[Xgenre]

I think Torres isn't such a traitor. Leaving Liverpool for another BPL rival is always hard to take but I guess only a BPL team will pay such a price for him. I'm sure if other teams in Spain (prob only Barca) will pay that price, he would have joined the other team instead of Chelsea. Don't fault the guy for wanting to join a team that plays in the Champions League. That's his career goal. We have our own career goals too right?

I really think he wanted to stay on for one season more to try to help us return to the CL. He could have left at the end of last season. I remember reading about David Villa saying that Torres is crazy to still want to stay with us. If he had left last season, it would have been worse for us as his transfer fee is likely to be swallowed whole by Hicks and Gillet. At least the new owners reinvested the money.

When he knew that we are unlikely to make it for next season's CL and that the new owners hardly make any real investment and that Chelsea made a trasnfer bid, he then made his transfer request. I think his point that we are a much weaker team is valid. We haven't replaced Alonso or Mascherano at all. Lucas, no matter how good, will never be an Alonso. Our backup striker then was Crouch (who's not bad.) Then it became Voronin last season and Ngog this season. That's terrible for a team with ambition. Even Spurs's 4th striker (palyuchenko) is better than Ngog.

John Henry said he doesn't care what price Chelsea paid, as long as it's $15 million pounds more than what we are paying for Andy Caroll. If you work out the math, the rationale for his statement is that he doesn't have to pay much to sign Andy Caroll and Suarez (given that Babel was sold). I think Caroll + Suarez's wages won't differ too much from Torres + Babel's wages too. So the question to ask for the new owners is 'Where's your money that you say you will use to improve the team?' How are the new owners better? Same what... also never add money to the team.

Recent reports also suggest that Chelsea and Liverpool have been talking for 10-12 days before Torres made his transfer request. So it's not really a last min transfer deal as we had initially thought, is it?

Personally, I would like to remember him with fondness. He gave me many moments of joy. Liverpool is just a job in his short term career. Without him, we would not be able to finish 2nd 2 years ago. Scoring 24 goals in his debut season, he made me believe we can sign good players. although we often sign crappy players at ridiculous prices like aqualani.

All said, his comments on joining a big club and never kissing the badge is quite crappy. I wonder if you guys watch Top Gear (the car show that is a British Institution). In England, any cool car driven by a footballer instantly becomes uncool. Their view of a footballer is a talented, overpaid, uncouth and uneducated guy. In other words, they don't really take what a footballer says seriously. Almost like a Himbo. I think we should view his comments likewise. Think about it, how many footballers will you associate intelligence with? Not many...