Transfer that shook the world: Fernando Torres to Chelsea

Summary

Transfers that Shook the World: Fernando Torres to Chelsea

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Athletic FC Podcast
• Host: Ayo Akinwolere
• Guests: Simon Hughes, Dom Fifield
• Episode: Transfer that Shook the World: Fernando Torres to Chelsea
• Release Date: June 19, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Transfers that Shook the World, hosted by Ayo Akinwolere, the discussion centers around one of the most seismic transfers in British football history: Fernando Torres' move from Liverpool to Chelsea in January 2011. Joining Ayo are renowned football journalists Simon Hughes and Dom Fifield, who delve into the intricacies, controversies, and lasting impact of this high-profile transfer.

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The Transfer Event

Breaking the British Transfer Record

The episode begins by contextualizing the transfer within the football landscape of January 2011. Chelsea, the reigning Premier League champions, made headlines by breaking the British transfer record to acquire Liverpool’s prolific striker, Fernando Torres, for £50 million on a five-and-a-half-year deal (02:09).

Simon Hughes' Inside Perspective

Simon Hughes recalls the tense atmosphere at Liverpool's Melwood training ground on transfer deadline day:

“...it was a very busy place because there was a lot of transfer business going on at Liverpool... Torres was looking at the Champions League trophy... and he was very determined to leave.”
↩ [03:07]

Torres expressed his frustration with Liverpool's direction, stating:

“When I came to the club it was to try and win that [Champions League]. We’re further away from that than ever.”
↩ [03:33]

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Driving Forces Behind the Move

Chelsea’s Strategic Ambition

Dom Fifield discusses Chelsea’s long-standing strategy under owner Roman Abramovich, highlighting Abramovich’s penchant for acquiring top-tier strikers to enhance the club’s competitiveness:

“He loved recruiting sort of glamorous names in many ways. Torres was probably at that stage the ultimate for him to bring in.”
↩ [04:40]

Pre-Move Monitoring and Market Conditions

Chelsea had been monitoring Torres for some time, initially attempting to secure his signature during the summer of 2010 without success. The January 2011 slice of the transfer window presented an opportune moment as Chelsea sought to arrest a decline in their performance, exacerbated by Ancelotti’s management challenges (05:46).

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Controversy and Fan Reaction

Perceived Betrayal

Torres’ decision to move to a direct rival stirred intense emotions among Liverpool fans. Hughes reflects on the dismay and sense of betrayal felt:

“...clubs were brief on what was going on as well. It was a sign of things to come, really.”
↩ [04:29]

Torres’ Motivation and Liverpool's Situation

Hughes elaborates on Torres’ personal motivations, emphasizing his desire to win major trophies and his dissatisfaction with Liverpool’s direction:

“...his move had sort of developed over a couple of days... eventually, he took a very cold, calculated decision in the end.”
↩ [03:33]

Furthermore, the financial pressures and Liverpool’s need to restructure under new ownership influenced the decision to sell their star striker (06:34).

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Impact of the Transfer

Immediate Effects on Chelsea and Liverpool

Upon his transfer, Torres was swiftly integrated into Chelsea’s squad, making his debut against his former club Liverpool. However, his on-field performance did not meet the lofty expectations set by his transfer fee. Simon Hughes notes:

“...Torres’s Liverpool career in two parts. There’s a first 18 months when he was untouchable... and then the second 18 months, his form just wasn’t the same.”
↩ [05:51]

Challenges at Chelsea

Dom Fifield discusses the difficulties Torres faced at Chelsea, including limited goal-scoring and lack of chemistry with key players like Didier Drogba:

“He didn’t have the Steven Gerrard supply line. The supplier at Chelsea at the time was Frank Lampard, and he only really supplied Didier Drogba.”
↩ [27:55]

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Legacy of the Transfer

Long-Term Perceptions

The transfer has had a lasting impact on how Fernando Torres is viewed in both Liverpool and Chelsea. Initially seen as a betrayal, Hughes observes that Torres’ struggles at Chelsea eventually underscored his value at Liverpool:

“He was never the same player in a Chelsea shirt. It’s one of those wow moments.”
↩ [10:08]

Redemption and Reflection

Torres returned to Liverpool five years later, and Hughes notes that time has allowed fans to reflect more positively on his contributions during his peak years:

“...people can now look back at his time at Liverpool with positivity because of how good he was for that first 18 months.”
↩ [40:26]

Broader Implications for Transfers

The episode also touches on how Torres' transfer influenced journalistic coverage and public obsession with transfer deadlines:

“...it was the first real sort of day where we saw all this drama unfold right in front of us... it’s become a point of obsession now.”
↩ [22:29]

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Conclusion

Fernando Torres' transfer to Chelsea remains a pivotal moment in British football history, emblematic of the high stakes and emotional turmoil that accompany major player movements. While the move did not yield the success Chelsea had hoped for, it reinforced the complexities of player loyalty, club dynamics, and the ever-evolving nature of football transfers. Simon Hughes and Dom Fifield provide insightful analyses, highlighting both the immediate fallout and the enduring legacy of this landmark transfer.

