Leaving a team where you're adored in favour of a move to a direct Premier League rival is a shortcut to ensuring you're hated and reviled in certain places and that's what Fernando Torres did when he ditched Liverpool to join Chelsea for a British transfer record £50 million in 2011. After Liverpool rejected a £40 million bid for the Spaniard, Torres took matters into his own hands and handed in a transfer request to force through the move, immediately alienating himself from the Kop. Astonishment soon turned to fury when the move eventually went through, and the striker was immediately branded a traitor. In a recent interview, Torres spoke of his controversial move from Liverpool to London in which he cryptically blamed his former side for the way things unfolded, and insisted he didn't know why he was hated so much on Merseyside. He said: "I have nothing against the Liverpool fans.
I didnt want to leave Liverpool the way I did but the club lied. I was let down and I dont understand why the fans hate me.
Perhaps some of that hate has softened somewhat in recent years with Liverpool signing a new idol - briefly - in the form of Luis Suarez while Torres has flopped for the Blues. He is today mocked and laughed at rather than reviled for a succession of blunders in front of goal and a dismal goals return that included only five in the league last season.
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.
