# Fernando Torres, Chelsea's number nine #
So katstevens pointed out that posting this on a Friday night was a daft idea as nobody would see it. So I'll post it again this week. But comment on this post with something you think I should write an entry about, and I will write it. It could be short, it could be long. It could take me ages to get around to it. But I'll do it. GO.
embitteredpoet said "FERNANDO TORRES". And he wasn't the first to suggest something, but if I don't do it now, it won't be topical any more, and I won't want to talk about it any more.
So I'm using my Torres icon (well, one of them) for the last ever time; as I write this, the Liverpool website says that "Liverpool Football Club tonight confirmed they have agreed a fee with Chelsea for the sale of Fernando Torres."
So that's it - the era of the hero is over.
Because if this whole fiasco has taught me one thing, it's that hero-worshipping footballers beyond your adolescence is a mug's game.
We thought Torres was different. We thought he loved the club like we did - and loved us like we loved him. We thought he'd never go back on his word when he said he'd never play for another English club. But it turns out he was the same as everyone else - and not worth worshipping as some kind of "hero" or "legend" after all. He was just another footballer - a very good (at times) and very charismatic footballer, but another footballer all the same. It's his job - he doesn't have a divine calling to play for Liverpool and spend the rest of his life with the club and its adoring fans. He'll go where he feels is the best option for his career (and his bank balance), and right now he feels that's Chelsea. I think he's wrong (I don't think he's going to win league titles or Champions Leagues within three or four years with Chelsea - he'd be better off going abroad, or even *gulp* up the M62), but it's what he thinks, and he's entitled to go. I may be hugely upset at the manner of doing so - if he loved the club as much as he previous claimed, he'd wait until the summer rather than forcing them into a kneejerk act of replacement (and don't get me started on Andy Carroll) the day the transfer window shuts - but it's his career, not mine.
I fell head over heels for Torres when he signed, when he scored that first goal against Chelsea, when he had that phenomenal first season, when he helped us get within a gnat's chuff of winning the title in 2009. But it wasn't mutual. He was just doing his job. And it turns out there aren't any real, untouchable heroes in football at all.
Well, apart from Roy Race.
And Kenny Dalglish.
embitteredpoet said "FERNANDO TORRES". And he wasn't the first to suggest something, but if I don't do it now, it won't be topical any more, and I won't want to talk about it any more.
So I'm using my Torres icon (well, one of them) for the last ever time; as I write this, the Liverpool website says that "Liverpool Football Club tonight confirmed they have agreed a fee with Chelsea for the sale of Fernando Torres."
So that's it - the era of the hero is over.
Because if this whole fiasco has taught me one thing, it's that hero-worshipping footballers beyond your adolescence is a mug's game.
We thought Torres was different. We thought he loved the club like we did - and loved us like we loved him. We thought he'd never go back on his word when he said he'd never play for another English club. But it turns out he was the same as everyone else - and not worth worshipping as some kind of "hero" or "legend" after all. He was just another footballer - a very good (at times) and very charismatic footballer, but another footballer all the same. It's his job - he doesn't have a divine calling to play for Liverpool and spend the rest of his life with the club and its adoring fans. He'll go where he feels is the best option for his career (and his bank balance), and right now he feels that's Chelsea. I think he's wrong (I don't think he's going to win league titles or Champions Leagues within three or four years with Chelsea - he'd be better off going abroad, or even *gulp* up the M62), but it's what he thinks, and he's entitled to go. I may be hugely upset at the manner of doing so - if he loved the club as much as he previous claimed, he'd wait until the summer rather than forcing them into a kneejerk act of replacement (and don't get me started on Andy Carroll) the day the transfer window shuts - but it's his career, not mine.
I fell head over heels for Torres when he signed, when he scored that first goal against Chelsea, when he had that phenomenal first season, when he helped us get within a gnat's chuff of winning the title in 2009. But it wasn't mutual. He was just doing his job. And it turns out there aren't any real, untouchable heroes in football at all.
Well, apart from Roy Race.
And Kenny Dalglish.