Fernando Torres Must Forget Liverpool and Focus on Chelsea

During England's friendly against Spain last Saturday, certain sections of the Wembley crowds reserved their boos for one particular individual on the pitch that evening.

It wasn't Sergio Busquets, the ever-willing pantomime villain who has won few friends outside of Catalonia for his devious scheming and gamesmanship.

And it wasn't John Terry, the divisive England captain currently embroiled in a racism row at a time when the issue is currently casting such a shadow over the game.

No, the boo boys were out in force for Fernando Torres when the mild-mannered Chelsea striker took the field as a second-half substitute; and repeatedly from then on with barely diminishing veracity every time he touched the ball. 

The alarming thing about the reception for the most expensive player in British football was that its root lie with a club issue. No one other than the Liverpool fans in attendance had any reason to give him such a hostile welcome, and yet it felt as though an entire nation was on his back.

There was clearly a large contingent of Anfield-supporting fans in north-west London that evening. Further proof of that was in the warm applause afforded to Spain and Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina when he went for a jog up the touchline on the first half, even though his own country's fans were camped in the opposite corner of the ground.

It is an animosity which is deep-set in the red half of Merseyside, but it one which the European Championship and World Cup winner is unable to sympathise with.

As he told Spanish sports daily Marca Friday: "The abuse I will get (on Sunday at Stamford Bridge) will be worse than I received at Wembley.

"Liverpool's fans have stuck with the story the club gave and they don't know the real story.

"I don't feel bitter towards them, they will always be special for me."

But, here's the thing: why should he feel he is deserving of such abuse?

Here is a player who scored 81 goals in 142 appearances for Liverpool; a player whose outright mugging of Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic took the Reds to the brink of the title in '09. 

At that time, it would have taken a rather solid argument to decry his right to deserve the tag of being the best striker in the world. 

Against his current employers, for example, he scored seven goals in eight games for the Reds.

He had his problems with injuries, but so has Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, and without any such scrapes with the law as beset his former attacking partner.

Like Gerrard, Torres was made club captain of his boyhood team at a young age (in his case, while he was still a teenager in fact).

His £50 million move from Anfield to Stamford Bridge caused much consternation at the time, but seeing as he had already left the city and club he called home, why would leaving another side be seen as such a betrayal?

With the British record fee Torres brought in for Liverpool, they bought Luis Suarez—an exceptional talent who had been a long-term target—and Andy Carroll.

The wisdom of the £35 million purchase of the young target man from Newcastle will remain open to question for a long time to come, but never has the concept of "net spend" been so eagerly embraced by one particular set of supporters.

They may have felt vindicated when they saw their team defeat their former hero's new side in his debut against them, but such an apparently moral victory rings rather hollow. After all, Torres left Atletico Madrid because of one particular coach, another who continues to be denied the fair dues he deserves from his time at Anfield.

"I owe so much to Rafa Benitez, no one understood me like him," Torres also stated to Marca.

"He's a great coach. His teams go out with just one thing in mind: compete.

"Even with a smaller budget his teams can compete with the best."

It is getting on for a year since Torres made the switch from the north-west of England to west London, but he is still yet to produce anything like the form he showed so prolifically for club and country while with Liverpool.

But the very fact his scoring form remains such an issue shows both just how good he was at his former club and the belief in all quarters that he is capable of recapturing his former glories once again.

That must account for at least part of the reason he was given the dogs' abuse at Wembley; fans simply do not boo bad players in the manner that they heckled Torres.

He is, however, running out of opportunities to repay the patience shown him by his current paymasters and all other observers, and appears to be sabotaging any shots at redemption he is creating for himself.

He scores a goal at Manchester United, only to miss a golden opportunity with an open goal in front of a grateful Stretford End in the same match.  In his next game, he netted a well-taken opener at Swansea, only to be sent off 10 minutes later for a lunging, two-footed tackle that was as shocking as it was uncharacteristic.

Torres then scored a Champions League brace, only for it to be inevitably trivialised as one which came against insignificant opposition.

Now, after an international break in which he saw minimal action, he needs to focus fully on squaring himself with the club he now plies his trade with, rather than the one which castigates him so willingly now after serving four years of distinct service.

When Liverpool come to visit Chelsea Sunday, he should not have thoughts of revenge or vindication on his mind—he should only be concerned with doing what he does best: scoring goals.

In the aforementioned interview he said one more thing which was telling.

"Against Liverpool we can't allow ourselves to drop more points," he said, momentarily being all business, before adding: "It will be special."

If it is special, and it should be because of his achievements in a blue shirt, not because he feels he has to justify abandoning the red one.