It has been a while since my last post and as expected there has been much development in the world of Chelsea during my absence. We’ve knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup, progressed to the semi-final of the Europa League, seen a slight change in mood towards interim manager, Rafa Benitez, but perhaps the best news of all has been Fernando Torres breaking his nose.
No matter how busy my schedule might get, I will always find time to watch the Blues, and the less attractive fixtures like Steaua Bucharest serve as no exception. In that particular game Torres got his head kicked in, which evidently didn’t go down too well with the Spaniard, as he proceeded to angrily charge around the pitch until someone let him score a goal.
In actual fact, he played very well. A crooked nose, two blood-covered shirts, including one with no name or number on it proved to be a far more effective combination than a long haircut and a bottle of blonde bleach. Regardless, a change of shirt for every game just isn’t a sustainable method of keeping a striker firing. Instead the kit men would have to come up with something far more feasible.
Admittedly, it might have had something to do with the broken nose, but they decided on a rather stylish, Dark Knight-esque mask, and since putting it on, Torres has become a new man, assertive, determined and most importantly, clinical. Such a surge in form can only lead us to question if the accessory has transformed him.
Torres seems to be a very human player, one who thrives on confidence rather than raw talent itself, but just like Batman, he now has something to hide behind. I’m insinuating that the mask has quite literally made him feel like a superhero.
Now this would suggest that there are serious psychological issues influencing the Spaniard’s game, as most players only impersonate a superhero after they’ve scored. What we get is the reverse. For a brief moment we can see the Torres of old when he celebrates scoring a goal with his trademark slide of the knees and out-stretched arms. His human side is accompanied by a huge sense of relief every time he does something right for Chelsea, which for me, clearly expresses that he is a man battling against his own insecurities.
For the fans it is understandably hard to come to terms with, and in such a demanding position, the club can’t really afford to rely on him. I for one can’t help but sympathise for our number nine, and would take great pleasure in seeing him resolve his issues, if not for the club, then for himself as a professional. I fear that a move abroad could be imminent, although I’d happily see him move to another team if it meant the revival of his career. In the meantime, we can enjoy the persona he has taken on in the mask and hope that Spanish bones don’t heal in a rush. Keeping it on could make all the difference as we challenge for another European title and third place.
Torres has been anonymous on the pitch throughout his Chelsea career so the mask simply adds to the camouflage.
To be fair recently he seems a bit more sprightly and making an impact.
Ah, poor old Nando – the proverbial riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma or something – with the Chelsea fans’ reaction just as difficult to figure out.
After boundless sympathy and encouragement through his long droughts and occasional false dawns/ red cards while he lived in the shadow of The Drog, a lot of fans seem to have turned against him just as his goal tally starts to look quite reasonable – he’s now on 19 for the season I believe, even if they have come in fits and starts, lots of them are dismissed as “unimportant” by his detractors and they intersperse the hang-dog non-performances.
It seems that the fragility you talk about, Chris, will always be lurking close beneath the surface, masked or not, and long-term decline appears his most likely trajectory.
One thing seems clear: whoever was responsible for us having to toil through half a season with him as our only available striker should be strung up from a delicate part of their anatomy forthwith.
Good stuff.
Given that we have all thought that his struggle to find form had a lot to do with his well documented injury problems perhaps giving rise to a crisis of confidence, then that he should now find form through wearing a facial protector because of another injury leads me to think we are truly talking about a man in an irony mask…..
When he bangs in a few goals, we remember we love him. When he goes for ages without scoring, we remember he’s the worst signing in the club’s history. We fans aren’t too complicated.
Also on the business as usual front: player recruitment sees us linked with another highly promising and relatively young star-in-the-making (Schürrle); while, more depressingly, manager recruitment sees us linked with the usual Biggest-Sounding Name Who Might Be Stupid Enough To Sign Up (Pellegrini).
We can all probably compose the forthcoming press release ourselves, sight unseen: “We are convinced Mr Pellegrini is the right man to maintain the club’s tradition of success blah blah blah” — which translates as “We hired the biggest available name rather than a promising coach who’ll be entrusted with developing a long-term plan because we expect to win everything NOW.”
Watched yesterday Youth Cup Chelsea vs Liverpool. The first game at Cop was 0:2 to Chelsea. Yesterday at bridge Chelsea won 2:1 Very good game. Now just let’s hope the grown ups will follow the suit at Sunday.
Awesome article. http://www.hamrofootball.com – This website also has some Torres writings 🙂
i like this post…
i’m as one of the Torres Fans, i hope Torres can open his mask soon..
http://adupenalti.com/