pile-driver against the post which lives the entire Stamford Bridge gasping.
However the moment of the game comes just two minutes from the final whistle. Chelsea managed to get the full three points when Nastasic headed the ball past the on rushing Joe Hart and Torres provided the silver lining on a night which might prove to be a huge win come at the end of the season. But as the question or the answer prevails, El Nino himself knows and would also accept that he will never again be the player he was in those early golden years at Liverpool. A time when he could be justifiably be compared to the World’s best.
At £50m it was rather a rather tasty piece of business for Liverpool rather than looking at personal greed would perhaps be only one side of the story. As Phil McNulty of BBC puts it straight, is it the greed of silverware or loyalty in football which will stand out-
“It should also be noted that for someone who has supposedly had such a torrid time since he left Liverpool, Torres has won a Champions League winners’ medal against Bayern Munich in their own Allianz Arena and scored a brilliant goal in Chelsea’s Europa League final win against Benfica in Amsterdam last season.”
As times move on, there is only one answer if at all his revival has come, (thanks to Rafa Benitez from last season), this revival has some substance but the glory years will never ever come back.