Fernando Torres broke Liverpool hearts when he left for Chelsea in 2011 for a colossal £50million, but Jamie Carragher wasn’t as phased.
The former Reds defender admitted that the club didn’t want to stop El Nino from joining the Londoners because he was finished on Merseyside.
Torres – for the most part – flopped for Chelsea, but he did scoop up a fair few honours along the way, with his role in their Champions League success being a main highlight.
But Carra thinks the Reds got the better side of the coin on this exchange. “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.”
I’d say Carragher’s comments are fair – anybody that watched Torres on a regular basis could see that he was no longer the mercurial forward that we signed from Atletico Madrid.
He’d lost his swagger and his pace, but was still a capable player; it’s still a a surprise that we managed to get £50million from Chelsea in 2011 for the Spaniard.