On 22/05/2019 at 19:39, Strider6003 said:

Torres was both psychologically and physically affected. He still tried and occasionally it came off and then he was used as an improvised winger for a while.

Jose was prepping him to be a winger in pre-season before he left, he was actually decent there and I actually wouldn't have minded if he stayed in 14-15 as a winger/wide striker.

I would've loved it if he got a PL medal too of course to shove it in the scousers faces

17 hours ago, big blue said:

9 league goals in 47 games for a price that would be £140m today, and we didnt get any fee for him and subsidised his wages while he went on loan. Cant call that a good signing.

He didnt miss too many sitters, mainly because his legs had gone and he didnt get many chances. 

Scored a cracker against villa in the 4-4, aswell as that screamer against spurs in the league cup. 

The competition did seem to propel drogba to new levels though. 

This was the key for me. Drogba just became a new player when Sheva arrived. Meant he wasn't always the main man or the focus of the play. That doesn't excuse the low rate of scoring of course.

Just checked Chris Sutton record. We bought him for £10 million in the summer of 1999, then sold him a season later for £6 million.

He just didn't seem to fit in to our style of play, or perhaps, the transfer fee and expectations were simply too much for him.

27 starts and 12 as sub scoring 3 goals. Just 1 goal in the League, in a 5-0 win over Man Utd.

I thought he would have been really good for us back then too.

 

 

Edited May 25, 20197 yr by erskblue

2 hours ago, erskblue said:

Just checked Chris Sutton record. We bought him for £10 million in the summer of 1999, then sold him a season later for £6 million.

He just didn't seem to fit in to our style of play, or perhaps, the transfer fee and expectations were simply too much for him.

27 starts and 12 as sub scoring 3 goals. Just 1 goal in the League, in a 5-0 win over Man Utd.

I thought he would have been really good for us back then too.

To his credit he has come out and said it was down to him, he was over-awed and it affected his game.

Whether he is right is another matter, I'm not sure he was technically good enough?

11 hours ago, sonic90 said:

Jose was prepping him to be a winger in pre-season before he left, he was actually decent there and I actually wouldn't have minded if he stayed in 14-15 as a winger/wide striker.

I would've loved it if he got a PL medal too of course to shove it in the scousers faces

I actually thought when he played there he offered something else too and looked dangerous.

Recalling I think he was mainly used a sub when playing on the wing and remember thinking the most expensive winger in the country is playing as a sub and will it last..................

4 hours ago, erskblue said:

Just checked Chris Sutton record. We bought him for £10 million in the summer of 1999, then sold him a season later for £6 million.

He just didn't seem to fit in to our style of play, or perhaps, the transfer fee and expectations were simply too much for him.

27 starts and 12 as sub scoring 3 goals. Just 1 goal in the League, in a 5-0 win over Man Utd.

I thought he would have been really good for us back then too.

 

 

I remember we were under pressure from the media at the time about the amount of foreign players we had, so i think that was a big part in why we went for sutton, over the likes of marco delvechio who we were heavily linked with at the time. 

8 hours ago, big blue said:

I remember we were under pressure from the media at the time about the amount of foreign players we had, so i think that was a big part in why we went for sutton, over the likes of marco delvechio who we were heavily linked with at the time. 

Fair points.

Voted for Torres, and it's fitting I do so on the day he's announced his retirement.

I always had a soft spot for Nando and loved what he did against Barca in the CL and his performances in the Europa League the following season.

Edited June 21, 20197 yr by Jezz

22 minutes ago, Jezz said:

Voted for Torres, and it's fitting I do so on the day he's announced his retirement.

I always had a soft spot for Nando and loved what he did against Barca in the CL and his performances in the Europa League the following season.

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same, so I wish him all the best for the future!

I would love to hear his own views on what he think happened to his decline as a player. The Chelsea medical staff said he passed stringent tests and there was nothing physically wrong with him, so was it just mental???

Torres was a weird case for me.

He was the only player I grew to really like while they were playing at a rival club, bit equally he's the only player I've ever grown to seriously dislike while they were playing for Chelsea.

3 hours ago, Dixons said:

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same, so I wish him all the best for the future!

I would love to hear his own views on what he think happened to his decline as a player. The Chelsea medical staff said he passed stringent tests and there was nothing physically wrong with him, so was it just mental???

I think he's on record saying he just didn't enjoy being in England and playing for Chelsea anymore. Like Morata things got too difficult for him overcome mentally and he wanted out. 

Torres will always be cherished imo. Of course he scored a hugely important goal and stuck it to Barca but I can't pretend part of me wasn't thinking my god he's going to f*** this up somehow before the ball went in. I loved the comedy of it all and how a player could look so different after changing clubs both in play and appearance (that buzz cut was...ooof) 

 Never going to forget this for as long as I live either. The bit where he looks around at the pitch afterward searching for something.... 

 

8 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think he's on record saying he just didn't enjoy being in England and playing for Chelsea anymore. Like Morata things got too difficult for him overcome mentally and he wanted out. 

Torres will always be cherished imo. Of course he scored a hugely important goal and stuck it to Barca but I can't pretend part of me wasn't thinking my god he's going to f*** this up somehow before the ball went in. I loved the comedy of it all and how a player could look so different after changing clubs both in play and appearance (that buzz cut was...ooof) 

 Never going to forget this for as long as I live either. The bit where he looks around at the pitch afterward searching for something.... 

 

When he was one on one with the keeper I was actually always relatively confident he would score, he had the odd shocker like the video you posted but in general his record with a clean strike at goal was pretty sound.

The problem was, he was so bad with his movement and spacial awareness he didn't get those type of chances very often and with his speed and athletic edge gone he couldn't run/bulldoze his way past a defender like he could at his peak which left him pretty stuffed. He would often go games without even a minor sniff at goal which was a huge huge problem.

People like to compare him with Morata but bar their nationality's the version's we got were completely different, Torres could finish all right but couldn't get in the positions to do so very often whereas Morata would get into those positions at will but fluff his lines almost every time.