Fernando Torres

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

To single out Torres as oppose to any of our other strikers is a bit rash. In comparison to Eto'o, Torres is a world class striker. You can't expect Torres or any of our strikers to score as much as say Suarez for instance. He carries liverpool. Torres is a player who likes running onto the ball, playing into space. Chelsea in all honesty play in an opposite way to which Torres likes. Like he admitted in an interview, he is the one who has to adapt and I agree that he has had long enough to do this. There are so many reasons for the club (both on field and off field) as to why Torres is important.

Torres isn't a world class striker no matter who you compare him to. He's also not even in the slightest important to us. The sooner we get rid of him the better.

He's by far the worst signing we have ever made.

[oman43 45]

Torres isn't a world class striker no matter who you compare him to. He's also not even in the slightest important to us. The sooner we get rid of him the better.

He's by far the worst signing we have ever made.

Ok fair point, but all of our strikers are ineffective, so are we going to get rid of them all? He hasn't got a big, distributive ego has he? He isnt a problem in the dressing room?

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Ok fair point, but all of our strikers are ineffective, so are we going to get rid of them all? He hasn't got a big, distributive ego has he? He isnt a problem in the dressing room?

Yes, none of them are good enough to play for us. If possible we should get rid of them all, bring in a top quality striker in the summer and bring back Lukaku.

No he doesn't have an ego and no he's not a problem in the dressing room. He is however on £175k/week. So would be nice to get that off our books.

[oman43 45]

Yes, none of them are good enough to play for us. If possible we should get rid of them all, bring in a top quality striker in the summer and bring back Lukaku.

No he doesn't have an ego and no he's not a problem in the dressing room. He is however on £175k/week. So would be nice to get that off our books.

Don't get me wrong mate, I completely see your viewpoint. My reply above (the one you originally quoted) was aimed at a guy saying we should sell them, and meaning NOW as in January. We cant buy a class striker in January by the looks of it, or bring back Lukaku, so yes we have to keep him and the others at least until summer. Also the 175k/week thing is obviously a lot of money, i do not deny that, but on the other hand how much commercial money does Torres bring into the club? Plastic fans in asia and america for example, what name do they get on the back of the shirt? I aren't suggesting it brings in Torres wages back into the club, but it is a point worth making.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Don't get me wrong mate, I completely see your viewpoint. My reply above (the one you originally quoted) was aimed at a guy saying we should sell them, and meaning NOW as in January. We cant buy a class striker in January by the looks of it, or bring back Lukaku, so yes we have to keep him and the others at least until summer. Also the 175k/week thing is obviously a lot of money, i do not deny that, but on the other hand how much commercial money does Torres bring into the club? Plastic fans in asia and america for example, what name do they get on the back of the shirt? I aren't suggesting it brings in Torres wages back into the club, but it is a point worth making.

Not as much as you think. Chelsea only gets a small percentage on the sold shirts. Most of the money from shirt sales goes to Adidas and small percentage also to the store that sell them.

So he still costs us a lot more money then he brings in (both on and off the field).

[didierforever 7,349]

torres costs us more than 18 fucking million every season in FFP terms. but we should keep him cos he does not disturb the dressing room. seems fair to me.

[Tomo 21,733]

I hear you! There is a big difference between criticising players and just been stupid, he can fuck off support Man Utd. His opinion has no substance what so ever. I just love the fact that Torres whenever he plays, especially in the big games, he has attitude and a real determination to win, and to win for CFC.

What like the 5-3 Arsenal match when he hid after the first 10 minutes when things didn't go his way ?

Where does this Torres always work hard come from ? He does sometimes but even that is nothing Eto'o or Ba doesn't do, but when Torres has lazy days and he has more than his fair share off them he makes Berbatov look hard working.

[didierforever 7,349]

as much as it hurts, it still does not change the fact that among the 3 stooges, torres is our best bet (definitely for the united game).

the other 2 options are

BA - has not played a professional match for 2 or 3 weeks now. infact i really dont remember when he started his last game for us. match un-fit.

Etoo - has been disastorous so far. his workrate is definitely better than torres' but i think his finishing is worse (if thats possible). has lost his pace, his hold up play is worse than torres', and without ivanovic, i doubt we would retain any balls from goal kicks (but to be fair, dont think torres will fair any better against vidic).

compared to these 2, torres has been average. has been on the score sheet for the last 2 consecutive matches. has looked confident when running at the defenders and that might be important playing against defenders as slow as evans and vidic. so atleast for the united match, its torres for me.

