Chelsea FC ai??i?? Rafa Benitez? Darn It Torres, Look What Youai??i??ve Done Now

By Ed Fernandez
11 years Ago

As shockwaves from Rafa Benitezai??i??s appointment as interim manager at Stamford Bridge and Roberto di Matteoai??i??s firing abound, the one person most responsible for this sorry state of affairs has been awfully quiet. And not just in front of goal.

Chelsea have tried their best to give Fernando Torres the space, the time and the suspension of disbelief that was critical for him to succeed. Chelseaai??i??s managers were often held to exacting standards, but Fernando Torres was treated with kid gloves in a desperate bid to avoid hurting his fragile self-esteem.

Not anymore. The buck stops with Torres, now.

With Frank Lampard and John Terry sidelined, Didier Drogba out of the picture andAi??Cech manning the posts, Chelsea sorely needed a senior figure to step up and take charge. When the club turned to Fernando Torres in its most desperate hour, he dropped all pretension and proudly acknowledged two days prior to Thanksgiving that he was the A?50 million turkey we all feared he was.

When the vault is closed soon on Torresai??i?? time at Chelsea, it will feature the one defining characteristic of his time here: his incredible ability to find excuses that explain away his failure to find the back of the net.

At first, we were told Torres needed time to settle in. It seemed understandable, even if most big names scored on their debut – or at least in the first month. When Torres took 14 games to score ai??i?? against West Ham ai??i?? Chelsea reveled in his celebration. The floodgates had been opened, pundits opined.

Torres would give us reason to doubt that soon enough. Instead of drowning The Bridge in a deluge of goals Torres proceeded to teach Chelsea the virtues of patience. Chelsea shouldai??i??ve been on to him, from the start, but Fernando Torres managed to hoodwink the Blues into believing the problem lay elsewhere.

When the situation demanded straight-talk, Chelsea looked for nuance. And that gave birth to the notion Torres wasnai??i??t a ai???Drogbaai???. Instead, he was such a different kind of attacking threat and team-player that he selflessly dragged away defenders, so that others could score. That bought him quite the vacation from responsibility.

Torres realized it was time for another excuse, when it soon emerged he couldnai??i??t pull the trigger even with a gaping goal staring him in the face. Itai??i??s almost as if he was reeling under a permanent bout of performance anxiety.Ai??His inability to score or even attempt to do so, soon explained his earlier support of others. It turns out there was quite a broad line between selflessness and cowardice, and Torres was firmly on the latter side of the fence.

So,Ai??it was Didier Drogbaai??i??s time to share the blame. The Ivorian was supposedly impossible to play alongside. At fault, presumably, was Ancelottiai??i??s short-lived decision to play two central strikers upfront. Surely that wouldnai??i??t succeed. Never mind that the notoriously moody Nicolas Anelka managed just fine, though. Chelsea just needed a reason to believe in the former Liverpool point man.

That desire to see him succeed saw Chelsea forgive one faux pas after another. When Torres demeaned the Chelsea squad as being slow, it was put down to mistranslation. When Torres committed the cardinal sin of dampening Chelseaai??i??s Champions League celebrations by complaining he hadnai??i??t gotten more time, Chelsea turned a blind eye.

With Roman Abramovich intent on introducing a more exciting style of play, Torres found yet another lifeline to cling onto for dear life. All he needed was someone with Gerrardai??i??s unerring vision for defense-splitting passes. Chelsea got him three.Ai??Short, quick and nimble-footed, Mata, Hazard and Oscar were the perfect foil for Torres. Their passes with their radar-like accuracy were supposed to remind Torres of happier times hunting with Steven Gerrard.

It looked like it was working for a while. Torres, fresh off his Euro honors, looked hungry in front of goal and seemed to combine well. That is until Chelsea ran into sturdier opposition. When the Hazards and Matas ran into heavy traffic, Torres began to make it abundantly clear he wanted no part of the proceedings.

This time, however, someone at Chelsea did suspect there was aAi??rotten egg in the basket. Roberto di Matteo is more intelligent than people often give him credit it for. He eventually wised up toAi??his chief striker’sAi??gimmicks, and made the most damning indictment of Fernando Torres ever made. Roberto di Matteo benched Torres, Chelseaai??i??s sole striker, in a must win game against Juventus.

It may have cost him his job, but in going down Roberto di Matteo has done Chelsea one final favor. Heai??i??s ripped the blinds off of everyoneai??i??s eyes at Stamford Bridge. And Torres has finally been seen for what he truly is ai??i?? an erstwhile emperor with no clothes.

Torres has now been forced to play his last hand. With Roman Abramovich roping in Rafa Benitez, you get the sense the Russian is now giving TorresAi??the dreadedAi??ultimatum. If Benitez, who shared a close relationship with Torres at Anfield, cannot get the striker to perform, Torres is likely to see the rest of his career end in deep-freeze.

This is the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. Rafa Benitez is intensely disliked by Chelseaai??i??s supporters and will in all likelihood get booed at The Bridge. The Spaniardai??i??s tactics are unfathomable at times, and his preference for zonal defending can be counterproductive. Heai??i??s been known to rub players the wrong way and might ai??i?? like Torres – owe all of his success to Steven Gerrard.

Roman Abramovich knows deep down that there is no reason to expect Benitez to succeed when so many others, more gifted than he is, have failed. But in a world gone horribly wrong, a move destined to fail might just succeed. If Benitez doesnai??i??t succeed, the make-believe world that Torres so carefully constructed will come crashing down in 2012.

Perhaps, in his case, the Mayans were right after all.

Categories: Chelsea FC, English Premier League, Features
Tags: Chelsea FC Rafael Benitez Torres

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