Torres mega-thread

[Rushies tash]

Torres can fuck off as well.

[Scott_M]

15 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

FT "No, really, he said Trezeguet"

So, to force a move, what you do is basically give up for 6 months and then only turn it on against the club you want to buy you…

[Scott_M]

15 hours ago, dave u said:

Sick of the sight of him now, wish he'd fuck off and stop hanging around pretending he's some top red. The club socials fawning over him is pissing me right off. 

Completely agree. 

[Kevin D]

20 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

I’ve reached out to Robbo’s representatives and I’m quite willing to row back on the strength of my words if he only misses one game. I’m told he’s happy with this and will use it as extra motivation in his recovery.

 

6 minutes ago, Rushies tash said:

 

His shoulder dislocation wasn't his fault either. I think much of our frustration stems from our dislike of the international football calender as a whole - and how many players comeback broken. Especially when Arsenal's 'injured' players will no doubt trot out to start their game tomorrow.

Don’t want you boys taking it personally, I’m a Robertson enthusiast.

 

Spent quite a few Scotland games shouting at people telling me Tierney is the better option.

[Code]

[Section_31]

Torres is a cunt, he slagged us off on Chelsea TV so he can get doubly fucked. His whole demeanor changed, he's never been that lad again that he was when he was here. Something snapped in the lad, he never looked like he enjoyed footy again.

 

Had melancholy seeing him score though, he was a magnificent player.

[El Rojo]

6 minutes ago, Kevin D said:

 

Don’t want you boys taking it personally, I’m a Robertson enthusiast.

 

Spent quite a few Scotland games shouting at people telling me Tierney is the better option.

I love him too, that’s why I was pissed off with him for risking his fitness against League 1/2 opposition (and Conor Bradley) for no real gain whatsoever. 

[Scott_M]

3 minutes ago, Code said:

Could you post his stats from the Birmingham away and Wolves home game that season please?

[El Rojo]

15 hours ago, dave u said:

Sick of the sight of him now, wish he'd fuck off and stop hanging around pretending he's some top red. The club socials fawning over him is pissing me right off. 

The whole thing is mad.

 

It’s like we haven’t had several brilliant attackers and won a title, domestic cups and a European Cup since he left. 

[Kevin D]

11 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Torres is a cunt, he slagged us off on Chelsea TV so he can get doubly fucked. His whole demeanor changed, he's never been that lad again that he was when he was here. Something snapped in the lad, he never looked like he enjoyed footy again.

 

Had melancholy seeing him score though, he was a magnificent player.

It’s either been forgotten, or deliberately overlooked, that Torres went completely out of his way to ingratiate himself to us.

 

Every player does the “ooh this is my dream” dance, but Torres went above and beyond.

 

YNWA armband, joint interviews with Kenny and constant community outreach.

 

We are not stupid - see how we love, but also understand what Suarez & Mascherano  are - but this guy was screaming “I’m one of you”.

 

It is fucking bullshit that we’re now expected to say every player leaves, when he deliberately went out of his way to say that he wasn’t every player.

[Barrington Womble]

14 minutes ago, Kevin D said:

It’s either been forgotten, or deliberately overlooked, that Torres went completely out of his way to ingratiate himself to us.

 

Every player does the “ooh this is my dream” dance, but Torres went above and beyond.

 

YNWA armband, joint interviews with Kenny and constant community outreach.

 

We are not stupid - see how we love, but also understand what Suarez & Mascherano  are - but this guy was screaming “I’m one of you”.

 

It is fucking bullshit that we’re now expected to say every player leaves, when he deliberately went out of his way to say that he wasn’t every player.

The YNWA stuff wasn't done to ingratiate himself to us. It was something him and his mates used to say to each other as a support thing growing up. 

[Kevin D]

5 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

The YNWA stuff wasn't done to ingratiate himself to us. It was something him and his mates used to say to each other as a support thing growing up. 

His armband did not prove he was a red?

 

Are you now going to tell me we didn’t sign the lad from sunny Spain!?!?!!!?!?!!!!!!

[Tony Moanero]

I liked, and still like, Fernando Torres as he has world class freckles.

[Trojan1892]

Pure frustration in all honesty with Robbo and the amount of needless injuries we’ve had this season.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

34 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

The whole thing is mad.

 

It’s like we haven’t had several brilliant attackers and won a title, domestic cups and a European Cup since he left. 

It's surprising how little he actually means to me.  At his best he's just one of a series of truly magnificent forwards we've had in my lifetime; at his worst he's just one of a series of disappointments and gobshites we've had.  He's not the best of the former or the worst of the latter. Life goes on.

[Kevin D]

Remembering stuff like this is why I’m seeing my arse, just now:

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liverpool-legends-past-and-future-with-striking-similarities-cz553gtlzl7
 

No comparisons. The Kid makes it very clear. He does not want to be compared to the King. “As of right now, I haven’t done anything,” Fernando Torres says. “To tell the truth, I’m almost embarrassed to be here. Please, no comparisons.”

