Source: Daily_Mail
Romance is alive and well in football, despite what Chelsea striker Fernando Torres may think
Fernando Torres may well have got it right; the rest of us may well have got it wrong. [LNB]Essentially what the most expensive footballer in British history said yesterday, at Chelsea's lush training ground owned by a Russian billionaire who made his fortune from the cold break-up of the Soviet Union, was that 'romance' is a concept which should no longer trouble football. [LNB]Torres was being questioned on badge-kissing at the time he said this. He looked out into the room and coolly delivered the words - 'romance in football has gone' - with the excitement of a man taking a consolation penalty. [LNB] New romantics: Torres joining forces with John Terry (right)[LNB]It's a matter of fact to Torres, and maybe it is all about cheques and the balance. [LNB]January 2011 should have proved a point after all.[LNB] Torres had felt the joyous songs of the Kop wash over him in his three-and-a-half years on Merseyside. [LNB]He had talked the Anfield talk, drank down the Liverpool legend and about halfway through those years - around the time Liverpool first tried to off-load Xabi Alonso it appears - Torres decided that he could not spend the main years of his career at a club where the fans were at war with the owners. It was similar with Darren Bent. [LNB]The emblem of Sunderland became a ?24million Aston Villa player overnight. Bent, who lived on Tyneside, had regularly eulogised Sunderland and Wearside. [LNB]Romance? Andy Carroll's hometown attachment to Newcastle was quickly severed by ?35m and a waiting helicopter. [LNB]For Torres it had been the same at Atletico Madrid, his first love when he still believed in such things.[LNB] 'When I analysed my career coldly, there was no escaping the fact that my best years would coincide with a transitional period as they sought to get back to where they once belonged.' [LNB] First love: Atletico Madrid holds Torres' heart[LNB]Torres said that after leaving Atletico, with the knowing reference to the Beatles at the end. [LNB]And analysing Torres's career coldly, there is logic to him moving to Chelsea. [LNB]He goes straight into a team that can aim to win the Champions League at Wembley in May, which was the subject that stirred the biggest smile from Torres yesterday. [LNB]Liverpool cannot offer that. They are, as he said of Atletico, in transition. [LNB]There is, moreover, something unconvincing about the outrage coming from Merseyside. Liverpool would quite happily have taken Blackpool's heartbeat, Charlie Adam, if they had been able to.[LNB] Blackpool struggled to see the romance in that. [LNB]So Torres was probably right. In a way what he said was also nothing new. [LNB]As far back as 1905 there was moral indignation when Alf Common became the first ?1,000 player, moving from Sunderland to Middlesbrough.[LNB] It was reported as 'a new type of white slave trade which might one day see transfer fees reaching ?2,000 or even ?10,000'. [LNB] Love affair: Alan Shearer a hero on Tyneside[LNB]?1,000 may have covered one of the screens Torres appeared on at Chelsea's bronzed Cobham HQ yesterday. [LNB]There were no hordes waiting for him in leafless Surrey, this wasn't like when Alan Shearer became the record signing at Newcastle 15 years ago and gave out that line: 'I'm just a sheet-metal worker's son' to delirious Geordies. [LNB]No, Torres was probably right. [LNB]The economic relentlessness of the Barclays Premier League has withered the flowers of romance.[LNB] Torres has been sold by an American businessman to a Russian one. [LNB]The story is as dry as that. But then you looked to Torres's right. [LNB]There was a picture of John Terry on the front of the new club magazine. In it Terry is tugging at his Chelsea shirt just where his heart is. [LNB]'Made In Chelsea' it says, 'Homegrown Talent'. [LNB]Terry has been called many things over the past year alone but few would doubt his passion for Chelsea.[LNB] And passion plays some part in romance. [LNB] Kissing the badge: John Terry shows his love of Chelsea[LNB]Sitting beside Torres was Carlo Ancelotti, an authentic football man who has penned a colourful, heartfelt autobiography. [LNB]In the opposition dug-out at Stamford Bridge tomorrow will be Kenny Dalglish. [LNB]Dalglish has no reputation for sentiment but such was the Red response that when he was reinstalled at Anfield four weeks ago, it was notable Dalglish said he found it all 'a wee bit romantic'. [LNB]And it was. [LNB]Romance in football has not gone. It is romance, or an element of it, that will propel supporters from Stockport County to Manchester United criss-crossing England this weekend, just as they do every weekend.[LNB] Leyton Orient fans anticipating Arsenal's arrival in the FA Cup are probably fluttering a bit too. [LNB]What Torres said suited him and this historic transfer.[LNB] It was a way to take the heat out of tomorrow. [LNB]He was right: badge-kissing is fake. But the reason Stamford Bridge will be packed is because of the drama, the passion and the commitment of the occasion.[LNB] Carlo Ancelotti set to use ?25m man David Luiz as anchor man at ChelseaTorres kills off romance, insisting 'Some kiss the badge, I just want to score'Torres reveals Chelsea move was not a smash and grab affairAll the latest Chelsea FC news, features and opinion[LNB] [LNB] Explore more:People: Darren Bent, John Terry, Xabi Alonso, Andy Carroll, Kenny Dalglish, Fernando Torres, Alan Shearer, Carlo Ancelotti, Charlie Adam Places: Newcastle, Surrey, Liverpool, United Kingdom
