Chelsea: Mauricio Pochettino Says Blues Ruined Fernando Torres

Daily Star. The Spaniard has yet to score a Premier League goal in 2013, but Pochettino remembers a very different Fernando Torres. The Chelsea hitman first broke onto the scene for Atletico Madrid when the Southampton manager was a defender for Espanyol, and he remembers being torn apart by the misfiring star. The Argentine recalled:

€œI remember him being a quality player, full of strength and a player who knew which spaces to run into to create chances. Sometimes it happens where a player is comfortable and feels happy at a certain club as he was at Atletico and at Liverpool.
These days, Torres is a shadow of his former self and has never looked like living up to his £50 million price tag at Stamford Bridge. He has only registered 7 times in all competitions for the Blues this season and looks likely to leave the club in the summer transfer window. Pochettino, whose Saints side aim to heap more misery on the Spaniard at St Mary€™s tomorrow, continued:
"When you leave that club and join a new team maybe you do not feel as comfortable and as happy and that can affect your performances. €œI do not know if Torres will leave Chelsea but what is clear is there is no doubting his quality.€
Southampton will be hoping Torres continues his bleak form in front of goal tomorrow and are desperately scrapping for points. They sit in 16th place at the moment, just four points above the relegation zone, but will be looking to build on the impressive 3-1 beating of Liverpool in their last outing by claiming the scalp of another Premier League heavyweight.

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Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.