Has El Niño drowned in the English tide?

GBP 50 million.

Record transfer amount in the British Football history.

The fourth most expensive player in the history of the game.

All such news flashed all over the media when Fernando Torres was signed by Chelsea for a whopping sum of GBP 50 million from Liverpool on January 27. It seemed that Chelsea’s awful season would eventually end by the arrival of the prolific striker. Ironically, Chelsea lost 1-0 to Liverpool, the game in which Torres made his debut against his former club. He was nowhere near his usual lethal game and to avoid further humiliation, he was substituted midway through the game. Restoring further hopes in the striker, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelloti game him another start against local rivals Fulham. He had at least three good chances to win the game for Chelsea — and the old Fernando would have buried two of them. But his touch and confidence have completely deserted him. He ended up being substituted for the second Chelsea game in succession with chants of “What A Waste of Money” ringing in his ears from the Fulham fans.

With all these news and comments splashing around, the question is-Has Torres lost his shine?

Fernando Torres, fondly called as El Niño (The Kid) is considered as a world class striker who is quick, strong, impressive in the air, blessed with expert technique and is cool and collected in front. He has an impressive record right from his start of his career as an youth player with Atletico Madrid. He was handed the captain’s arm band when he was only 19 years old. Torres netted a total of 82 goals in 214 appearances with Atletico when he joined Liverpool for a fee of GBP 25 million. He also flourished in the Liverpool jersey becoming the fastest to score 50 goals for the club. Basic record apart, he has got a whole lot of very impressive records to complete the statistics.

Since the knee injury he took up last April, Torres has never been up to his usual best. Despite scoring occasionally, he has been in form like the old Torres used to be. With Chelsea restoring faith in him and bringing him to Stamford Bridge (although they needed someone like Torres to restore their awful campaign this season), Torres has yet not impressed with his fury of goals. The uncomfortable truth is that, at this moment, it is hard to justify the Spaniard starting ahead of the old firm of Nicolas Anelka and Drogba. And the loss to Liverpool showed the boss can’t play all three. Then there is the pressure on Torres to maintain his place in Spain’s all-star side, with the young bucks snapping at his heels now. Plus, the huge British record transfer fee only adds to the burden of expectation.

Perhaps a bunch of good looking goals in a few games will restore his confidence and bring back the old Torres which everyone loved to watch. But until that happens, these are worrying days for the player, Chelsea’s fans and a manager who must be wondering if he has bought an GBP 50 million problem.

According to my verdict, he is simply suffering from fatigue and a low confidence. He has not had a break for the past three summers with the European Championships, Confederations Cup and World Cup. Anyways, a good player never becomes bad player overnight!