If only I had a penny for every Fernando Torres joke I’ve heard I’d have………at least £2.11 (sorry for the pause, I nipped off to get a calculator). But you get my point: there are hundreds. The poor man has been lambasted from here to Timbuktu.

I personally struggle to find why football fans are so unforgiving of a player when he decides to leave. So he left Liverpool – big deal, players do it all the time. They can’t all be loyal types likes Steven Gerrard. Fernando wasn’t happy and he wanted to leave. When things aren’t going as well as we want don’t we have the right to make changes? In football, apparently not. When a player signs that contract it’s as if it’s signed in blood and to break it is punishable by his footballing death.

Letting Torres go at his request was probably the right thing to do. Recent injuries, along with a change of management and the exit of a few top players, had seen the slump in form already begin. Had the club left it even a few more months then not even the over-stuffed wallet of the boss from hell, Roman Abramovich, would have been relieved of £50 million for him. Liverpool fans should be grateful – the fact that all that money (and significantly more) was completely wasted on a few questionable purchases is a different matter entirely.

Hope Andy Carroll isn’t reading this. Love the new hairdo, Andy!

No one could have foretold Fernando’s story at Chelsea. What a fall from grace: from Anfield hero to Stamford Bridge zero. In two and a half seasons at the club he has found the back of the net 14 times! This from a player who was averaging a goal a game at Liverpool. Defences across England used to wet themselves preparing for El Nino – dressing room staffs up and down the country had at least three changes of underwear laid out for their centre backs and full backs. Some reported four. If he was playing, he was going to score: it was that simple.

He was fast, clinical and confident and his link up with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso was sublime – their passes were perfection and his finishing was deadly. At Chelsea he is a shadow of his former self. In fact, even his shadow is embarrassed.

Many pundits have analysed the reasong for his loss of mojo. Take your pick. Is it the pressure of the record British transfer fee of £50 million? Is it Chelsea’s style of play that doesn’t allow him as much space? Is it the knee injury described as a degenerating one? Maybe its a combination of all of the above and more. Only Nando can really answer these questions.

One thing is certain: he looks desperately unhappy and I really feel for him. Does he really need us to rub more salt in his wounds? Isn’t it punishment enough to have people mock you at every turn? Not to be able to do the one thing in your job description: score goals? Even when he scores the jokes don’t stop. His goal celebrations are uncomfortable and he seems almost embarrassed, as if to say “Yes, I know, I should be doing this far more often”. I find that quite heartbreaking.

As a Liverpool fan myself, I don’t feel any animosity toward him. Some may think that’s strange but I want Torres to do well – I think any former Red is worthy of our respect. I want to see him score goals and play well, just not when he plays us!

There are rumours from the Chelsea dressing room that he has stated his wish to return to Anfield, or at the very least expressed his regret at having left. Who knows? I doubt that it would ever happen, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see what would happen if he were to pull on a Red shirt again? Personally I’m intrigued by the idea. I’m sure he sits at home and occasionally stares into space, thinking of all the wonderful memories at Liverpool – and, for a time, how happy he was there. Secretly he must wonder too what might happen if he ever returned home…

Would you take Fernando Torres back, Liverpool fans? Have your say in the comments section below…