Time for Chelseas Torres to deliver

sharonorn

When Chelseas billionaire owner slipped his hand into his back pocket and rustled around for the loose change that would prise Fernando Torres away from Liverpool in January of last year, he can scarcely have imagined that we would all be here, almost two years and two managers later, still waiting for the striker to deliver on the promise of his potential. Here was a proven Premier League goal machine, a World Cup and European Championship winner with Spain, a man who seemed  at certain times in his Liverpool career  not so much to be good at scoring, but to be incapable of not scoring.Torres, lest we forget, was one of Roman Abramovichs  Ray Buchanan Jersey follies. Not a player wanted by his manager, it seemed, just a player he wanted for himself. The fact that this transfer hasnt worked out is surprising therefore, given that Abramovichs previous folly was such a resounding succe s. Andriy Shevchenko, purchased at great expense from AC Milan in 2006, was a player who fitted seamle sly into Jos Mourinhos Chelsea team, his time at Stamford Bridge proving to be exceedingly harmonious and fruitful.Oh wait.Yes, so weve established that when Roman buys players he likes just because he likes them, it tends not to go well. So no surprise, in that respect, that the Torres move has been, thus far at least, a failure.And yet, you still get the feeling that theres more to come from Torres, that perhaps hes not quite the busted flush some would suggest, that perhaps somewhere inside this timid, insecure shadow of his former self there lurks the goal-hungry  Mike Davis Jersey monster of three or four years ago, waiting for the right manager to unlock his full potential and set the beast free.Enter Rafael Bentez.This is the man who brought Torres to Liverpool from Atltico Madrid five and a half years ago. This is the man who built a team in which Torres flourished, benefitting from the service provided by Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso and the confidence given to him by his manager. And this is the man to whom Chelsea have now turned after the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo.On many levels, the appointment of Bentez as Chelsea manager seems a strange one. Abramovich is a man who has always been gripped by fantasy, and fantasy is not something Bentezs teams readily provide. The Ru sian fell in love with the game in 2003, a high-scoring Champions League tie between Manchester United and Real Madrid stirring his desire to buy his own club and create similar nights of free-flowing adventure. He appears to have a vision of football both beautiful and beautifully naive.Bentez has never been overly preoccupied with free-flowing football. His teams have Richie Grant Jersey  functioned as well-drilled units, where the system is key and the emphasis is on the details, the things a good tactician like Bentez can predict, not the unpredictability of individual  Russell Gage Jersey flair and brilliance. Just ask Yo si Benayoun, a clever and gifted footballer who was never properly trusted by Bentez, or even  in Benayouns view  treated fairly: If I played well, I never felt he gave me credit. He tried to destroy my confidence. You cant treat a player like this and expect him to be happy.And yet his teams have occasionally found room for individual brilliance, the most notable example of this being Fernando Torres. For a period of about three years after he came to Liverpool, Torres was simply unstoppable. 33 goals in his debut season, a further 17 in his second season and 22 in his third. He scored more goals in a debut season than any other foreign player in Premier League history. He was adept at scoring goals from every angle and position  long-range shots, tap-ins, thunderous headers, venomous volleys.But then injuries halted him, along with the deterioration of his clubs fortunes, and confidence dribbled away. He arrived at Chelsea in January 2011 searching for form that he has never truly since found, despite a notable contribution to Spains defence of their European Championship title in the summer and a couple of important goals for Chelsea.But a couple of important goals is considerably le s than Chelsea expected of him when they Dorian Etheridge Jersey  paid Liverpool a British transfer record 50 million pounds for his services. It is considerably le s than Abramovich expected, and in turning to Bentez, the hope must be that he can be the man to bring Torres back to life. He has been given a seven-month contract to do so. For Torres, time is fast running out.