Why? Why? Why? Fernando?....

This picture would look wrong with four blue shirts, the thought is devastating to Liverpool supporters.

Why? How could he? That's what everyone wants to know, that's what everyone has asked.

His timing is awful, he has no commitment, Judas, they've said.

Now for starters, this is just the situation the way i see it, I'm not in the know, at all, i have no connections, just opinions, I'm not trying to play devil's advocate even if at times it seems so, just wanted to put down my thoughts on the situation.

This wont be a heartfelt, teary eyed, open letter, reminiscing about the good times and pleading with the player to stay. Other people have done that - quite well too - but that's just not me.

So, he wants to leave, isn't that something which many of us have suggested at over the last 12 months, PARTICULARLY the last 6?? He has asked to leave, but i feel that this request was discussed between Torres and his agent earlier in the month, and if rumours are to be believed, then the request was submitted before Suarez deal was announced, or after depending on which rumour you believe. Thing is, it's just rumour.

The silence is not deafening, after all how could it be, it's silence. It does speak volumes, it confirms that Liverpool have departed from the media circus and taken to doing business behind closed doors, as it should be. No news is, in this case at least, and in my own opinion, good news.

But why? Why would he want to leave? Well that story starts back in 2007. The hardest decision of his career, allot harder than the decision to stay or leave Liverpool. He decided to leave Atletico Madrid, his boyhood club, the club he captained, the supporters who loved him, his home. For all Liverpool is to Fernando Torres, it could only ever be a second home, after all, where any of us to be professional footballers could any other club really replace LFC in our hearts?? Of course not.

He left Atletico to become a champion, to win trophies and with Atletico he could not do that at the time, and in stepped Liverpool. A team that had won the European Cup, the FA Cup and appeared in a second European Cup final, all in the space of 3 years. We had new owners promising the world, new stadium, money for world class players, the promise of being champions once again. And most of all, Liverpool had the supporters, the famous Kop, the anthem whose title adorned his captains armband at Atletico. It was a move that would surely guarantee him the medals, the glory and the unconditional support of the worlds best supporters - a match made in heaven.

That was 2007, it is 2011 now and things have hardly gone as planned. Now we all know the Hicks and Gillet story, their promises of greatness undoubtedly played a part in Torres decision to come to Liverpool. They are gone now, but the problems they constructed, the lies and mistrust are still lingering and still causing trouble for the club. And during his time at Liverpool, his old club Atletico have actually won the Europa League and the European Super Cup, albeit in the last 12 months, but its more than what has been achieved by Liverpool. Surely Nando must look at that and wonder what would have been had he chose to stay at Atletico, nothing to say he would have stayed so long, but surely the thought must have crossed his mind.

He has also lost the manager for whom he had unquestioned respect, the player himself has continually expressed his gratitude and respect for Rafa Benitez and i suspect that Nando would have preferred Rafa to stay.

Rafa was the manager who got the best out of Torres, who helped to develop his game. It is not Rafa's fault that for the last 12 months of his Anfield reign he could not get the best out of Torres due to a succession of injuries, many picked up on international duty. Simply bad luck. Nor was it Rafa's fault that he did not have the money to bring in a worthy partner for Torres, a signing like Suarez would not have happened had Hicks and Gillet still been here.

In the summer, Christian Purslow made promises to Torres, promises about where the club was going, about how we would be competitive etc etc. Well Christian Purslow is a snake, a snake that masquerades as Liverpool supporter. He could not guarantee anything to Torres, no one could, a sale was never guaranteed any time soon, more false, empty promises should not have been made, even if the result was to keep a star at the club, eventually the lies would come back an bite us in the arse - and now it has.

Purslow got rid of Rafa, which was a very bad mistake, regardless of your opinions on Rafa, we where never going to get an equal or better manager to come in and take charge of the club in the situation we where in at the time. And for those who cry Dalglish, at the time the club did not want him, Purslow told him no, so yeah, never going to get a better or equal manager to replace Rafa at the time. We would have been better sticking with Rafa, only one truly bad season after all, with the latter half of his reign suffering with off the field goings on and fan protests, poor ownership and towards the end a lack of funds.

In comes Hodgson, bad move, one half  decent season with a usually poor side followed by a decent cup run the next season which came at the expense of league form does not make you a top class manager worthy of the Liverpool job. Torres clearly was not in favour of this move, he looked dejected, uninterested and probably uninspired especially as he would ideally want to play alongside a top class striker, and Roy wanted Carlton Cole - says it all.