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Notable Quotes

• Simon Hughes on Torres’ Determination to Leave:

  “...ultimately a footballer’s career is quite short and he, he took a very, I would say, cold, calculated decision in the end.”
  ↩ [03:33]

• Dom Fifield on Chelsea’s Ambition:

  “Roman Abramovich... was very committed... he would go out and buy [players] despite, you know, even if the cost was on the outside.”
  ↩ [06:34]

• Simon Hughes on the Transfer’s Impact on Journalism:

  “...deadline days like that that made those worth it for a while.”
  ↩ [27:14]

• Simon Hughes on Torres’ Legacy at Liverpool:

  “...the glory and the excitement around Torres’s 18 months is forgotten... people now focus more on the player.”
  ↩ [40:26]

---

Final Thoughts

This episode serves as a thorough examination of Fernando Torres' transfer, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted implications such high-profile moves have on players, clubs, fans, and the broader football culture. Whether you're a die-hard football fan or new to the sport, this episode provides valuable insights into one of the most discussed transfers in recent history.

Transcript

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The Athletic FC Podcast Network.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Welcome to Transfers that Shook the World with me, Ayo Akimwaleere. A summer series for the Athletic fc. Looking back at the moves that sparked fury and saw heroes become villains.

[Simon Hughes]

Chelsea fans, brace yourselves everybody, I mean.

[Verizon]

Everybody seems to be talking about Fernando Torres.

[Intuit QuickBooks]

£50 million and it's a five and.

[Verizon]

A half year deal.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Today we're heading back to January 2011 when Chelsea broke the British transfer record to sign Liverpool's number nine.

[Verizon]

Vidic lets it bounce and Torres is all over him. And Torres is in for Liverpool.

[Simon Hughes]

Fernando Torres.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

So why was Torres move so controversial and was his time at Stamford brid a success? With us today we have Simon Hughes and Dom Fifield. Simon, let's start with you on this one. Take us back to January 2011 and this deal involving Fernando Torres. I mean, look, Chelsea were the reigning Premier League champions. Liverpool had new owners in the form of fsg and they'd recently replaced Roy Hodson with club legend Kenny Dalglish. You were at Melwood, Liverpool's old training ground, on that deadline day with a special unique perspective on how things played out.

[Simon Hughes]

I was actually meant to interview him the day he left. Obviously that interview never took place. I ended up interviewing Luis Suarez instead. It was like, no, you're not going to get him, but here's this guy, you know, that was what it was like. It was a surreal day because I had interviewed Torres on a number of occasions during his Liverpool career and got reasonably close to him and I suppose the people around him. And I just remember at Melwood on that day when he was leaving, it was a very busy place because there was a lot of transfer business going on at Liverpool. Couple of other players coming in, couple of players leaving. You could always sense sort of when the mood wasn't great at Melwood, it almost felt like the people forgot to turn the lights on. It was like sort of quite gloomy inside. And Torres, this move had sort of developed over, over a couple of days, but it's still in Liverpool. There was this sense of bewilderment because I thought, no, he's surely not going to go to Chelsea, you know, after everything he said about Liverpool. But he was very determined to leave. And, you know, I remember him leaving Melwood and he was looking at the Champions League trophy. There was a replica of it in the hallway there. And I said to him, you know, how has it come to this almost? And he was, he was like, well, when I came to the club it was to try and win that. And he said, we're further away from that than ever. You know, ultimately a footballer's career is quite short and he, he took a very, I would say, cold, calculated decision in the end.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Dom, from a Chelsea perspective, how long had they been monitoring Fernando Torres situation and who was the driving force behind the move?

[Verizon]

We can't really discount the Roman Abramovich factor here. He loved strikers, he loved buying strikers, he loved recruiting sort of glamorous names in many ways. And Torres was probably at that stage the ultimate for him to bring in. And I think he definitely drove the move. But they'd been monitoring for a while. I think they tried the summer of 2010 that would have been. And hadn't really come to anything, you know, sounding it out. And at that point Liverpool didn't really want to sell him because I imagine that if there was a takeover ongoing, they wouldn't have wanted to lose their assets. He would have brought the club's value a bit down had they sold him at that point. But that interest stepped up in during the January and you have to put into the context of what was happening at Chelsea at the time. I mean they were reigning champions, you're right. But it had been Torres that pretty much started what Ancelotti, the manager at the time, ended up calling the bad moment. Torres scored twice against Chelsea in a 20 win for Liverpool. I think it was in the November of 2010. Liverpool attack. Five against four. Torres.

[Intuit QuickBooks]

Oh, fantastic, fantastic Fernando Torres.

[Verizon]

And that really sort of knocked Chelsea off their stride and they, they were soon off the top of the table. They were losing 3, 0 at home to Sunderland. They were looking distinctly unchampion esque. And Ancelotti started to look a bit like a dead man walking in terms of his position at the club. And really what they did towards the end of that January window by bringing in Torres and bringing in David Luiz for big money as well was them attempting to arrest the decline. Bruce Buck, I remember at the time, was quoted around the announcement saying that it was a hugely significant day for Chelsea because they were capturing one of the best players in the world with his peak years ahead of him. Well, it didn't really work out that way.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Let's talk about that move. Indeed, Simon Damian Comoli, Liverpool's director of football at the time, had made indications that selling Torres could generate money for Liverpool. Now once Torres had made it clear he wanted to go, what could the club do? But also sort of counteracting what Dom said, Chelsea, he thought he still had his peak years ahead of him. If you're selling a player at Liverpool, doesn't sound like you think he's got his peak years ahead of him, does it?

