adole-scene™

I liked Fernando, and it doesn’t matter how good a player you are, you want to hear compliments about yourself. Even superstars need an arm around the shoulder now and then. But for all my attempts to gee him up, I quickly realized he couldn’t be helped. Fernando didn’t want to be helped. He’d made up his mind to leave Liverpool. Of course, I spoke to him, tried to dissuade him. We had two or three meetings. After each one, I felt like I’d wasted my breath. Fernando was off. Nothing I could have said would have swayed him. Towards the end, it became a wee bit acrimonious. That was sad. Fernando wanted to speak to the staff, to explain his decision to quit for Chelsea, which I suppose was an honest thing to do. I hope he was doing it because he respected the staff. I just felt, ‘Adios, Fernando, off you go,’ and don’t forget that Liverpool Football Club will always be bigger than any one player. We move on. Always. I never even considered addressing Torres’ leaving with the players. I didn’t need to with two crackers (Suarez and Carroll) coming in.