Hodgson is now gone and Torres is seemingly back to his best. He has looked like a totally different player under Kenny Dalglish.

He was also quite quick to commit to the reds following the appointment of Dalglish.

And that brings us to the point of it all. WHY does he want to leave.

To win things of course, he isn't winning anything here.

Maybe he saw the club seemingly walking away from the Suarez deal as the final straw, but such is the Liverpool way that i suspect that not even the players knew the deal was on the verge of being done, Torres is perhaps guilty of a little impatience in this respect.

He has respect for the fans of that i am sure. MANY will disagree, but his decision to want to leave is not an easy one for him to make.

Ultimately he is doing what he feels is best for his career. He wants to win trophies. It is nothing against the Liverpool supporters. The offer from Chelsea has come in, but i suspect that the discussion between him and his agent was to consider any offers that came in, the fact that Chelsea came in was just by chance, had it been City or Barca the situation i think would have been the same. Where it to be ManUtd who came in i think the request would not have been submitted.

And the actions of aspects of the Liverpool support have been outrageous. We are all annoyed, confused, upset and let down, but we still do not actually know what is fully going on.

Rewind to 2005, Steven Gerrard had all but signed for Chelsea, the writing was on the wall or so it seemed. He also wanted to win things, he did not want to retire with his only honours being the FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup, he wanted to win the biggest, he wanted the Premier League, he wanted the European Cup, but above all he wanted to do all this with Liverpool - just as Torres does now, for me, that is unquestionable. Then what happened? ISTANBUL. That was enough to convince Gerrard that Liverpool where capable of winning anything, after all how can a team crowned European champions not be capable of winning the Premier League, especially with new owners on the horizon and a manager with the ability to transform the fortunes of a largely substandard squad.

Gerrard stayed on the back of the clubs biggest success in 20 years, he then won the FA Cup again, featured in another European Cup final and finally started the assault on the Premier League summit. Torres came along and was welcomed with open arms, taken to the hearts of Liverpool supporters world wide, the assault continued. Culminating in the club coming closer than ever in recent history to actually winning the the League in 2009. Since then we've gone backwards.

There is no Istanbul like miracle to convince Torres to stay, he has a manager who is getting the best out of him, but the club is still no closer to winning the league, the Europa League is a target and would be a welcome success but is it enough?

I have no doubt that Torres will stay till the summer at least, just my opinion. But can anyone really blame him for wanting to further his career?

Chelsea are going backwards, their squad is ageing, they are no AC Milan, they can not work wonders with pensioners. There are echoes with Liverpool fall down the table 18months ago, the owner looks bored.

Look at it like this, Chelsea are not guaranteed a Champions League place next season, in fact, potentially if results should be favourable next week, we, LIVERPOOL, will be 3 points behind Chelsea in the table, and all this after our worst start in decades, and that is a result of a tight league and Chelsea's own short comings.

They are not the right club for Torres to join. They are a step down.

He will not receive the support he has here, if anything he will be just another face, the plastic flags and free scarves will not replace the Kop, and the cockneys will almost certainly turn on him as soon as his form dips, after all, they boo Drogba a fair few times a season, like him or love him, he's a top class striker and should not be booed, probably past his peak, he wont be there for much longer.

IT IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.

The suggestion that it is annoys me to no end. Even when Torres has talked about his Liverpool future it has always been about trophies. He has tasted success at international level, he has won the European Championship and the World Cup, he longs for success of that magnitude at club level. Pictured with the World Cup he had a Liverpool scarf around his neck. It is not as if the Spanish kit man gave him the scarf, he had it because he took it, because he loves this club and despite recent developments, he loves the supporters. He wants to win, and i do not doubt for one second that he wants to win things with Liverpool - but it just does not look like happening, and he is getting OLDER not YOUNGER.
Many supporters have over reacted slightly, what does burning shirts achieve?? Shirts that bare the Liverpool crest, the Liver Bird, that famous line 'You'll Never Walk Alone', the flames for those we lost, what does burning the shirt achieve?? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Torres at the moment is walking alone.

