Chelsea Transfer News: Fernando Torres Deal Slaughtered by Sir Alex Ferguson

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has criticised Chelsea for paying £50 million to sign Fernando Torres from Liverpool in 2011.

Torres endured a torrid time with the Blues despite being one of the finest strikers in the world at Anfield. Ferguson, while acknowledging he made some bad errors in the transfer market, thinks the capture of the Spanish international was one of the worst of the Premier League era.

"Even [my] very worst are not in the same postal code as some of the biggest blunders in the Premier League,” Ferguson said in his new book, Leading (h/t Marc Williams of the Daily Star). “Such as the £50 million that Chelsea impulsively paid for Fernando Torres.”

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According to Williams, Ferguson cited the signings of Dimitar Berbatov for £30 million, Juan Sebastian Veron for £28 million and Louis Saha for £12 million as major errors. But over a managerial stint with United that spanned 27 years, there were always going to be some switches that never quite came off.

However, there are few who expected the transfer of Torres to flop quite so spectacularly. After all, the Spaniard left Liverpool after forging a reputation as one of the most dangerous forwards in the game. Here’s a reminder of why the Blues parted with £50 million to lure him to Stamford Bridge:

Ferguson himself admitted in his previous book, My Autobiography (h/t James Dickenson of the Daily Express), that he’d also looked at the prospect of signing Torres earlier in his career too. “We watched him [Torres] many times and tried to sign him when he was 16," he said.

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It just didn’t click for the striker at Chelsea. Torres went from being the focal point of the Liverpool attack to having to share the spotlight with figures such as Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. The goals dried up, his confidence sagged and Stamford Bridge never got to witness the player who had scorched his way around Anfield previously.

Now he’s at Atletico Madrid again for a second spell and has started this season much better. Despite boasting attacking talent like Antoine Griezmann, Luciano Vietto and Jackson Martinez, Torres has been the standout striker for the Rojiblancos this season, with two goals and an assist to his name in La Liga already, per WhoScored.com.

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As noted here by Infostrada Sports, it’s been a long time since the Spaniard bagged consecutive goals in top-flight matches in Spain:

You suspect that if Ferguson had the chance to pay £50 million in 2011 for Torres, who was still a football force of nature at that point, then he would have done so. But the longstanding rivalry between United and the Reds would have ensured it was a deal that was never going to happen.

The sharp deterioration of Torres remains a mystery and meant the Blues suffered a major loss on the player. But as Ferguson noted himself, sometimes quality players, for one reason or another, don’t thrive after moving clubs, and it’s a transfer faux pas that’s unlikely to put Chelsea off spending big money on star strikers in years to come.