[oman43 45]

Where does this Torres always work hard come from ?

In Jose's team if he didn't work hard, particularity in defence, he simply wouldn't play. There are always games were players seem to disappear, he is not alone in this category.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

MUST NOT START AGAINST MU

MUST START AGAINST MU

[Fernando 6,455]

Wow 600 pages of Torres.

From the excitement at the beginning pages, to hopefulness and then complete despair.

Yes sir, Torres has been one hell of a topic for the past few years.

May it long continue. :-)

[Jase 43,479]

Wow 600 pages of Torres.

From the excitement at the beginning pages, to hopefulness and then complete despair.

Yes sir, Torres has been one hell of a topic for the past few years.

May it long continue. :-)

Can't wait for this thread to be archived the day he's gone from this club...

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Just wait till Mourinho confirms that we open talk over new contract for this shit guy robbing money from Chelsea

[aerlgenx 49]

Whether we like it or not Torres is our main striker until summer...

[Tomo 21,733]

In Jose's team if he didn't work hard, particularity in defence, he simply wouldn't play. There are always games were players seem to disappear, he is not alone in this category.

Im not talking solely this season im talking his whole career here, his attitude at times last season especially was horrendouz, the West Brom away game under RDM he might as well have been playing hide and seek, if he wasn't anyway.

[Barbara 15,149]

I don't get why we can make things happen and get a midfielder - which we need almost as much as a striker - but Mourinho keeps saying he trusts, supports, likes Torres (he doesn't say much about Eto'o and I don't remember ever reading him complimenting Ba individually, he does say the old 'work hard strikers he can't criticize').

I think the strike position is even more urgent because through the good the bad we can defend most time and Oscar really makes up partially for the lack of a better passer and a player with a better vision in the pivot.

I'm not saying we should prioritize any striker over the Matic deal. We need both desperately, so I'm just questioning why we go out of our way to get a MD but we don't do the same about a ST.

Do you guys feel like someone in the club doesn't want to admit the failure the Torres signing was (out of pride) and sign a new top class striker? Because signing one midway through his contract is admitting publicly this was one of the worst business ever done in recent story of football (if not the worst). I don't get why we're so reluctant to sign a top player because it's clear both Ba and Eto'o were here to be a quick fix (and they couldn't be even that).

Another possibility is them trying to protect Lukaku's position, but that makes no sense given how we have no problems packing ourselves in the attacking positions. So while this would sound an acceptable reason - to try to avoid limiting his chances and consequently his development, which may lead or not to another loan - it just doesn't fit our profile.

It'll continue to be a mystery for me, but I do hope we get a top striker the next summer window. I don't have a problem with Lukaku having competition. We could have a top striker, he could be second choice and Torres - if still here (as I doubt Ba or Eto'o will continue to be) the third choice. I doubt we'll be able to offload Torres before his contract expires or is about to expire.

[Las7 951]

I don't think Jose has ever cared about "protecting" Lukaku - obviously he didn't rate him very highly when he arrived, if he thought Torres should be ahead of Lukaku in the pecking order at the start of the season. Since than they have had several jabs at each other in the media.

I think Lukaku needs to do exceptionally well against the top clubs like United; City; Arsenal; Liverpool; Tottenham etc in order for Jose to even consider him for the number #1 striker position at CFC.

In any case it appears that there is simply not a striker of Jose caliber available in the winter.

Torres has started brightly in 2014 but he is known for his purple patches and fading into oblivion. I think he has as many red cards against United as goals against them - hence he should not start.

Danny Welbeck has as many goals in the League as the combined total of Eto'o/Torres/Ba - our strikers are simply a joke and might be the thing which costs us the League Title. Mind you if we had an incompetent coach like the FSW this season I think we would have been scraping for 4th place instead of even being in a position to challenge.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Torres has started brightly in 2014 but he is known for his purple patches and fading into oblivion. I think he has as many red cards against United as goals against them - hence he should not start.

He also has 3 goals in his last 4 starts including crucial goals against Southampton and Palace and he leads our pressing game well. Maybe Eto'o starts after scoring against Liverpool (and then doing his best to gift Liverpool a penalty....maybe betting patterns in the far-east need to be looked at for that game) but Torres has done well recently.