 

And what about “King Kenny”? How does it feel when, for half your life, people have called you a legend and treated you as a footballing deity? And what do you do when you come face to face with your supposed heir apparent?

 

“You’re only a legend in someone else’s mind,” Kenny Dalglish says. “As long as you’re not a legend in your own mind, there’s no problem. As for Fernando, people like to put you in pigeonholes, to categorise you, to compare you. But the most important thing is to be yourself.”

 

That is easier said than done because you cannot help but draw comparisons. To appreciate something you need a context, a frame of reference. And as you sit and share a table with these two talented men, you cannot help but notice the common ground.

 

It is not only that both are strikers, both have the star sign Pisces, both were Liverpool’s record signings, both have the ability to turn the Kop into a frenzied hive of humanity.

 

Or even that, less than 24 hours earlier, against Bolton Wanderers, Torres had delivered a finish that was uncannily similar to Dalglish’s famous match-winner against FC Bruges in the 1978 European Cup final: the same timed run, the same right-foot caress, the same gentle bounce just before crossing the goalline, the same helpless goalkeeper.
 

There is an obvious red thread connecting these two men – and that is what a club is about. Players come and go, but the shirt and the continuity remain. Torres plays with Jamie Carragher, who played with Robbie Fowler, who played with John Barnes, who played with Ian Rush, who played with Dalglish. And Dalglish played with Emlyn Hughes, who played with Ian St John, who played with Roger Hunt, who played with Ronnie Moran, who played with . . . Well, you can keep it going all the way back to Malcolm McVean, the man who scored the first goal in Liverpool’s history in 1892.

 

In that sense, Torres and Dalglish are torchbearers for the same 115-year-old tradition. They may bristle at comparisons – whether through modesty or good manners – but they understand the responsibility. “We are the ones who carry out the dream,” Dalglish says. “The dream that the supporters will never achieve because they can’t play. So they live through us.

 

“But we have dreams we can’t realise too,” he adds, after a quick glance at Torres’s wide eyes. “I always wanted to stand on the Kop. But I could never go there. I could only go there when it was empty. It’s funny, my son got to stand on the Kop. I left him with someone who took him in, looked after him and he got to stand there during a game. He got to achieve a dream that I never could.”

 

The words wash over you. You think about how a man such as Dalglish could miss something as mundane as a Saturday afternoon in the stands supporting his team. And then Torres pipes up, almost wistfully: “I’ve stood on the Kop. But also only when it was empty. And I would love it if, by the time I retire, I, too, will also be unable to go stand on the Kop.”

 

His grin is sheepish, but with a touch of mischief. The “no comparison” rule? It has gone. But then he knows all too well why he was asked to come here today.

 

Both men share the fact that they were supporters who got to live the dream. Torres’s was perhaps more complete. He got to play for Atl?tico Madrid, the club he supported as a boy, but Dalglish never played for his childhood idols, Rangers. In fact, as the story goes, on the day Jock Stein’s assistant came to his door to take him to Celtic, Dalglish frantically ripped all his Rangers posters off his bedroom wall.

 

When football becomes your profession, club loyalty goes out of the window. “When you play, it’s hard to be a supporter,” Dalglish says. “The exception is your country. That’s why I really enjoy Scotland games, because I can be the same as everybody else. I can be a fan.”

 

Your eyes flick to Torres’s face and you try to guess what he is thinking. The national team. Everyone pulling for their country. And how things in his country are different.

 

“In Spain, the clubs are far more important,” he says. “When I was at Atl?tico, whenever I’d go to the Bernab?u [the home of Real Madrid] with the national team, the fans would boo me because I was from Atl?tico. It’s a big problem. We’re all wearing the same shirt, but when you trained with the national team you would see the Real Madrid guys together, the Valencia guys together, the Barcelona guys together. And they’d go in hard in training, as if they were still wearing their club shirt.”

Torres’s voice trails away. Then Dalglish chimes in: “You know, there has never been a successful team that’s not had a good dressing-room. I mean, they don’t have to go drinking together, but the dressing-room is very important.”

 

Vestu?rio!” Dalglish repeats the word in Spanish, for emphasis. 

“We had a great dressing-room here [at Liverpool], we were real close. Even now there’s six of us who remain close. We play golf, we go out with the wives, we’re still very close. It’s special. That’s not a modern thing, is it? In 20 years’ time there won’t be six of you sticking around Liverpool, will there?” The words hang in the air. It is not an accusation. It is a statement of fact. Football has changed. Eight of Liverpool’s starting XI hail from outside Britain. Some things can exist only at a certain point in time. The world moves on.

 

Back to football. What happens when a superstar is having a stinker? What happens when nothing goes right? Perhaps you expect them to trot out some clich?, like “going back to basics”, or that they will defer to more inform teammates. But no, they respond with the same disdain. It is the indignation of those who are used to carrying the weight of responsibility. “I always want the ball, no matter how badly I’m playing,” Torres says. “Even if I’ve missed ten chances in a row I will want the ball. That’s what I’m there for. I’m not going to hide.”

