FOR the first time since his controversial departure from Liverpool to Chelsea in 2011, Fernando Torres has given his side of the story.
In Simon Hughes’s new book Ring of Fire, which is released next week (Thursday, August 25), Torres exclusively catalogues the events that led to a British transfer record being broken and in turn, his own legacy at Anfield being shattered.
This was a period in Liverpool’s history when nothing was as it seemed. Here, Simon explains to The Anfield Wrap why that was the case.
I’VE been watching House of Cards. For those of you who haven’t seen it but would like a glimpse into how many (if not all) major football clubs tend to operate — or any other sports institution for that matter — it is worth getting hold of the box set.
The only thing is, House of Cards is a political drama set in the White House around a Machiavellian character called Frank Underwood, who is played by Kevin Spacey.
Spacey portrays a democrat from South Carolina who, after being overlooked for appointment as Secretary of State concocts a scheme to propel himself into a position of greater influence through a process of systematic ruthlessness and manipulation, while aided by his equally ambitious wife.
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND – Saturday, January 22, 2011: Liverpool’s Fernando Torres in action against Wolverhampton Wanderers during the Premiership match at Molineux. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The line from the first series that reeled me in came from one of Spacey’s delicious inner monologues at a moment where he is planning on using a junior reporter to gain leverage on a rival.
He realises it is “unwise to make decisions so soon after sunset and so long from dawn” and convinces himself to wait until the next morning to take the decision of his next step, which proves to be the right one for his own advancement.
Now, from here, the House of Cards football analogy is two-fold. Fernando Torres certainly does not share the same raw personality traits as Frank Underwood. I interviewed him several times when he was a Liverpool player. Though at the time you could see he was career driven, I considered him to be shy, modest, talented, honest and sometimes brooding.
Frank’s line about the sunset and the dawn, though, explains why Torres has chosen to speak now — rather than five years ago when he departed Anfield. Torres admitted to me that he had wanted to talk freely about the circumstances that led to his acrimonious exit for some time but being a Chelsea player made that impossible because there were pangs of remorse and a wanting of his life to return to the way it was between 2007 and the first half of 2009 when he and Steven Gerrard were irresistible together.
He did not argue with me when I suggested he performed as a Chelsea player like someone who could not forgive himself for making the wrong choices even though he achieved what he set out to do when he decided to go through with the move. “Win trophies.”
As 2009 rolled into 2010, indeed, Anfield and Melwood was like the White House in House of Cards, only dysfunctional versions which worked for nobody.
Torres had signed for Liverpool because leveraged investment had made it possible. While he became a legend, behind the scenes Liverpool was a mess with very few people serving the club’s interests above their own. Had Liverpool won the 2008-09 Premier League title, it would have been one of the great sporting miracles, as Rick Parry, the former chief executive reflects elsewhere in Ring of Fire.
Under feuding owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, auditors KPMG had expressed “material uncertainty” about Liverpool’s ability to continue as a business as a going concern for the second successive year and Torres was dismayed by the decline in results.
Liverpool were out of the Champions League, Rafael Benitez, the manager he’d signed for, had been sacked, and Torres wanted to know whether it was true that he would be sold as the club attempted to deal with its highly publicised financial problems.
From here, there is an accepted version of events: one that suggests Torres asked Liverpool to consider an offer from Chelsea before verbal and written demands forced the move through.
I outlined in my proposal to Torres that a book would offer the opportunity for him to look back at his time at Liverpool with enough space for context to play a major role in the story, unlike a newspaper interview where word counts sometimes mean limitations.
Torres accepted my request that we meet far quicker than I expected. So I flew to Madrid in March sensing that maybe his take might be a different one.
You can read the much longer story next week when the book is released. There is more to the Torres interview than just the nature of his departure. But the short of that particularly thorny issue follows here.
Torres’s sense of frustration was sharpened when Liverpool sold Javier Mascherano to Barcelona despite being assured only a month before that in order for a takeover to be completed, the club would need to keep its best players. To establish that, he had met with Christian Purslow on holiday in the aftermath of the World Cup held in South Africa.
When New England Sports Ventures (later to become Fenway Sports Group) acquired Liverpool in October in a purchase that Hicks would infamously label “an epic swindle,” it was soon announced that Liverpool’s structure would change, with a sporting director primarily dealing with the recruitment and sale of players. Damien Comolli was hired to the role, having achieved varied success at Tottenham Hotspur.
Torres recalls a meeting in the November: “Comolli told me that the new owners [FSG) had an idea of how to spend their investment. 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 says he left neither meeting with Purslow nor Comolli believing he was wanted at Liverpool for reasons “only related to football”.