There is a very good chance, well more than a good chance really that he will stay. What then?? Do we back him? Do we boo him and make him wish he had left?? The reception he gets on Wednesday will truly be a 'mixed reception' and rightly so, he does have allot to answer for, apologies to be made, trust and respect to be re-earned. And do not say it is not possible, Steven Gerrard is the evidence, when it looked certain he would leave for Chelsea, many voiced their displeasure, many simply got behind him and showed him the kind of support that we are famous for, we made our voices heard, we made him feel wanted. Look at Xabi Alonso, when the club tried to sell him, the supporters got right behind him, they made it known that he was ours, we wanted him to stay, when it became clear that Xabi would leave in the summer that support intensified, and to this day Xabi still speaks with the utmost respect and love for the Liverpool supporters.

Liverpool Football Club has a much better chance of success this season with an in form Fernando Torres lining up for us. The Europa League is an achievable goal, should results go our way then by next Sunday evening a top 4 finish is no longer a wild fantasy, it is a realistic achievement, and if it is to be achieved it will be achieved most likely at the expense of Chelsea.

Michael Owen left Liverpool because he didn't feel the club could achieve anything and he wanted to play for a 'bigger' club, 10 months later we won the European Cup for the 5th time and now he is chin deep in manure, i bet if given the choice he would have stayed at Liverpool. How much of a mistake would it be if Torres were to join Chelsea and end up playing in the Europa League whilst Liverpool returned to the Champions League.

Torres owes the club till summer.

Also i suspect that the fans burning shirts and spouting all sorts of none sense without knowing the full story were the same people that were slagging the owners off for not signing Suarez simply because the media said the deal looked off because Liveprool were only prepared to pay £12.5m. The reality of course was far different. Ajax wanted £30m they were quite vocal in that respect, vastly inflated by the Dzeko transfer, even Ajax would acknowledge that, we played hardball an negotiated them down to a more reasonable £22.8m - good business - but people jumped the gun.

Torres does not necessarily want to leave Liverpool, leaving Liverpool is what he feels he  must do to achieve his career goal of actually winning silverware at club level.

It is unfortunate that it should come to this but we have to ask ourselves one thing;

Do we want to keep Fernando Torres?

The answer to that question in my mind is yes.

And i come to that answer simply on the basis that he is a world class striker, who on his day is probably the single biggest threat to the oppositions goal. And i make the decision by completely ignoring the last few days. It comes down to the ability of the player and the needs of the club, he has the ability and we need it.

Suarez was not a replacement, he was signed to compliment Torres.

Suarez is an excellent finisher and a real goal threat, but we do not know if he will hit the ground running in England or if he will take time to settle, this highlights how much Torres is important to the club. If Suarez needs time, we have Torres to rely on, if Suarez arrives with a bang then Torres will benefit immensely. After all, how many clubs in England can boast two world class, fast paced, strong, and skillful attackers?? They would be a nightmare to play against. Who do you mark? If you concentrate on one then the other flourishes in the space that he is given.

Maybe 4 months alongside Suarez and a fantastic end to the season will see Torres live to regret the last few days which I'm sure he already does, and make him want to be here, make him commit - only this time mean it without reservation.

If Torres did not know exactly what he meant to the fans then he certainly does now, but all the crap about not supporting him if he stays is ridiculous.

As supporters we have suffered allot over the last few years because of the lies and deceit of a few hated men.

Fernando Torres has also been duped by these same men, he wants to win things, and that is what they promised him, to him it must seem that they only said that to make him stay, they only said what they said to trick him, he must feel that they showed him a lack of respect as a professional.

Lets not jump the gun reds. I suspect we will here more on Monday from the club on this matter and when the club speaks we will listen and we know exactly were we stand.

Ignore the media circus, the endless pursuit of column inches and Sky News headlines that became much sought after under Hicks and Gillet are gone, we have returned to the Liverpool Way of speaking when we need to and doing business in house.

Long post this, but there is allot to say and I'm sure i haven't covered it all but that's how i look at the situation.

The timing is bad, very bad, allot of grovelling needs to be done, but he can start with that next Sunday against Chelsea, a goal and a kiss of the badge to really wind the Chelsea supporters up.

They say we're deluded, that we're not famous anymore, but where it not for a Russian and his millions Chelsea would be just another London club, and looking at the table, we're moving up, and at this rate we could well pass Chelsea on their way down.

We wont all agree, but Wednesday night vs Stoke i will be there on the Kop, and our #9 will have my support and i suspect i wont be the only one.

It's all rumour at the moment - let us wait for the facts.

I hope he stays.

Just my views folks more HERE