Liverpool centre back Jamie Carragher has reminisced about the club’s decision to sell striker Fernando Torres to Chelsea in 2011.
The Spaniard moved for a colossal fee of £50million when he was thought to be in and around the peak of his powers, only for him to flop spectacularly at Stamford Bridge. Carragher has looked back on the deal.
“We didn’t want to stop Torres signing for Chelsea,” he told Sky Sports. “His time was done – £50m was more than enough, we couldn’t believe it. I was shocked by the money they paid.
“We knew he wasn’t the Torres when he’d first arrived. I didn’t feel sorry for him but to go in against your old club, getting a lot of stick, I think it affected him for his whole time at Chelsea.”
OPINION
It’s interesting to see Carragher say that the Liverpool squad felt that Torres was already over the hill by the time he signed for Chelsea. Obviously in hindsight it’s easy to criticise the move and view it as a major error from the Blues, but Carragher was actually in amongst it at the time. Torres was an absolute terror in his Liverpool pomp, arguably the finest centre forward in the Premier League. But, by the time he signed for the west London club he’d been on the downslide for quite some time. It was a desperate attempt from Chelsea to buy their way to success, and it failed spectacularly. It’s no surprise that Carragher, who was facing Torres in training every day, was shocked at the money Chelsea played for someone who he clearly viewed as being past his best. Ultimately it worked out from Liverpool’s point of view, that’s for sure.