It was the fall-out from the consultation with Kenny Dalglish that proved to be defining for Torres, however. Dalglish had initially been appointed on a temporary basis following the sacking of Roy Hodgson.
Though Torres admits of his unhappiness and that the possibility of leaving was discussed during the constructive discussion that did not include his agent or any other representatives speaking on his behalf, this conversation only happened after Liverpool had started negotiating privately with Chelsea.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – Saturday, March 14, 2009: We’ve won it five times… Liverpool’s Fernando Torres reminds fans of his club’s European pedigree as he celebrates scoring the equalising goal against Manchester United during the Premiership match at Old Trafford. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Torres’s future was delicately balanced when it was then reported that he had “verbally requested” to leave Liverpool. He determined this information had come from a deliberate leak and that his position as a Liverpool player was untenable because of broken trust.
“It changed the view of everybody, including myself,” he said. “It was presented as if I was a traitor. 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.”
While Dalglish had not been a manager in more than a decade and was walking into a situation not of his making, FSG admitted to being baseball people and to taking lessons from mysterious sounding “pre-eminent advisors” about football.
A week after my meeting with Torres, indeed, the long running battle between Mill Financial, former owner Gillett and Royal Bank of Scotland revealed from a New York courtroom that back in 2010 when Mill were competing with FSG to buy Liverpool, that both Torres and Pepe Reina were viewed by FSG as being “probably beyond their primes”.
Following the madness and drain of the Hicks and Gillett era and then the drama of a takeover, maybe matters got out of control.
Or, perhaps, in Liverpool’s House of Cards, an aim was achieved in the end.
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He wanted to win trophies and didnt think we would. The club were willing to sell if the price was right. So no secrets that have come out in the wash then, thats what everyone thought wasn’t it?
Not a fan of the heavy-handed “House of Cards” analogy but fascinating stuff nonetheless. Looking forward to the book.
Is there any reason why the article is not titled: Liverpool and Torres: Torres’s version of the reasons behind the number nine’s Anfield Exit?
Not being facetious – it is a genuine question.
Purslow was axed from his remaining role at Liverpool shortly after that window.
Surely no one believes that was a coincidence.
I have been waiting to hear Nando’s side. Looking forward to reading more with the book. What was interesting was the line “.. that both Torres and Pepe Reina were viewed by FSG as being “probably beyond their primes”.” For Baseball people they were not too far from the truth. However, the heart pangs not to have ever seen Torres and Suarez together.
Good luck with book Si.
Whoever was at fault for the departure of Torres the timing was dreadful as I remember. Just two weeks before the January transfer deadline and at the time Liverpool where short of alternative strikers. They ended up paying a ridiculously over the top fee for Andy Carroll because Newcastle well knew that Liverpool had just received 50 mill for Torres and that time was running out to get in a replacement. Poor management really.
Torres and Pepe’s world class years were behind them tbf to FSG. A knackered Torres and Reina are still better than Carroll and Mignolet though and that’s the been the problem. Up to now we’ve replaced big players terribly.
Fascinating stuff. Loved Fernando … such an elegant and exciting player, run into the ground because of lack of suitable options (God knows what he was being injected with to keep him going as he returned from injury again and again, but suspect he won’t make old bones). Looking forward to reading the book.
Yes, we all know we spunked £35m on Carroll but the same Torres bobs also bought us Suarez so, really, is anyone complaining in hindsight? Of course he wants to present an alternative version of events; given the shambles of the previous six months to a year it’s hard to criticise him too much. But he left. And didn’t do too well having done so. Masch was the bigger loss.
Talk about revisionism, Torres was a wonderful talented player, who lit up Anfield and football for 3 years, lets not now start pretending he was anything different.
Scratch below the surface of most organisations from FIFA and the IOC to the banking industry and leading corporates and they are full of incompetent careerists and political players. I doubt Liverpool is alone in that maybe Simon could write a book on the insider dealings that led to Hodge and Fat Sam getting the England Job.
