Would You Take Torres Back?

FOR most Liverpool fans, their focus since the end of the Premier League season has been the sacking of manager Kenny Dalglish and the speculation that has followed regarding his replacement.

However another piece of news that caught my eye this week was the story that ex-Red Fernando Torres is unhappy at Chelsea.

Torres made comments after the Chelsea’s Champions League victory claiming that he was not happy with the way the club has treating him, adding that he wanted to discuss his future now that the season is over. The Spaniard has since backtracked on those statements, telling his official website that he is “very happy” at Chelsea and wants to start next season already. However the saga has left me wondering… if there was a chance for Torres to return to Anfield, would you want him back at Liverpool?

There is no denying that when Torres was a Red, he was not only one of Liverpool’s best players but also one of the Premier League’s most dangerous strikers. He scored 81 goals in 142 appearances for Liverpool, including 65 Premier League goals in 102 league appearances. However since his £50m transfer to Chelsea, Torres has been both criticised and ridiculed. In the second half of the 2010-11 season, Torres scored just one goal for Chelsea. This season he scored 11 in all competitions, at an average of just 0.24 goals per game. Admittedly that record is better than Andy Carroll’s but not by much (by my estimation Carroll averaged 0.19 goals per game this season). It can be argued that at 23, Carroll is still developing, whereas Torres is 28 and should be in the peak of his career.

One struggle both Carroll and Torres have had to deal with is fitting into new systems at Liverpool and Chelsea respectively. At Newcastle, Carroll was just to the team being built around him and the ball being played to his head. At Liverpool, he’s had to get used to the ball being played to his feet more often. When Torres was a Red, he was used to playing with Steven Gerrard behind him and that partnership was a deadly combination. At Chelsea, Torres has been unable to find a partnership that works as well as the one he had with Gerrard, although he has looked more comfortable this season linking up with Juan Mata. Playing under three different managers in the space of 18 months probably hasn’t helped Torres either.

Despite his struggles for form at Chelsea, I still think Torres is a top quality striker; but for most Reds fans, questioning whether or not they’d take Torres back is about more than ability. Liverpool were well compensated for the loss of Torres, with the £50m transfer fee making the Spaniard the sixth most expensive player in history at the time. We had already signed Luis Suarez before Torres left and the bulk of the money we got for Torres was spent on adding Andy Carroll to our books, meaning Liverpool replaced Torres with two new strikers.
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But none of that changes the fact that most Reds fans, myself included, felt betrayed by the departure of Torres. When Chelsea turned his head, Torres submitted a transfer request. Although that request was rejected by the club, he left Liverpool just days later. We hoped Torres would help the club secure a return to Champions League football, but instead he chose to jump ship, seeing his wage packet increase from £110k per week to £175k a week. That sense of betrayal would make it difficult for most Liverpool fans to forgive Torres if he became a Red once more. His departure left a bad taste at the club and he has been replaced by Suarez in the hearts of many fans.

If Torres did come back, he would follow in the footsteps of Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler by having a second spell at Anfield. Both Rush and Fowler were welcomed back with open arms; Rush had only been gone for a year and having spent seven successful seasons at Liverpool before his departure, most fans didn’t seem to mind Rush taking on a new challenge in Italy. Given that we Christened Fowler “God”, it would have taken a lot to turn the fans against him and since Fowler claimed Gerard Houllier forced him out of Anfield, most Liverpool fans were sad rather than angry when he left the club. When Fowler returned to Liverpool on a free transfer in January 2006, we were overjoyed to welcome him back, even though he wasn’t the prolific goalscorer he once had been.

Because he wasn’t a Liverpool player for as long as Rush or Fowler and because of the circumstances surrounding his departure, Torres is never going to be remembered as fondly by Reds fans as the likes of Rush and Fowler are. Given his transfer fee and his wage demands, the chances of Torres returning to Anfield are slim to none. However even if a return was likely, I’d imagine most Liverpool fans don’t want him back.

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