Ah, the over-priced player who goes on to painfully under-perform for his new club. Poor Fernando Torres, the hero of Liverpool FC who rejected Anfield for a midnight move to Chelsea, is the most recent example of this tragic though quite amusing phenomenon. While looking less like a footballer week after week, however, well-meaning commentators will seize on every tiny thing the player does without making a total booby of himself, like completing a short pass or taking a throw-in, to claim that he's finally "justified his price tag". Of course he hasn't, and at the next opportunity he'll be shipped out to a mid-table Dutch club complete with an eye-watering pay-off. Hence this cliche, almost as tragic as the fallen hero himself, must be buried.