[Simon Hughes]

Well, he started very well at Liverpool and for 18 months, I would say the best striker in the world, you know, best number nine, developed a very good understanding with Steven Gerrard. You know, they were very much in love with each other as players, I must say. But Torres took a fair buffeting as a player. You know, I think, I think people underestimate, you know, just the physical challenge of being a centre forward in the Premier League because I know the game's less dirty now, but it's no less physical. And he was kicked about a lot, dragged around a Lot and it's obviously played football for a long time. I mean he made his debut I think when he was 16 at Atletico Madrid. So there was a lot of wear and tear on his body. And I see Torres's Liverpool career in two parts. There's a first 18 months when he was untouchable. You know, every game it seemed like he was going to SC hat trick. And then the second 18 months, the last season of Rafa Benitez, the first half of the season you mentioned Roy Hodgson being there when he just didn't seem like the same player. For some people they were questioning his motivations. You know, does he really want to be there? But I think a lot of the game in Torres for Torres was in his head as well. I think he's very thoughtful player who quite sensitive in a lot of ways as well and very aware of the things that are going on around him. You know, he was the captain at Athletico Madrid and is aware of politics, ball clubs and how that can affect the on field operation. I think he thought a lot about that at Liverpool. Liverpool was a total mess, you know, at the time. I mean it unprecedented in the club's history in the second period, you know, I'm referring to here and his form just wasn't the same. He scored a fair number of goals but he just didn't, he didn't have the same effect. So despite all this when, when he left people were angry because he seems to have a certain set of values which aligned with Liverpool, which also shared with Atletico Madrid to some extent. And Chelsea was sort of viewed as the opposite of those values. And suddenly he just wanted to sign up for that. So people were very angry.

[Verizon]

I'm sure I did the right thing. I've been playing for there, not just six months, three years and a half. And from the first day until the last one I was playing for then and trying to help the club to move forward. And I had the chance to join Chelsea. I only, I couldn't say no. That is the main thing.

[Simon Hughes]

You know, even at the World Cup. He won the World cup this summer before with Spain. He did okay, but he certainly wasn't the star player like he had been two years previously at the European Championships when he was at his very. You know, Don mentioned Bruce Buck's comment there. I mean I would say his peak as a player when we look back at it was probably that period between 07 and 09 maybe. Nevertheless when he left him and it was a major move, it was the biggest transfer deal in British football history, I think, at the time. So, you know, that alone marks it out as being one of those sort of wow moments. And given that it was so late in the transfer window as well, that just makes it a very dramatic sort of sequence, really. And then you roll in the fact that Fernando Torres's debut for Chelsea was against Liverpool. In terms of the drama around that, it couldn't have been any greater, really.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Yeah. Dom, I'm going to come to you in just a second about why FSG would sell a player to a direct rival. But very quickly, Simon, you also wrote in amazing interview you did with Torres that, you know, one of the reasons he probably thought he wanted to leave was that Liverpool, you mentioned it, were not in great shape at that time. Xabi Alonso had gone, Mascherano had gone. Like, you've got players that potentially could have taken the club forward. And he's looking at it thinking, do you know what? We've lost some of our best players here. What's the future for the club?

[Simon Hughes]

Yeah, well, he left Atletico Madrid. That was his boiled club. Let's not forget that. I do think his source of his feeling for Liverpool at a certain point was genuine. You know, people can say things and mean them, but then sort of feel slightly differently a few years later because of events that happen around them. And just as easily as I think he sort of fell in love with the idea of Liverpool and the sort of the support that he got and the adoration. I mean, he admitted that to me when I interviewed him 2016. So this is obviously five years after the movie. He was back at Atletico Madrid at the time and he says, I've never felt that before, that feeling of. Of people wanting me to do well. He eventually came to realise, you know, that things had changed dramatically at Liverpool. It did change dramatically. Liverpool went from finishing second to Manchester United in 08.09 to then suddenly being out of the Champions League altogether to being in the Europa League to Rafa Benitez, the manager that signed him and got the best out and being sacked or leaving the club, Tory Hodgson being there. Not really. He defended Roy Hodgson quite a lot in the interview. I was quite surprised by that because there was a perception on the outside that he wasn't having Hodgson at all, whereas he was like, actually, no, you know, that wasn't the case. Went into quite a lot of detail in the end. I mean, he felt. He actually felt quite let down by Kenny Dalglish and sort of his response to all these conflicts that were in his head and I think from what I can gather, Dalglish interpreted that as being this player's head isn't here anymore. I think Dalglish, you know, showed despite being back in the job for a relatively short period of time and having not been in management, he was very ruthless when it came to that. I mean Dalvich fully supportive of the decision to let him go, if not one of the major drivers behind it.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

I'm just thinking from an FSG perspective, Dom, and we always talk about the business of football here a lot is that selling him to Chelsea, a direct rival is a tricky one because I often think about when Arsenal wanted to buy Luis Suarez and how reluctant they were. Is it that potentially FSG probably didn't see this as a. I don't want to use the word asset but as a player that was going to get better. Whereas someone like Suarez was so hot at the time that Arsenal had that interest that actually they needed to hold key with a player like that.

