Should we feel smug? Yes probably
Should we feel optimistic? Definitely
Should we feel hatred? Absolutely not
Torres has left us but is struggling in his early weeks at Chelsea. His body language hasn’t changed much since the move and he’s finding life at Stamford Bridge more difficult than perhaps he or his new club imagined.
Smugness on our part and a sense of “it serves you right” is natural. We should also be delighted that we have a manager and (now it would appear) owners who reacted to the transfer in exactly the right way. Torres’ £50M valuation was likely to go only one way in the future and it is incredible that we got this amount for him based on his form and injury record over the last 12 months. The board clearly realised this, chose to cash in on a depreciating asset and credit should be given to them for doing so.
Our optimism is founded not solely on the return of King Kenny but once again on the willingness of the owners not to sit on a nice £50M influx of cash into the club but to spend all of it and more within the same day. They could have felt in the midst of an almost lost season that they might as well wait until the summer and perhaps get the same players for a little less. There are many reasons why it was right to act immediately and it is so reassuring to finally have owners that appreciate what is needed and act with urgency.
Whatever we feel about Torres leaving we have to admit as he himself has stated that we have been a club in a mess over the last 3 years. If Fenway had arrived 1 or 2 years ago perhaps things would have been different and we could have built a team with Torres being part of it. That wasn’t the case and we can quite rightly vent our annoyance at the 2 clowns who are dragged us down into a club not capable of challenging at the very top level.
We can’t expect Torres to have the same loyalty as local boys Carragher and Gerrard. It is simply a sign of the times that we have overseas players that give their heart and soul to the club when it suits them. Those who do show the same kind of loyalty are sadly in the minority. Let’s just hope that we have a few in our team, Reina amongst them!
To detest Torres now is to disregard all the great moments he gave us whilst at Anfield, some of which would be difficult to forget, particularly against Man Utd and Chelsea. It is difficult to stomach that it was one of our fiercest rivals that made the successful offer to take him from us. Surely though, our feelings for Chelsea don’t come anywhere close to those for Man Utd. Imagine just how painful it would have been if he had moved there instead. We would hope that an offer more than Chelsea’s would not have persuaded the board to sell to our arch rivals. Perhaps we will have to keep our fingers crossed that this is the case in the summer should they come sniffing for a certain keeper.
Let us remember Torres for what he did but look positively for the future. He’s gone, it was the right time for him to go and we’re certainly in a better position with Suarez and Carroll instead.