Fernando Torres

A bright red Liverpool jersey with stripes on the arms. With long blonde hair. Liverpool's strongest starting XI. The strength gathered under Benitez is no small feat. Luis Garcia, Milan Barros, Morientes, Gerrard, Marca Yann, Xavier Alonso. When Torres arrived in the summer of 2007, Liverpool were undergoing a lot of changes.

Goalkeepers like Dudek left. This goalkeeper showed his skills in the Champions League final and brought the Champions League. Players like Robbie Fowler, Luis Garcia, Bellamy, Cisse, Zenden left and Torres arrived along with Voronin, Bennayoung, Ryan Babel. Lucas was also there. Lucas, who the fans used to call him the God-fearing Brazilian.

The number of strikers leaving Atletico has never been the same. Torres is one of them. Liverpool paid £20m for him. Even McTominay wouldn't be able to get him for that price these days. Arsenal paid £30m for Eddie Nketiah. But £20m was a lot of money at the time. Especially for Liverpool, spending £20m on a player was a lot of work.

It was worth it. Torres, who scored 82 goals in 214 appearances for Atletico, showed his ability to score goals when he arrived at Liverpool at the age of 23. He played just four seasons between 2007 and 2011, making just over 100 appearances, or 102 to be precise, but he scored 65 goals, which was a very impressive result.

What was more impressive than the number of goals he scored was his style of play and his ability to shake opponents. He could break through on his own or play in pairs and finish them off with ease. His signature goals were his cross-field headers into the top corner of the near post. He was not just a tiger in the penalty area, but also a threat in all areas of attack.

Torres was perhaps the most beloved striker by Liverpool fans because he repeatedly shook the Ferdinand-Vidic defense, which was arguably the best defensive partnership of that era. The problem was that despite his skills and goalscoring, he could not achieve anything with Liverpool. In 2011, he moved to Chelsea for £50 million. This transfer was a transfer that everyone was worried about. They were not worried about his performance, but about how scary Torres would be to the Chelsea team. He arrived in the 2010-11 winter transfer window. Benfica, along with David Luiz, came under Carlos Ancelotti.

With him, Chelsea had Drogba, Kalou, Anelka, Malouda, Lampard, Ramires: Everyone thought this combination of players would be terrible. His Liverpool team-mate, Israeli player Benayoun, was also there. But it didn't happen as expected. Torres is not the Torres of Liverpool anymore. Here, his usual style of play is not bad in some games, and there were also good games. The problem is not scoring goals. When he doesn't, he misses big chances for a truly fearsome finisher like him. It's completely strange. He even missed a great free kick against United.

He played 110 more games for Chelsea than Liverpool, but only scored 20 goals. In the 2014-15 season, he went on loan to AC Milan, scoring just 1 goal in 10 games. It was only after returning to Athletic that he started scoring again.

But Torres' style of play at Chelsea was different, he didn't play his usual style, he didn't play well He has had his share of setbacks and has won trophies despite his lack of form. He has won the FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League in four seasons, which is not bad in terms of success. He has also won the Spanish Under-16 and European Championships, the Under-19 and European Championships, the 2010 World Cup, Euro 2008 and Euro 2012, so it is not enough to just say that he did not work at Chelsea. He is one of the most feared strikers in Europe at one time. Atletico also won the Europa League in 2017-18 and reached the Champions League final in 2015-16, which is a really good record. Just as Chelsea failed to sign Torres for £50m, Liverpool also failed to sign Andy Carroll from Newcastle in the winter of 2011, which was when Torres left, but it also failed to work. What was good for Liverpool was that they were able to sign Luis Suarez for £22m.

All of these transfer sagas, when you look back now, really do reflect the reality of football.

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