[Verizon]

Again, it needs context, doesn't it? I think when you look in, in the January of 2011, I'm not sure you count Liverpool as a direct rival to Chelsea in many ways. Okay. They had the history there that was whipped up around the Mourinho time at Chelsea and they weren't clubs that particularly got along. But Liverpool have finished seventh the previous year. Chelsea won the league. Liverpool's situation with the ownership and the change in ownership, they needed money to rebuild the team, to restructure and do things differently. So Chelsea suddenly offering Chelsea one of the few clubs out there in the world that would offer £50 million for a player suddenly. And it wasn't just that they went in at that Liverpool managed to get the price up in that week, in the build up to the sale. It had gone in 27, 35, 40, went up to 50 million eventually. And that's what they sold at. Which is when you add the context of FSG subsequently admitting. I think it was in court in the, in New York, wasn't it Si that they considered both Torres and Pepe Reina to be slightly past their prime at that point. A bloke that's had a knee injury, a serious knee injury for some time that's been troubling him and, and, and holding him back slightly. I think they looked at that deal and thought well that's actually as politically incorrect as it might have looked from the outside. And it doesn't send necessarily send out the right message when you're selling to Chelsea of all teams. But when you're Thinking pragmatically that's a good offer for them and an offer that allowed them a bit of leeway in the market. You know, whether they spent the money wisely is a completely different question.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

That's a whole conversation as well.

[Simon Hughes]

Yeah, well Dom's right about you know those court documents. You know Pepe Reina as well. He'd recently signed a big five year contract at Liverpool. But the view was, you know, that he, he was on the turn a little bit. This is sort of just as Liverpool are starting to use data. I mean it's right at the beginning really. The mood had turned at Liverpool a little bit as well. Suddenly Dalga was back. The results were picking up a little bit. People were feeling a little bit more optimistic about the future. Not that FSG ever stopped to consider public opinion about the decisions that they make. And I think they seldomly have done that up until maybe the last few years. But that's another story. I think they also realized, well, if we can get, you know, Luis Suarez and cause Suarez was bought to a company, Torres. Of course FSG ended up spending more than Andy Carroll was worth. But because of all the noise around it, I actually think very quickly, although people were upset with Torres leaving because of, I suppose people will interpret the, the money that they decided to spend on Suarez and Carol as ambition. The mood was very soon switched to like optimism really around what was, what was going on. I think history certainly reflects well on Liverpool's decision to let him go. Torres go because he was never the same player in a Chelsea shirt. I mean as I said that first game for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, I was at the game and I think he was shocked by the response that he got from the Liverpool ends. It was like a ghost walking around on the pitch.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Okay, well next we'll discuss the impact of that deal.

[Verizon]

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[Verizon]

Fernando Torres £50 million and it's a.

[Intuit QuickBooks]

Five and a half year Chelsea fans, brace yourselves.

[Verizon]

Here he is.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

What an ending to the 2011 January transfer window that was. A British transfer record was being smashed, helicopters literally flying, players about to sign before the deadline. And also it was the birth really of social media, Dom, by that point, how great was Chelsea's need to go big in the transfer market?

[Verizon]

That was at a time where the initial splurge under Abramovich was almost not forgotten, but it had moved on from that. There hadn't been that sort of massive, massive, massive investment in windows in the years before. They would buy the odd player that was for a lot of money, but nothing like they had done in the summers of 2003 and 2004, where they just completely rebuilt the club and spent millions and millions and millions of pounds at once on virtually new squads every year. But that was a reaction. That January, February 2011 was a reaction to the first proper blip of that time. And as I say, it was the bad moment. It was Ancelotti clinging on desperately to his job, Chelsea clinging on to the title race. They had a Champions League campaign still ongoing. I think they played Manchester United in the quarterfinals later that season and it was Abramovich showing that he was still committed. It was Abramovich showing that he still had the clout in the transfer market and that if the right players came along, the Players that he felt were good for his project, that he would go out and buy them despite, you know, even if the cost was on the outside. Outrageous. And £50 million did feel outrageous that month. It really did. You don't buy players for world record fees in January. You buy them at the beginning of the season. You give them pre season, you give them a chance to settle, you know. Torres is deposited from Melwood to Cobham and then asked to go and play against Liverpool in his first game three days later. I mean that is the stuff of, of legend. It's ridiculous. I mean it's, it's completely outrageous that. But that's the way it played out. And that was how Abramovich ran that club. Chelsea offered reminders that month that they were still in the market, they were still in pursuit of a Champions League. They still hadn't won that, you know, Liverpool had won that. Liverpool have won it. In 2005, they, they got to the final. In 2007, Chelsea were still smarting from Ofra Bow and from near misses, etc. They and the defeat in 2008 in Moscow, they were desperate to turn that round. And by signing players of the calibre of Torres, a World cup winner, a European Championship winner, they felt as if they were kicking on to the next level. It was also a sign that they were willing to refresh a team of greats that were starting to age a bit. I mean they were. That Terry Drogba, Lampard Cole era was starting to come to an end. And we all thought that probably that Ancelotti bad moment was probably the, you know, this, this is all going to coming to a head in the summer and there'll be a massive overhaul. As it transpired, that squad of players actually went and won the European cup in 2012. It took Fernando Torres technically 15, 16 months to win that European Cup. And the complaint he had at Liverpool was he was further away than ever from doing that. Well, he went to Chelsea and he did achieve it in 15 months time. He didn't play much of a part but he did achieve it.

