Jury Out On This January Transfer (Video)
Managers say there is no value in the January transfer window whatsoever and 2012 showed that, Papiss Demba Cisse’s £10 million move from Freiburg to Newcastle United was the biggest fee paid by a Premier League side but 2011 was a whole different story.
January 31st 2011 was the day Fernando Torres went from adored to most hated in Liverpool, it was of course the day the Spaniard swapped Anfield for Chelsea.
Four days earlier Liverpool had rejected a £40 million offer from Chelsea for Torres but on the 31st, transfer deadline day, accepted an increased £50 million offer. Ironically, the first game ‘El Nino’ played for Chelsea was a 1-0 home defeat to, you guessed it, Liverpool.
As with any big money move the spotlight is on the player and the intense scrutiny on Torres may have had some effect on his form, he endured a torrid 903 minute goal drought before scoring his first Chelsea goal against West Ham.
This really has been the story of Torres’ Stamford bridge life, goal droughts are a regular occurrence broken by the odd purple patch, 24 goals in 94 games isn’t what Roman Abramovich will have been hoping for after writing his £50 million cheque.
Torres scored a famous goal in Chelsea’s history against Barcelona in The Nou Camp in their backs to the wall Champions League semi-final victory but he may be remembered for a howler of a miss.
Sam Jewell
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