Torres: It was all so black at Kop

Posted Wednesday, February 09, 2011 by The Sun

FERNANDO TORRES admits he left Liverpool to join a smaller club at Chelsea.

But he insists the crisis at Anfield had turned everything black and he admits he lost all desire to play for the Reds.

Torres, 26, said: "Liverpool will always be very special to me. Because of its history, Liverpool is a bigger club but it's going through a difficult time.

"You come back ready for a good season with your club but you see the reality that this goes very slowly and the expectations they set out at the start of the season are not real.

"I had three special years at Liverpool but in the last six months I lost that happiness, that dream, the desire, the will to have targets and goals."

Kopites have turned their backs on their former idol after his £50million move to the Blues.

Particularly after they heard Torres claim last week that Chelsea - with a fraction of Liverpool's trophy haul and fanbase around the planet - were a bigger club than the Reds.

Now it will be curious to see how his words go down with Chelsea fans who have been taunted mercilessly over the years by Kopites about their lack of history.

Torres revealed Anfield coaches Sammy Lee and Steve Clarke - himself a former Chelsea hero - tried to convince him to stay.

He added: "The moment I knew of Chelsea's interest I was first in the training ground and told the sporting director and the manager, I explained my situation. The No 2 and No 3 Sammy Lee and Steve Clarke have both been players so they understood my position as a player but insisted that this was not the moment.

"I didn't choose the moment. When everything was black and the season was going from bad to worse; when nothing went according to my expectations neither on a personal nor on a collective level; when you see that there are six months left that will be very long and very hard.

"And when you see a door open like that of Chelsea with a firm interest and strong there was only one possible and realistic option and that was to join them."

Torres, a figure of contempt for millions of fans that used to idolize him at Anfield and around the world, admitted the way the transfer was handled has left him with a bitter taste in the mouth.

Images of Liverpool fans buring shirts bearing his name in Merseyside have gone around the world and the striker was keen to protect his reputation.

Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish has been dismissive of Torres but the Spaniard went to great lengths to avoid any further controversy.

He added: "If there was no camera they wouldn't have burnt the shirts with my name. As for the statements of the manager each of us is free to do what they want.

"This departure was not fair, in the eyes of the fans above all.

"They didn't want to hear the truth or my truth. But that's football. You never know how things will go how they will end but in the end they ended up as I wanted as I became a Chelsea player. But not in the way I wanted.

"I have my conscience clear because I was honest with the people at the club and all the information that comes out makes me sad because it could have been handled in a different way."