[Simon Hughes]

This to make Chelsea champions of Europe.

[Verizon]

DROPPER SCORES History is made Chelsea the.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Champions of European football.

[Verizon]

How good does that sound?

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Yeah, I want to talk to you guys later on about whether or not it was worth it, but let's just stick to this bit for now and in terms of what that transfer really did mean from your perspective, Simon, you know, what role do you think that particular deadline day and this deal play in? The way you guys as journalists work, you Know, transfer, the news has always been, you know, at the tip of our tongues. We always want to know what goes on in the background. I always think about Peter Odemwigi once again, you know, that, that deadline day and that was the madness that instilled for fans. But from a journalist perspective, what impact do you think, you know, that thirst for blow by blow accounts on transfer deadline day, what does that change for you?

[Simon Hughes]

Yeah, well, I remember coming back from Melwood, having interviewed Suarez and watching it unfold on Sky Sports. I just remember this sense of drama building up over the course of the evening. You know, it was like a country in western. Almost like, who's gonna blink first? Who's gonna move first? Is he gonna get. Is Andy Carroll gonna appear in a landing strip in Liverpool? Where's Torres going? How's he leaving Melwood? You know, it was all there in front of us for the first time. You can't even describe it as a saga, can you? Because it all happened so quickly. You know, suddenly certain players who seem to be aligned to certain clubs, whether that's Carol at Newcastle, he seemed to embody what Newcastle were about as well. You know, a lot of Newcastle fans never forgave him for leaving the club. Haven't scored against Liverpool and performed brilliantly against them barely a month earlier. Meanwhile, they've got Torres, who seems so entrenched in Liverpool's culture, going to a club that certainly is viewed in Liverpool as being as the opposite of that. And this was all naked and everybody could see exactly what was going on. And not only that as well, you know, the clubs were brief on what was going on as well. You know, the clubs desperately want to seem good and in control of all this, so they can't just sort of let the players slip off. So it was sort of a sign of things to come, really, I think. I can't think of too many transfer windows that have ended like that. And it's become a point of obsession now, hasn't it? You know, sort of transfer coverage, rightly or wrongly. I mean, people say it's all overblown, but it does sort of determine, you know, let's have it right. Recruitment determines largely how successful you are still, you know, there's a lot of focus on coaching and everything else, which I understand coaches do improve players and can improve players, but if you get your recruitment wrong, you're going to be struggling. So this is why there's so much focus on it. And I think that was the first real sort of day, if you like, where we saw all this drama unfold right in front of us and I've got to admit, you know, it was quite gripping, you know, like, it was, it was. I can't deny that I'm having sort of, I suppose, seen the seeds of all this earlier on in the day, even at much closer quarters. Very fortunate in a lot of ways because at the start of that day there was obviously talk of Torres potentially leaving, but certainly if Liverpool were thinking about selling him, certainly the day before, the press office, certainly. Unless they were playing a massive double bluff. Yeah, come in and interview this guy. I don't know, all these things at play, you know, they probably didn't want to admit that he was going. It was just easier to get me, get me in there and then, and then hope that it all works out. But yeah, crazy periods really, when you think about him.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Yeah, I mean, you know, Dom, I was talking about Peter Odenwigi there, you know, in 2013. I just need to explain it clearly. Like, you know, he basically had his sights set on signing for Queen's Park Rangers. He was at West Bromwich Albion, the deal hadn't even been signed yet. He drives all the way to Queenspark.

[Verizon]

The cameras are there waiting and the.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Dillard collapsed by the time he'd got there, so technically he had no club to go to and he was just sitting there thinking he'd sign for Queenspark Rangers. I mean, the drama of it is beautiful because we do get sucked into the narrative of it as fans, but for you as journalists, you must just be licking your lips.

[Verizon]

It was the heyday of Sky Sports news coverage and I think as, as written journalists, it was slightly different for us because I suppose, I can't remember, but I imagine that those are the first live blog events were happening around then. So you would be able to sort of submit a, a little update on a transfer to your, to your newspaper website. And I know that I was at the Guardian at the time and they, they, they would be stuff like around that at the time, back then. So it was, there was a market there. And then you mentioned earlier the social media thing that, you know, Twitter at the time was, was becoming a big thing. So there were probably updates going on to Twitter from journalists before they were going to their newspapers, before they were going on online in the blogs even. It was a, you know, these days you deal with your employers first and then, then you do your personal account. But back then it was all a bit rogue and a new thing. So you put a tweet out about Liverpool's star player leaving now to join Chelsea. You put it out now, the burn would be something else. It would be the reaction to. It would be an explosion. It probably was a bit like that back in 2011, but maybe not quite to the extent, I'm not sure those LFC hashtags or CFC hashtags have maybe taken off to quite the same extent. At that point they were certainly becoming a thing. But, but the years that followed, I mean the yellow ticker, Jim White and his yellow ties and it was, it was moments like that, it was deadline days like that that made those worth it for a while.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Yeah, for sure. Well, let's get back to Fernando Torres because you know, as fate would have it, his debut for Chelsea, as we mentioned earlier, would come at Stamford Bridge against his old side Liverpool. We have all been looking forward to this. Super Sunday Part 2 Chelsea Liverpool in high definition and in 3D Liverpool were.

