Former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has revealed that club legend Steven Gerrard told him to quit Anfield and join Premier League rivals Chelsea in a British record £50million move, according to The Sun.
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Torres claims the 34-year-old has been the most influential figure in his career so far, and says that when the Blues came calling with the astronomical offer in January 2011, the former England man told him to make the move and think of himself.
“There is one player that influenced me above anyone else and that is Gerrard,” he said.
“He changed my career, my ambition, the way of raising my targets, wanting to win, he changed everything.
“Even when I was leaving Liverpool he told me ‘go, think about yourself. Do what’s best for you because you’ve seen how people are leaving and it’s time. You have nothing to prove.’
“He changed the way I saw things telling me that I could get much higher than what I had always thought. I’ll never find a team-mate like him.”
The news now sheds new light on what has become of the most expensive flop transfer deals in the history of the game.
Torress had been held as a hero at Anfield, and though he managed to pick up Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League winner’s medals during his tenure at Stamford Bridge, his goalscoring exploits dried up fairly quickly.
Jose Mourinho shipped him out on loan to AC Milan over the summer, but he couldn’t rediscover his goalscoring touch there and re-joined Atletico Madrid in January.
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