 

Dalglish says: “Of course you keep looking and wanting the ball. You have to continue. Look, in the position Fernando plays, he’ll miss more than he scores. But it’s not the goals that are important, it’s the ones you miss. The more you miss, the closer you are to the next one. You have to think that way. And if you don’t have the courage to have that mentality, you’re not going to be playing at this level.”

 

You search for more common ground. And you find it. “I’ll watch Atl?tico because it’s my team,” Torres says. “But apart from that, I don’t like watching a lot of football. Although I do watch a lot, I don’t watch for enjoyment. I do it because I need to know the players and the opposing teams, I need to study and prepare for them.”

 

Dalglish’s face lights up. “I was much like Fernando,” he says. “I used to watch to see who I was playing against, to see the habits of the goalkeepers, the characteristics of defenders, see if I could learn something.

 

Later, I would watch if there was a player I wanted to sign, things like that. But now, well, it doesn’t grab me the way it did when I was a boy. I’m not really concentrating when I watch football.”

 

Having studied the game for 50-odd years – as a fan, player and manager – Dalglish is content to sit back and let the game be just that: a game. And maybe that is why he seems to be enjoying his time with Torres. The Spaniard’s disarming humility and confidence has brought him some joy. And, maybe seven years after leaving the sport for good, it feels good to reconnect, even for just a few hours.

 

As for Torres, there is more than a little of the student facing up to the master in his demeanour. He may have been embarrassed before arriving, but he is glowing at the connection that has been made.

 

“I learnt many things today,” Torres says when it is time to go. “I like the way Kenny is so accessible, he’s a normal person. He says he doesn’t feel like a legend, but the fact is that he is and that’s why his ‘normality’ is so shocking to me. You guys brought me here even though I told you that I’m not anywhere near his level. But I’m very proud that I’ve been able to spend time with him. And I’m honoured that he took the time to talk to me. Seeing someone like him makes me even more hungry to continue to work hard and, perhaps, some day, reach his level.”

 

Their eyes lock. Dalglish knows that it is his turn to impart some wisdom. “Today, footballers are criticised for the money they earn and for their lifestyles,” he says. “But Fernando seems to appreciate everything he gets.

 

“Fernando, this is a special club with special fans.” Dalglish is now talking directly to the young man. They may as well be alone in the room. “They love people who love to wear their shirt. But they’re not daft, they know when it’s real and when it’s just for show, kissing the badge and all that. They love to identify with people on the pitch. And I think they will identify with you very, very easily.”

 

 

 

[Kevin D]

Cutesy features in the Times alongside Kenny stressing he’s one of us.

 

Fuck him, he’s a duplicitous cunt.

[Dicko]

11 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Are you pretending Virg downed tools for Southampton?

I'm not pretending anything, it happened.

Ask Southampton fans about his performance levels after Liverpool showed interest.

[Dicko]

I wonder how many on here have forgiven Souness for far worse?

[Dicko]

.

[LFC 6 Times]

Can’t understand how there’s so much love for Suarez, Xabi and Mascherano. Torres was sensational for us and it genuinely a love affair. The sheer and utter state the club was in when he left I can’t blame him at all. It’s a shame it was to those Chelsea cunts.

 

You can tell he regrets his decision and the connection he feels with Chelsea is non existent. We all make poor decisions when we’re young.

 

I’m going to remember how he said the blonde hair, the long sleeves and white total 90s. Fucking electric.

[El Rojo]

6 minutes ago, LFC 6 Times said:

Can’t understand how there’s so much love for Suarez, Xabi and Mascherano. Torres was sensational for us and it genuinely a love affair. The sheer and utter state the club was in when he left I can’t blame him at all. It’s a shame it was to those Chelsea cunts.

 

You can tell he regrets his decision and the connection he feels with Chelsea is non existent. We all make poor decisions when we’re young.

 

I’m going to remember how he said the blonde hair, the long sleeves and white total 90s. Fucking electric.

In fairness, plenty on here have taken issue with the departures of Mascherano and Suarez and their roles in the same. Alonso’s was a little different - and easier for him - as it seemed Benitez wanted him gone too. 

Maybe it’s the international break, but the pushing of Torres by the club and others over the last week has been a bit odd.

[Barrington Womble]

7 hours ago, Kevin D said:

His armband did not prove he was a red?

 

Are you now going to tell me we didn’t sign the lad from sunny Spain!?!?!!!?!?!!!!!!

The rain in Spain falls mainly on san mames. 

[VladimirIlyich]

6 hours ago, Dicko said:

I wonder how many on here have forgiven Souness for far worse?

As a player? I dont remember Souness ever not trying as a player. The managerial stuff will never be forgiven by me.

[Dicko]

4 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

As a player? I dont remember Souness ever not trying as a player. The managerial stuff will never be forgiven by me.

But what he did was objectively worse by every metric.

I've forgiven both. But I just can't understand why some can laud Souness at the same time as lambasting Torres.