[Verizon]

Delighted to see him drift out wide as he has once or twice to try and get a touch.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Now Torres will fail to score in his debut and only scored once in his first 18 games at Chelsea in the remainder of the 2010-11 season. Don, given the excitement around signing him as we've spoken about on transfer deadline day, how quickly did that excitement fade the debut?

[Verizon]

I was also at Stanford Bridge that day. It was brutal. In terms of what the, the away fans sang, completely justifiably is that there was a sense of disappointment at what he'd done, a sense that he betrayed Liverpool. He didn't cover himself in glory that day. I think it was still 00 when he got substituted off and then Raul Moraes scored the winner for Liverpool soon after. But yeah, I'd say that it quickly became very clear that there was going to be some adjustment required here. He didn't have the Steven Gerrard supply line. The supplier at Chelsea at the time was Frank Lampard and he only really supplied Didier Drogba. It wasn't Fernando Torres, it was where Torres fitted in and you know he went 903 minutes I think without scoring a goal scored against West Ham and that was it for that first half season. That was all he managed and from then on every time and I, and I was guilty of this, I think I, I remember going on pre season that summer in 2011 and I think Torres put in a vaguely promising performance against some nomart team in China or somewhere and it was like you would. You were leaping on every little, every finish that you managed that actually hit the target or every little burst of pace that you showed on the pitch or a clever turn or a nice pass. You were sort of seizing on that as, oh, there's evidence. He's, he's on his way back. You know, this is going to justify the fee. It's going to get better from this moment onwards. But actually when you look at it, I mean, I must have written that piece about 100 times over subsequent two or three years. He scores against Manchester United early on that season in 201112 and you're thinking, okay, liftoff. Now subsequently in that game, he misses an open goal and it's like it brings it back down again. Ramirez through for Torres. No offside. Torres must score again. Oh no. A few weeks later, he scores against Swansea and you're thinking, oh, maybe this is liftoff in. Later in that game he gets sent off for a two footer tackle and that's the end of, you know, the suspension to sit out. And that is the reality of it. It never really ever takes off properly. When you look at his time at Chelsea and I've spoken to Chelsea fans even today, looking back at it, to ask them their opinions as to how he's perceived. Still, they all go back to the highlight of it being the camp, the Gary level squeal. The goal at Barcelona to equalize at 2 2. A brilliant, brilliant goal. A brilliant, brilliant moment. Also a moment that was utterly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things because Chelsea were already winning that tie on away goals at that point. That was just, that just sealed it. That made it 3:2 to Chelsea to go through to the, to the Champions League final. So even his highlight, even the biggest moment, and it was a glorious moment, it was an incredible goal. It was a stunning moment in the context of that Champions League run. Even that, though isn't quite the takeoff moment, isn't quite what it is. You know, what it should be in the final, he's a substitute and you know, he wins the champions league in 2012. And in the mixed zone after the game, he tells journalists that actually starting that game on the bench is one of the most disappointing moments of his life. So for all that he's won it, it's still not the moment that he wanted it to be that he'd hoped it would be. Following season, they win the Europa League, he does score in that game, so he's winning trophies, he won the FA cup as well. But, but each time it's not quite the perfect story that he depicted or he'd envisaged it would be. When he left Liverpool For Chelsea. I don't think he ever got double figures in a league season for Chelsea at league goals. He got 20 goals in 60 odd games in the year they got to Europa League season. So it's 12, 13 when incidentally it was Rafa Benitez who was the Chelsea manager for the second half of the season. And he was always the manager in English football that got the best out of it him.

[Simon Hughes]

