One day, decades from now, football historians will have a conversation that goes something like this:
Historian 1: Hey, do you know what happened to that Fernando Torres, the Liverpool striker? He was phenomenal but then he just seemed to disappear.
Historian 2: Yeah, he went to Chelsea.....
Historian 1: No, that’s the other Torres, the one with the short dark hair. He’s no good. I mean the Liverpool one, the guy with the long blonde hair.
Historian 2: They’re the same person.
Historian 1: No way, you’re crazy. I’m talking about the guy who lit up the Premier League, scored the winner in the Euro 2008 final for Spain. He was probably the best striker in the world.
Historian 2: Dude, I promise you, same guy.
Historian 1: Wow, what went wrong?
Historian 2: No idea.
That’s probably a little harsh. Last season was Torres’ best in a Chelsea shirt, scoring goals in 7 different competitions last season. But there is no doubt that Torres has gone from being a player that even free-spending Chelsea were willing to break the bank for to a player whose chances of being Chelsea’s first choice striker this season have been rated as 50/50 by his own manager.
Fernando Torres at Liverpool was unplayable. Over four years he amassed 65 goals in 102 appearances for the Anfield club. But of course Torres was essentially already the finished product when Liverpool signed him, a £20million buy from Atlético Madrid where he had already excelled. 24 league goals in his debut season suggests that he took no time at all to settle in England when many before him had faltered trying to adapt.
I was lucky enough to see Torres in the flesh that season and there was a certain inevitability when he got the ball that he was going to find the back of the net, as he did that day. He scored the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008 and was runner up to Ronaldo and Messi in the World Player of the Year award that year. That was the kind of calibre Torres was considered to be, one of the very best.
The Fernando Torres of today seems to be missing that something extra, that little bit of magic that can make something happen out of nothing. The Fernando Torres of today doesn’t trigger fear in the minds of centre backs the world over like Liverpool’s Torres did.
It’s not the calibre of the players he plays with that’s behind the dip. Torres often carried what was a relatively average Liverpool team whereas more recently he was somewhat of a passenger in a Chelsea team that was good enough to win the Champions League. It’s not a case of a player simply declining with age either because at 29 Torres should be at the height of his powers today.
And now, with José Mourinho back at the helm, Chelsea are contemplating whether to give Torres a final chance or to purchase a world class striker who can lead the line single handed and compete with the best strikers in the world. Essentially what they thought they had with Torres when they signed him.
One thing has become clear though, if Torres wants to impress at Chelsea he is running out of chances. His form dipped in his final season at Liverpool but people simply said that his heart wasn’t at Liverpool anymore and that he’ll be better once he’s at Chelsea. He wasn’t. They said that he struggled at Chelsea because he wasn’t the main focal point of the team and that once Drogba went he’d improve. He hasn’t.
It may be too late already, Chelsea may look to cash in while they still can with reported interest in Torres’ services in his native Spain. If they do, nobody can say that Torres hasn’t had his chances. And if he is given one more by Mourinhothen there are no excuses left for him. If he doesn’t take this chance then it’s not because of circumstances or a dip in form, if Torres doesn’t perform for Chelsea this season then it must simply be because he is no longer the player he once was.
A victim of his own success? Perhaps. Looking at last season’s Premier League with fresh eyes would probably show him to be one of the better forwards in the league. But because our eyes and our opinions are tainted by all that we have seen him produce before an average season is no longer acceptable.
We still seem to expect the very best from Fernando. Only he can know why we haven’t seen it for so long. And only he can be responsible for producing it again.