His next touch inside the stadium, on Sunday, could be met with boos - and the instigators could be forgiven for doing so.
Back in April, his two-yard square pass to Willian, leaving the Brazilian with an empty net to tap into, sealed Chelsea’s 2-0 win over the Reds. The championship charge halted, in part, by the one player who shouldn’t and couldn’t have.
In an alternate reality, that assist would have been for Liverpool, rather than against them. In a sliding doors moment, Torres would be returning on Sunday for the All-Stars game as an Atletico Madrid player who was still revered for his time on Merseyside.
Instead, he returns to raised eyebrows and a few glances of disapproval, the same sort reserved for John Terry, his former Chelsea team-mate. It’s a game for charity, one that could become an annual event, and it will be a good and proper affair for a fantastic cause - but the game will be attended, first and foremost, by football fans. And football fans never forget.
Not that he will be booed, hissed or jeered with the venom he received on his first time back as a Chelsea player. If he is shouted at, it will be with a heavy slice of pantomime. But it is impossible to expect a reception like the ones his compatriots Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia will receive, let alone Luis Suarez - the man who essentially replaced Torres, both on the pitch and in the hearts of those around it.
That trio didn’t get a chance to say a proper goodbye. Luis Garcia was taken off, injured, in January 2007 and would never play for the club again. Alonso walked from Anfield in May 2009 as part of the squad which finished second, fully prepared for another title tilt the following season, before one of Spain’s big two came calling. Suarez likewise.
Their departures were understandable. Alonso and Suarez had given as much as they could to the club and the allure of Real Madrid and Barcelona was too strong.
For Torres, however, it was good riddence. Torres’ decision to leave Liverpool in the final days of January 2011 is still contentious to many - the reasons all too obvious.
He left a club which had not long been taken over after years of hell under Hicks and Gillett, and had not long began life under Kenny Dalglish. He left a club who felt they hadn’t seen his best all season, whose head had long since departed the previous summer. He left a club for Chelsea, a rival for the modern era, the antithesis of everything Reds fans felt they stood for.
It didn’t help that he tried to endear himself to his new supporters. “The target for every footballer is to play at one of the top level clubs in the world,” said Torres upon arriving at Stamford Bridge. “I can do that now, so I am very very happy.”
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