Well, I think a lot of clubs are guilty of signing players that do well against them. And Torres always seemed to perform very well against Chelsea. You know, early on in his Liverpool career, I think maybe it was his first, his Anfield debut. He scored a fantastic goal at Anfield early on. Remember he sort of turned past Tal Ben Haim and slid the ball into the corner past Pet. And that was a classic like Torres goal. You know, he's at his best he was like a matador, you know, he sort of people charging beside him and he just sort of slide past them like they weren't there. And at his very best he was fantastic. I took a lot of pleasure watching him. It was just like so graceful. Even though, you know, I remember in his first summer when he signed for Liverpool, he's a record buy for Liverpool. Speaking to people, you know, after his first couple of training sessions and they were like, like this guy, you know, he didn't impress people early on at Liverpool. Certainly training sessions, you know, heavy touch. And I think with, with Torres a lot of it sometimes was about how he felt in his sense of place. You know, he's. He didn't really want to leave Atletico Madrid. You know, he was their absolute hero. But he realized he had to because they were, you know, much further behind, you know, than Liverpool. And the money that they took from that transfer they were able to reinvest might be wrong. Did they sign Sergio Aguero? Certainly Diego Forlan, you know, made the club stronger. And he comes to Liverpool where he felt that sense of place, you know, within the team, within the city, you know, was clearly very happy at Chelsea. When I spoke to him I certainly in 2016 he just felt like another player really. I think he was one of those players who liked to feel like he was the main man and he reacted well to. Whereas at Chelsea it was never the same. When he played for Chelsea always felt like his shoulders looked very stiff, very heavy footed. Just didn't feel the same. And he said that to me, you know, touching on what Dom said before. He said to me I got everything that I wanted from Chelsea in terms of a sporting sense. You know, I went because I wanted to win the Champions League, so I can't regret going there. But he said, did it happen in the way I envisaged it and did that make me happy? And he was, he sort of left, left it hanging as if to say, well, no, it didn't. I mean, when I did this interview with him, he's a very serious man. You know, he's not the sort of person you can have that much of a laugh and a joke with. You know, if I'm being honest, he took football and his life and his career very seriously, thought everything through. And I remember before the interview I was like, God, this, this guy does seem very nervous. You know, it was the first time he'd spoken about his exit from Liverpool and no, things weren't quite as they seemed. You know, he sort of felt like that the club had made it look absolutely like he was the one just pushing this all away when the club really were quite happy to cut him loose anyway. So I think he's quite a complicated person in a lot of ways. You know, very thoughtful when I analyze things and not the sort of person you just go on to the pitch and, and thoughtlessly play the game, if that makes sense. Some footballers are. But he certainly didn't look back on his Chelsea pitch. He looks at it as a period of success, but not a period of happiness.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Next we'll discuss the legacy of Torres move to Stamford Bridge.

[Verizon]

You're listening to the Athletic FC podcast with IO Accumulere.

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[Verizon]

This is the Athletic FC podcast with IO Akaminera. It's Torres to give Chelsea a place in the Champions League final. The headline has been written.

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Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Dom, as you've already referenced, there has to be no doubt that Fernando Torres's shining moment in a Chelsea shirt came at the NOU camp, sealing their passage to the 2012 Champions League final. Simon also just mentioned Torres sense of belonging at Liverpool. How did that dynamic work at Chelsea?

[Verizon]

You have to remember what he was coming into at Chelsea in terms of the strong characters in that dressing room. And everybody always goes on about Terry and Lampard, but Drogba was still a player that felt he had more to offer. He'd just come off his most prolific season in the year they won the championship. Okay, things hadn't gone quite so well in the second year under Ancelotti. I think he'd had malaria actually. But he was still the main man. He was the man that Chelsea relied on. And Torres coming in not particularly fit. Not a fave with the way that the team played. It was difficult for him to forge a partnership with Drogba. Definitely. Drogba worked well with Salomon Kaluu, he worked well with Nicolas Andelka previously and he was the main man. So for him to sort of wrest that mantle away from Drogba was virtually impossible. And then from the moment that Drogba actually leaves on the back of Munich in 2012, Drogba goes off to China, Chelsea go and spend 32 million pounds on Eden Hazard and he's suddenly the main man. He's the one that everybody's excited about. And at that stage, it was very difficult for Torres to reinvent himself as a successful signing, I think, at Chelsea. The other weirdness about the whole move is the effect that it had on the managers of Chelsea. Ancelotti goes in the summer of 2011, Andre Village Boas comes in, Roberto Di Matteo on the back of him, Rafa Benitez comes in next and Mourinho comes back. Each manager was under pressure to get the most out of Fernando Torres, each of them. And other than Benitez, who was a temporary manager who was never going to stick about beyond the end of that season because, not least because the Chelsea fans weren't having him, each of them failed to get the best out of Torres. I think Ancelotti suffered badly, actually, weirdly, by playing Torres from the start in both legs of that quarterfinal of the champions league in 2011. And I think he took him off in the second leg at half time. And that's such a. No, no, that is. That is him almost the owner of the club who wants this man, this glamorous signing, to work. This bloke isn't up to it. And it became a political issue at Chelsea. Managers came in and they were. They were asked about it in their first press conferences. How did you get the best out of Fernando Torres? How'd you get him performing like he was at Liverpool under Benitez way back? And none of them came up with an answer.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Simon, that transfer to Chelsea, do you think it tarnished his legacy from a Liverpool pushback to.

[Simon Hughes]

It certainly did for a long period of time. He eventually returned to Liverpool five years later. I think this was at the point he'd gone back to Atletico Madrid. It might have been. Actually, after I interviewed him, he actually opened up and gave his side of the story. I think people responded to it. I'm just trying to gauge it on how people responded to that being published. And I think it prompted a lot of people to think, well, actually, I can understand a little bit more about why he made this decision, but I also think it almost helped his Liverpool reputation by the fact he didn't have a great time at Chelsea. It's not like he went to Chelsea. Yeah, he went and won, but he didn't Have a great time. He didn't enjoy himself. So I think that helped more people around when it came to their thoughts about him. Remember he came back to Anfield for a charity match, he got cheered for the first time and you know, he smiling at Anfield for the first time and in four, five, six years. So I think now people, there's enough water, enough time under the bridge for people to look back at his time at Liverpool with positivity because of how good he was for that first 18 months. But I think also, you know that there are other players who've since left the club in quite controversial circumstances, whether it's Raheem Sterling or Philip Coutinho, for the ire to be turned towards them, if that makes sense. And of course we know recently what's happened. Don't say it.

