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Greaves: Torres and Carroll just don’t fit in at their clubs

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Torres seems destined to be remembered alongside the likes of Justin Fashanu at Nottingham Forest, Garry Birtles at Manchester United and Steve Daley at Manchester City, three of the first £1 million footballers – all of whom flopped badly. If Torres was vastly over-priced, then what about the fella Liverpool drafted in on the same day, Andy Carroll?

Liverpool would never have spent £35m on the big target man if they had not just received £50m for Torres, so to do so was the economics of idiocy. It was as if the money had simply burnt a hole in their pockets. Carroll is a good old-fashioned centre-forward, without the good old-fashioned goals tally, and he doesn’t seem to fit in to Liverpool’s style of play. I can remember another big centre-forward, Tony Hateley, having a similarly frustrating move to Anfield in the ’60s. He scored a few goals but simply didn’t fit in there.

He had also been to Chelsea where the manager, Tommy Docherty, claimed his passes should have been addressed “to whom it may concern”. But Hateley was able to move around and get a fair few goals before his son Mark became one of only three England players to score at Rio’s Maracana Stadium. John Barnes was another and modesty forbids me from mentioning the third!

Whether Torres gets to play at the Maracana in the 2014 World Cup, or whether he even makes the Spain squad for the Euro finals, looks highly unlikely right now. And we should never forget that, however much money you are earning, any footballer worth his salt is only ever really concerned about playing football.

The article was written by Jimmy Greaves for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.

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3 comments

  • sai says:

    caroll more flop than torres!

  • tinleg says:

    Spot on. Solution: arrange a straight swap between Torres and Caroll. No one loses coz Carroll is younger and will score for Chelsea and will have a higher sell-on value. Torres is perhaps not what he was 2 years ago, but at least he’ll get his best chance at Liverpool.

  • Chris says:

    Carroll, although relatively unproven so far at Anfield, could be Chelsea’s next Drogba with his power and strength. Torres on the other hand is a more natural goalscorer and needs a team that is purpose built for him – Liverpool were that team and could be that team again. I don’t think Torres is a complete failure at Chelsea but he’d still be better off in a team where he is the star man.

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