Jose Mourinho has labelled Fernando Torres as “so-so” and admitted that the striker has not been a big hit at Chelsea.
Torres moved to Stamford Bridge in 2011 for £50 million, but has failed to hit the dizzy heights he became renowned for at Anfield. Mourinho stated that the Spaniard, is a victim of his own hype.
“Torres so far is so-so,” Mourinho told the Mirror. “Somebody could expect more because of his potential, because of what he did before. But not so bad as people sometimes try to say.
“There is a balance. Normally, the tendency is to say it was a big mistake. It was a big mistake because it didn’t work.”
The former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss, also rubbished stories that said Roman Abramovich, was involved in the running of the club and brought in players that were his choices.
“Never, never during my time did the owner interfere in the basic things of the manager – training sessions, team selection, the profile of player I want to bring, ” he added.
“Do you want to know the truth about [Andriy] Shevchenko? I hope the board is not upset with me. We wanted to buy Samuel Eto’o, he was our target. We wanted Eto’o and the owner was more than ready to do everything to bring Eto’o here.
“He was the player I wanted. Why? Because Eto’o was the only player I could play with Didier Drogba, changing the system for two strikers.
“But he was also ready to play with Drogba with the system we had at the time, with three attacking players with Eto’o coming from the sides. I did the same with him at Inter Milan. We wanted Eto’o and the boss did everything to bring Eto’o and Peter Kenyon did everything.
“In the end, Barcelona said, ‘We don’t sell, forget it, forget it. Not any price’. The owner did everything to get him, but it was not possible.
“After that, we went to other options and got to Shevchenko. I was happy with him.
“Even with the top dogs – when you buy for £30m, £40m, £50m, or £60m – sometimes it doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean you or the club made a big mistake. It just doesn’t work.”
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