The curious case of Fernando Torres

The rise and fall of Fernando Torres has been well documented, to say the least. As a promising youngster at Atletico Madrid, Torres had 6 fruitful years in which he became a club legend and saw his stock rise in the football world meteorically. It wasn’t until 2007 (when he went to Liverpool) that Torres became a household name all over the world. In Liverpool, everything he touched turned to gold – the drop of the shoulder, the amazing burst of pace, the clinical finishing – all of it saw him becoming an instant fan favourite. It looked like nothing could go wrong.

January 2011 was a monumental month in El Nino‘s life, as his transfer to Chelsea broke a million Liverpool hearts and the Premier League transfer record. Torres supposedly joined Chelsea in search of trophies. 2 years down the line, his CV boasts of a Champions League triumph and an FA Cup victory, but at what personal cost have those trophies come? For most part of those 2 trophy winning campaigns, Torres was just used as a bit-part player with Drogba being the focal point of the Chelsea attack. The 2011 -12 season saw Torres going an incredible 1080 minutes without scoring a goal.

However, the 2012 summer transfer window saw Drogba leaving and more importantly, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Marko Marin and Victor Moses were all brought in to change the style of football Chelsea played. Chelsea was now playing in a free flowing manner which was supposed to suit Torres more than the slow passing of the Chelsea of old, but midway into the season we have only had glimpses of the magic which he could create so effortlessly at Liverpool, day in and day out.

Something has been missing since his transfer to Chelsea – the pace has dropped down, the finishing looks shaky and generally there seems to be a conviction missing in his play. Now, with the arrival of Ba to Chelsea, this may be the last chance for Torres to prove to all of us that his considerable talents have not deserted him. With Benitez at the helm of Chelsea for the rest of the season, Torres needs to find his goalscoring boots quickly and exorcise the demons in his head.

This season may define whether Torres is remembered as a goal scoring hero or a player who promised so much but delivered little. All is not lost though, and if Benitez gets Torres firing again, many more more titles might well be heading to Stamford Bridge in the future, and Torres may yet go on to play a vital role at Chelsea Football Club.