Why I left Liverpool for Chelsea in 2011 – Fernando Torres

– Fernando Torres left Liverpool after the club revealed its future plans to him 

– The striker says he was betrayed by Liverpool who made him look like a traitor 

– The Atletico Madrid man was unhappy when the club sold Javier Masherano 

Fernando Torres has barely ever spoken about his ill fated move to Chelsea from Liverpool in January 2011.

The Spanish striker became a Red in the summer of 2007 and after three and a half years to become a Blue but his time at Stamford Bridge was uneventful despite winning the Champions League and Europa League.

He frequently missed simple chances and was the object of fun on social media.

In a new book by Simon Hughes entitled ‘Ring of Fire: Liverpool FC into the 21st Century – the players’ stories’, the striker said he had spoken with chief executive Christian Purslow in the summer of 2010 and later Damien Comolli after the Frenchman’s appointment as director of football in the November.

Torres wanted to know if he would be sold because of the club’s ongoing financial problems but was told the players would need to stay for Liverpool’s value to remain high ahead of a possible takeover but was left in shock as Javier Mascherano was sold to Barcelona shortly after.

New England Sports Ventures (later to become Fenway Sports Group) bought Liverpool and initiated a new structure with first Comolli’s arrival and then the appointment of Kenny Dalglish in place of the sacked Roy Hodgson.

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“Comolli told me that the new owners (FSG), they had an idea of how to spend their investment,” says Torres.

“They wanted to bring in young players, to build something new. I was thinking to myself, this takes time to work. It takes two, three, four, maybe even 10 years.

“I didn’t have that time. I was 27 years old. I did not have time to wait. I wanted to win. Here we are five years later and they are still trying to build – around the same position in the league as when I left.”

Torres raised the possibility of leaving during a meeting with Dalglish but the conversation only happened after Liverpool had started negotiating privately with Chelsea.

And once the player’s willingness to consider leaving become public, he thinks a leak from the club “changed the view of everybody, including myself”.

“It was presented as if I was a traitor,” says Torres. “It was not like this in the discussion(s).

“Liverpool could not admit they were doing something wrong with the whole team. They had to find a guilty one.”

Torres left Chelsea for AC Milan on loan in 2014 scoring just one goal but joined Atletico Madrid on loan also in January 2015 after his move to the Italian club was made permanent.

He has since helped the club to the 2016 Champions league final and regained some of his scoring touch.

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