Was an amazing player for us and watched him score many wonderful goals but ultimately an enormous club with a colossal fan base of 580 mil has the capacity to see many great players come and go. Just think about this number again – 580 million – it is simply breath taking. YNWA
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/exclusive—580-million-reasons-7922473
I agree with EL NINO definately, he was right, liverpool couldnt build their team to yet, and he was 27 back that time, and even the fsg viewed and insulted Torres by saying “probably beyond their primes”, but moving to chelski asnt good either NINO anyway….. He’s back at atletico , doing good now, hopefully he can become the best player he once was, and yes he got all of his attributes including, pace, dribbling, passing, shooting, heading back, think carefully oof what u say, and injuries didnt ruin him, chelski did, the fans were takin crap on him when he was having difficult time, no matter what happens chelski fans shouldve stand by EL NINO by his difficult time, but noooo, and resulted in lost confidence, and was also spending most of the time in bench after 1 year, this liverpool fans who said, THANK GOD WE SOLD HIM, u clearly forgot what he did for ur team anyway, and chelski has history of ruining class strikers except Drogba and Gudjohnsen only…. Shevchenko, Ryan Bertrand(No playing time), Costa’s future undecided after 1 poor season, Pato on loan, spended most of the time in bench, Falcao(not given a single chance), lukaku(not given a single chance but he reccovered in everton just like EL NINO at ATM) etc…. No wonder I think what will chelski gonna do with so many strikers at once, they play 1 guy and ruin the rest, thats their plan…..
I concur with Liam Nick’s take.
If that’s as good a defence of his actions then it’s pretty insipid at best. Torres is one of our most overrated players ever. From 2007 to Jan 2011 he had 1 and a half decent seasons- and only because SG made him look better than he was. Without Stevie= Torres 2011-2016- average but sometimes good.
He was a sulker, constantly complaining of ‘no support’. Wanted to leave summer 2010 but convinced to stay as Luis was in 2013. Then new owners, new manager Dalglish, and new accomplice, Suarez was in place. Suarez deal signed mid January- Torres (after mitching out of home Villa game 2 weeks previously) HANDS in a written Transfer request to join the only club he was arsed to play well for in the past year- Chelski! A “Big Club” is what he said he wanted to join and “win trophies”! Yet we were in Europa etc. Suarez was cup-tied from Ajax participation. Our only other eligible Striker was N’Gog- and he knew it. SG, JC, KD etc. begged him to reconsider and wait for the summer at least but he wouldn’t. He hands in that request with 5 days before Deadline Day! 5 days to replace him with NOBODY in the CL or EL or decent PL placing going to consider letting their top strikers go. This forced us into a ridiculous scramble for any half promising striker from lesser clubs and Carroll’s star was rising with 11 goals for NU and the likes of AF and AW looking at him. Ashley held out for a golden opportunity to take most of the foolish Abromovich self-indulgence filthy lucre and Torres left to show the world what true quality he was but really wasn’t. He left our ‘family’ as he previously wrote in his picture book- left behind his heroes Dalglish and Gerrard and his ‘beloved’ Anfield and Kop for what?!! Measly money and narcissistic opportunities that found him out. I, like you all, loved and embraced his character, weaknesses and strengths when he put himself to the cause. But at the end of the day- he fooled us all and now feels as empty as we felt with his treacherous parting. I understand players leaving when the time is right and respect the likes of LS having to force his way out after giving as much to our cause on mutual agreement. Suarez has class, and Stevie’s like will never be seen again. But guys like Torres and to a lesser extent Sterling are egotistical lightweights who’ll never ‘get’ Liverpool. Good riddance to Torres and he may remark that we are where we were when he left but he hasn’t the intelligence to see that FSG always wanted (and twice tried before to get) Jurgen Klopp. We have him now and we aren’t where we were before- we are on the rise and deep down we know it, though still fearful of shouting it. This year will show Torres and his spineless likeminded money grabbers what LFC is all about. Simon Hughes should have challenged his lily livered excuses instead of letting him whimper nonsense to the world. That’s disappointing.
Lest we forget- he handed in a written transfer request 5 or 6 days before Deadline Day knowing Suarez had joined, Dalglish was Manager, Stevie had twice refused Chelsea, and WE HAD NO DECENT STRIKER ELIGIBLE TO HELP US WIN THE EUROPA. As Ricky Tomlinson might say “El Nino me Arse!! El Nano more like” :-)
Torres; intolerable. Easily forgotten. Let’s look to a great year and (Advancement by Klopp Techniques) – Vorsprung Klopp Technik!!
Peter
Not to mention we had just got rid of Hicks , Gillette and Hodgson things were looking up. Cant totally agree though Torres was a name before he came to us he just had to carry Atletico on his young shoulders.When came to us this burden was released and he flourished under Benitez.
We had his best years and probably ruined him playing him twice a week every week but he was a cracking player. Think back to some of the goals he scored Arsenal CL quarters jumps to my mind gave me somesome of the best nights of my life. I blame Hodgson tbh honest but i blame Hodgson for a lot of things, reckon he had a hand in Brexit the fucking bellend.