It's been done I know. But what a picture. Gets on knees, Comes back for 6 month loan stint, propels us into CL... a man can dream.
[size=18pt]Chelsea striker Fernando Torres desperate for his place in the S** as goal drought reaches more than 15 hours[/size]
Quite what Andre Villas-Boas has in mind to pep up Fernando Torres on this week’s team-bonding mission to Majorca is a mystery.
Fernando Torres desperate for his place in the S** as goal drought reaches more than 15 hours
By Oliver Brown, Carrow Road
11:00PM GMT 22 Jan 2012
Comments13 Comments
So fast is the Chelsea striker’s confidence falling, after a toothless display at Norwich that extended his goal drought to 15 hours and 19 minutes, that you suspect even a blue rosette for 'most lovingly tended hair’ might give him a restorative kick.
Torres, the £50 million man, is seeing not just his stock but his dignity shredded with every appearance. When the Spaniard, seizing on a fine cutback from Jose Bosingwa, contrived merely to poke the ball wide with his toe, the chants of “What a waste of money!” resounded around Carrow Road.
The taunting grew crueller: “We’d rather have Grant Holt,” the Norwich City supporters cried. So, too, would many Chelsea fans at this rate.
The centre-forward’s return of three goals in 31 games for the club makes that of the notoriously ineffectual Andrei Shevchenko, who managed nine in 48, seem Messi-like by comparison. When Villas-Boas finally hooked him after 76 minutes, Torres could not have looked more sullen or hollow-eyed.
“Strikers live off goals,” Villas-Boas said. “Their confidence builds up and the movement improves. You can’t say that he is not trying. He is making the right movements, he is present in the box. One day I think it will go for him.”
Chelsea’s Balearic escape – the type of mid-season trip once favoured by Brian Clough – could be precisely the tonic they require. This latest result was, for all Norwich’s resilience, a significant setback, extinguishing the last puff of title hope that they had gathered from impressive wins over Wolves and Sunderland. But a dose of winter S** is likely to assist not simply in Torres’s revival, but in the integration of new centre-back Gary Cahill and the preparation for a febrile FA Cup fourth-round match at QPR next Saturday.
Already fears are growing over crowd unrest, as Chelsea return to the scene of the race row that has engulfed John Terry and Anton Ferdinand since last October. Villas-Boas played the diplomat, explaining: “It is our responsibility to calm the situation around the game.”
On whether Terry could cope with the likely vitriol at Loftus Road, he smiled and replied: “I think so.”
For Norwich, the trajectory continues ever upward. Superbly disciplined in defence, thanks to centre-halves Daniel Ayala and Zak Whitbread, they thwarted every one of Torres’ incursions. The stand-out performer proved to be goalkeeper John Ruddy, who denied Torres with an agile first-half save before keeping out a powerful Juan Mata shot from close range.
It was Ruddy’s first shut-out of the season and, appropriately for a man whose family have a proud military background — his father was in the army, his grandfather in the RAF — he donated the £200 bonus from his glove company to 'Help the Heroes’.
Unlike Torres, whom he outsmarted all afternoon, Ruddy finds that his value is only increasing. There is even talk of an England call-up for the 25 year-old.
“He has been talked about for England and rightly so,” Paul Lambert, the Norwich manager said. “I thought he was outstanding.”
Only one problem, should Ruddy harbour ambitions of being taken by Fabio Capello to the European Championship: he is due to be married on June 2, nine days before England’s opening group game against France.
“It’s nice to be linked with England but I know that only happens if I’m playing well with Norwich,” he said. “I’ve got a wedding in June, so we’ll see. It would obviously be a great honour for me and my family to get in the squad.”
Just in case, he might care to see what Poland and Ukraine would be like for a honeymoon.
[size=18pt]Chelsea striker Fernando Torres desperate for his place in the S** as goal drought reaches more than 15 hours[/size]
Quite what Andre Villas-Boas has in mind to pep up Fernando Torres on this week’s team-bonding mission to Majorca is a mystery.
Fernando Torres desperate for his place in the S** as goal drought reaches more than 15 hours
By Oliver Brown, Carrow Road
11:00PM GMT 22 Jan 2012
Comments13 Comments
So fast is the Chelsea striker’s confidence falling, after a toothless display at Norwich that extended his goal drought to 15 hours and 19 minutes, that you suspect even a blue rosette for 'most lovingly tended hair’ might give him a restorative kick.
Torres, the £50 million man, is seeing not just his stock but his dignity shredded with every appearance. When the Spaniard, seizing on a fine cutback from Jose Bosingwa, contrived merely to poke the ball wide with his toe, the chants of “What a waste of money!” resounded around Carrow Road.
The taunting grew crueller: “We’d rather have Grant Holt,” the Norwich City supporters cried. So, too, would many Chelsea fans at this rate.
The centre-forward’s return of three goals in 31 games for the club makes that of the notoriously ineffectual Andrei Shevchenko, who managed nine in 48, seem Messi-like by comparison. When Villas-Boas finally hooked him after 76 minutes, Torres could not have looked more sullen or hollow-eyed.
“Strikers live off goals,” Villas-Boas said. “Their confidence builds up and the movement improves. You can’t say that he is not trying. He is making the right movements, he is present in the box. One day I think it will go for him.”
Chelsea’s Balearic escape – the type of mid-season trip once favoured by Brian Clough – could be precisely the tonic they require. This latest result was, for all Norwich’s resilience, a significant setback, extinguishing the last puff of title hope that they had gathered from impressive wins over Wolves and Sunderland. But a dose of winter S** is likely to assist not simply in Torres’s revival, but in the integration of new centre-back Gary Cahill and the preparation for a febrile FA Cup fourth-round match at QPR next Saturday.
Already fears are growing over crowd unrest, as Chelsea return to the scene of the race row that has engulfed John Terry and Anton Ferdinand since last October. Villas-Boas played the diplomat, explaining: “It is our responsibility to calm the situation around the game.”
On whether Terry could cope with the likely vitriol at Loftus Road, he smiled and replied: “I think so.”
For Norwich, the trajectory continues ever upward. Superbly disciplined in defence, thanks to centre-halves Daniel Ayala and Zak Whitbread, they thwarted every one of Torres’ incursions. The stand-out performer proved to be goalkeeper John Ruddy, who denied Torres with an agile first-half save before keeping out a powerful Juan Mata shot from close range.
It was Ruddy’s first shut-out of the season and, appropriately for a man whose family have a proud military background — his father was in the army, his grandfather in the RAF — he donated the £200 bonus from his glove company to 'Help the Heroes’.
Unlike Torres, whom he outsmarted all afternoon, Ruddy finds that his value is only increasing. There is even talk of an England call-up for the 25 year-old.
“He has been talked about for England and rightly so,” Paul Lambert, the Norwich manager said. “I thought he was outstanding.”
Only one problem, should Ruddy harbour ambitions of being taken by Fabio Capello to the European Championship: he is due to be married on June 2, nine days before England’s opening group game against France.
“It’s nice to be linked with England but I know that only happens if I’m playing well with Norwich,” he said. “I’ve got a wedding in June, so we’ll see. It would obviously be a great honour for me and my family to get in the squad.”
Just in case, he might care to see what Poland and Ukraine would be like for a honeymoon.
