Fernando Torres’ departure left a sour taste in almost every Liverpool fans mouth. The El Nino we all used to loved and bounced on the Kop for cheated us according to former Liverpool striker John Aldridge. How you may ask? Torres decided he wanted to leave Liverpool and stopped playing well and subsequently forced the club to sell him when he had made up his mind that he wanted to join Chelsea.
Aldridge said in the Liverpool Echo, “Once the window shut I never doubted whether Suarez would be fully committed. He doesn’t know any other way to play.
“He was never going to do what Torres did when he wanted out and cheat the fans.”
All too often in the game today, players start to sulk when they want to leave their club and as a result the club has to sell them as there is no point keeping a player that does not want to play for you.
Liverpool were almost caught in another Torres situation this summer with Luis Suarez. Liverpool’s number seven had said that he wants to leave the club in a bid to join a club in the Champions League. But the club refused to sell Suarez and rightfully so. Arsenal were the only club to table a bid which was a paltry £40million plus £1 which we rejected, meaning that Suarez was going no where.
Suarez could easily have cheated Liverpool fans like Torres, sulked and started to play badly but he did not do that. Instead, Suarez has come out all guns blazing this season and playing as if nothing happened in the summer as he continues to give his all to the club.
However, Aldridge fears that if Liverpool fail to qualify for the Champions League next season, Suarez may be off. Aldridge added, “Everything is going great at the moment but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fear we’ll lose Suarez next summer. No matter how much you get, how do you try to replace someone like him?
“Brendan Rodgers is building something and we’re improving all the time. I just hope Suarez can see that and he does agree to stay beyond next summer. If we get in the Champions League maybe he will sign a new contract.
“The bottom line is that a player of his calibre and quality deserves to be playing in the Champions League.
“If we don’t get in the top four then he will be off – I think everyone knows and accepts that.”
I guess we all fear that Suarez may just leave if we can not offer him Champions League football next season. But there is nothing stopping FSG from telling Suarez he will not be sold again as he is still under contract at Liverpool. It will be interesting to see how the club handle Suarez if we do not make the top four. Maybe this time Suarez may pull of a Torres and cheat the Liverpool fans.
I think Aldridge is overstating the case with Torres. I feel that Torres hadn’t fully recovered from a bad injury and had lost his form and goalscoring touch. Just lately he seems to be coming back to form, but I fail to see his current goal scoring setting the world on fire. We must not forget that his departure was also nearly three years ago.
He is only pulling up his socks lately because of the world cup he is a selfish tw.t
keith worrall@ Torres was injured a lot before leaving but he started playing with his head down and sulking somewhat. He’s a user plain and simple who only cares about himself.
Would fans welcome Torres back to Liverpool if he said sorry and Chelsea sold him to is for say 15m?
He should’n’t need to appolgise, he was let down by the owners,who did not put up money for Carroll until Torres put in his transfer request.
Torres was let down by the OWNERS who promised more players but bring them in! They also wanted to cash in on the 59 million.
So the fact that Suarez had already been bought to partner Torres wasn’t the owners bringing in new players? Granted the signing didn’t go through until Torres had departed but the deal had already been agreed. Had Torres stuck it out him and Suarez could have been devastating together, however he chose to skulk off and watch his career start to circle to toilet.
Good old company man Aldo, I thought he’d be crying cause his homeboy’s bars have gone bust. He was screaming to Suaurez to be off loaded but looks like he won him over, I’m just suprised he never managed to lay the boot into Skrts, Lucas or Enrique or is he only told to do that just before the transfer window opens ?
i wouldnt exactly say torres’ career has gone down the toilet. he may be as devastating as he used to be but he has still won the world cup, euro cup. champions league and europa league cup since leaving liverpool. mascherano won champions league, so did mareleis, xabi has also won trophies away from lfc. they were right to leave to be honest. that was a few years ago but lfc are on the up, if we get champions league place this year then we can go onto great things under BR. hopefully a couple of good signings in jan and go from there. ynwa
Completely different players and without knowing them, I’m sure are very different personalities.
Torres experienced his greatest purple patch to date – which I’m convinced will remain the case – at LFC.
He joined as a non-prolific goal scorer but with potential. With his natural speed and close ball control, the pace of the Premiership far better suited him than the more technical and tactical game in La Liga. More than that, he joined a team that was more mature and more experienced than the one he left. Over and above that, he was there for the prime years of certain Mr Gerrard who contribution towards Torres’ success at Anfield cannot be under estimated.
Suarez has never had the luxury of such a talent playing behind him at Anfield as age has changed Gerrard’s game and playing style and no else has been able to pick up that mantle. (Perhaps we’ll eventually see Mr Coutinho step up to the plate). Suarez successes on the field (to date) have for the most part been solely attributed to his own talent, much in the same way as Cantona, Zola, Bergkamp & Henry did for their clubs and in today’s game as Messi and Ronaldo week-in-week out for their respective clubs.
There may have been a period when Torres was considered one of the hottest strikers on the planet. But during that same period he played for arguably one of the greatest national sides in history – Spain ’08-present – who have been most famous for being successful without relying on any out-and-out strikers.
Suarez on the other hand is key for both country and club and I’m more convinced this will long be the case.
As individuals, it just seems that Suarez – rightly or wrongly – will do ANYTHING to win. Torres seems less bothered and this is often reflected by a defeatest attitude he portrays when things are working his way. Suarez appears to never give up!
But to say Torres cheated the fans is unfair. He did the best could while he could, which in truth ultimately wasn’t enough for LFC, the team and therefore the fans. In fact LFC did extremely well out Torres who repaid his debt by helping the team achieve regular CL appearances and then generated a huge ROI with his transfer fee.
And let’s be honest, if LFC don’t make the top four this season – and even if they do – Suarez could be on his way to Madrid next season or elsewhere……..Are we then gonna say he cheated the fans too?