[Verizon]

Don't say it.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Simon.

[Simon Hughes]

So, so, so, so. Yeah, I mean I, I think people now focus more on the player. As for the Premier League, it's difficult, isn't it? Because his best period in the, the Premier League as I say, really is diluted into a relatively short period of time. Sure, you know, there were players, center forward strikers who've maybe not produced the same number of goals but the same level of performance over a much longer period of time who probably deserve to be regarded as better, better strikers. But all I can say is at his very peak, you know, Torres was one of the best I've seen.

[Verizon]

Here's Torres early strike.

[Simon Hughes]

Oh my word.

[Verizon]

Absolutely magnificent.

[Simon Hughes]

Maybe the problem for him is he, he's succeeded in a consciousness by whether it's Liverpool Premier League sort of thinking by Luis Suarez who, who has a huge impact on the Liverpool team. You know, he, you know, for all sorts of reasons, good and bad, but you know, such an overriding personality and story around him that almost Torres gets forgotten a little, not forgotten. But the Suarez story is such a major one and becomes such a major one at Liverpool for a long period of time. The, the glory and the excitement around Torres's 18 months is forgotten about. I mean one thing when I speak to my, my friends about in terms of the actual impact of his decision to go, maybe it's an age thing, but there's a lot of lads who sort of almost say a little bit of romance died in him the day he left Liverpool. It was sort of a reminder that this is a cutthroat business really. And despite what all the players say about the love and where they are, you know, I know they get moved around like commodities sometimes, but they choose to go as well very quickly when they don't quite fancy it anymore. And it just made them realise just how ruthless and how short term football is really. So I think since then people, certainly Liverpool fans have become a lot less attached to individuals and realigned it more with the team. But then I think what has helped out as well is that subsequently under Jurgen Klopp, I think they've been bigger players, but the star was the team and the way the team functions. And the Torres period was very much of its time in the sense that Liverpool relied on Gerrard and Torres and these did have good other players, but they were the stars, you know.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Okay, well, I was just thinking about his time, especially those early days at Liverpool. You know, only Haaland Shearer and Andy Cole and Van Nistel have scored their first 50 Premier League goals in fewer games than Fernando Torres managed at Liverpool's 72 games. So I mean there's some big, big names there, right? Dom, let's wrap this up because Torres is by no means the only big money center forward to fail at Chelsea in the Premier League era. Sutton, people forget that. Andrey Shevchenko, Alvaro Morata, Romelu Lukaku, I think to a certain degree as well. And Pierre Emerick, Aubameyang, apart from Shevchenko, they all wore the number nine. You know where I'm going with this? Is it cursed?

[Verizon]

Maybe Chelsea fans would say that, but some of them might anyway. But I think it's probably a bit more nuanced than that, to be perfectly honest. There's a lot of those players were bought. Some of the older heads, including Torres, people who came with reputations were Abramovich sidings that that he wanted to add a bit of glitz and glamour to his team and it was a plaything for his ownership. Money was no object really. This is the days before PSL. We've made a big thing of the 50 million pound fee paid for Torres. But you know, for Abramovich at the time that was the drop in the ocean. It really didn't matter how much money they were paying on it. There were certainly no implications in terms of potential point deductions from the Premier League or any of that. That predates all that. But I mean, they've had some successes as well. You would argue that, you know, Drogba is obviously the most successful striker that they've had in the modern age. I guess you could say Diego Costa had a real impact in his time there. Hernan Crespo had his moments and is Often, you know, much he's maligned, but unfairly so. He was actually decent in the times he played in the team. I mean, I spent my time covering Chelsea during Torres's time there and I was underwhelmed by what he did. But actually I think he's a bit of a cult figure amongst, amongst Chelsea supporters. I think the die hard, some of them probably still appreciate the fact that he played a part, a small part, maybe not the part of a 50 million pound record signing, but he played a small part in some pretty memorable successes. He was in Munich, he was in Amsterdam for the 2013 Europa League final. I suspect given the rivalry that existed between Liverpool and Chelsea at the time, regardless of how well he did in a Chelsea shirt, Chelsea supporters would have reveled in taking someone away from Liverpool who was loved. And I think that's what they did at a time when, as I say, money was really no object.

[Ayo Akimwaleere]

Yeah, for sure. Let's also not forget Fernando Torres, World cup winner and European champion as well. All right, gents, thank you so much for your time. Dom and Simon, your insight has been brilliant. So thank you guys for listening. Let us know what you thought of this episode and also the series as well. We're back with more Transfers that Shook the world soon.

[Verizon]

You've been listening to the Transfers that Shook the World here on the Athletic FC Podcast. The producers were Guy Clark and Lucy Oliva with sound designed by Jay Beal. The executive producer is Adie Moorhead. To listen to other great athletic podcasts for free, search for the Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. The Athletic FC Podcast is an athletic media company produced the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

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