I knew this from the beginning, he had to leave because of the owners destabilising the club, there was uncertainty at Liverpool and he was getting old by footballer standards. He always loved Liverpool.
What I understand is there’s only one club he loved - Atletico. We ended up getting too attached, and it was difficult not to. What a player he was for us. He left for what he wanted, and that’s football as it is. Lesson learnt, or maybe not as I am crazy about Klopp now in a similar fashion.
The only regret I had was if he waited 6 months, we might have seen Torres + Suarez, that would have been one heck of partnership with Stevie behind them.
I meant his English club. Athletico Madrid was his boyhood club which will always be in his blood.
With Liverpool, he really loved the club’s people, the city and the people of the city.
He was the last player that wounded my heart when he left. Since then, I haven’t really got overly upset about a player leaving.
He was so elegant to watch as a footballer a gazelle and a lovely personality.
But Fernando left after FSG took over, during Kenny era. Surely he had opportunity to patch things up. I’m not bitter about him, anymore; but he hurt my feelings.
Yeah, that’s where he was short-sighted. fsg had already arrived, Hodgson had been displaced and Kenny was at the helm. Suarez was coming in to form a partnership with him, and what a partnership those two would have formed! I remember being so frustrated at the time…
In the end, his decision to leave set the club back a couple of years at least imo. It harmed us and it harmed him as well, as he could never really replicate his form elsewhere. So, the trophies he won with Chelsea must have a bit of a hollow taste for him.
Judging by his interviews I doubt he regret that much. He said he would have had to wait for years to win the trophies with all the changes happening and in hindsight he was right. With Chelsea he won, and that’s what he cared all about when he left Atletico.
As a fan I absolutely hate that he went to Chelsea of all clubs, but have come to the conclusion that that’s what football is for many players. He himself states that in one of the interviews, where he mentions the only badge he’ll kiss is of Atletico. Loyalty and one club players are hard to find, especially when the going gets tough.
Yes he was fantastic and immense for us, yes what he did as a crazy obsessed fan of him made me cry, but well we moved on, so did he… did he enjoy those trophies, that’s his perspective. Did we went behind a couple of years, probably yes.
The only lesson learnt is not to fall in love and get attached to players again (easier said than done) because not all love the club the way we do.
There’s a great piece on Torres today on The Athletic, and a lot of what we assume to be the case with Torres, is actually not.
Although he won the most at Chelsea, of all the periods of his career, that was his least favourite. His main reason for moving was a) his knee was fucked and he panicked that he didn’t have long left in his career to win something, and could see we were just at the start of a project that would take years to complete (in the end, it was almost a decade) and b) the club first lied to him telling him they were still ambitious and would be signing great players, only to turn around and sell Xabi and Masch, and then Comolli telling him bluntly they needed to sell him to raise cash for new signings.
He says he still loves Liverpool and always will, even if our fans can’t forgive him for moving. If it wasn’t for his knee injury and the chaos of H&G’s last days, I don’t think he would have left.
I don’t disagree with what you say. It’s the nature of football. However, the timing when he left was particularly bad for us. With hindsight, the club should probably have told him that he was staying for the rest of the season, and that we’d reconsider his position in the summer.
There was no clear replacement in the pipeline for him at the time, so the club should have taken time to consider how to move on, instead of jumping on the half-season wonder that Carrol was, and spending almost all the money from Torres’ sale on him.
But that’s all the past now, and to be fair, there was no clear decisional structure at the club yet at the time (apart from Comolli behaving like a bull in a China shop), so this kind of things was bound to happen. It was part of the learning curve for fsg after taking control of LFC.
Yeah, can’t deny that he would have loved to succeed with us. Anyways don’t have hard feelings as such anymore and still love watching his videos from his time with us, always brings a smile to my face.
I think sometimes you can rationally come to determine that a relationship has come to an end but still be sad it had to come to that. That’s always how I viewed Torres’ exit.
