Has Benitez Improved Fernando Torres?

Fernando Torres and Rafa Benitez are certainly no strangers to attracting the wrong kind of attaention of for that matter to each other. After all it is the latter who signed El Nino at Liverpool and made him an overnight Kop favourite. Having engineered an exceptional understanding and rapport over their well spent time together at Anfield, it probably came as no surprise when Torres was caught singing the praises of his former manager who possibly had turned around the fortunes of the striker one more time.

In what has been a highly controversial yet successful reign at Stamford Bridge, Rafa Benitez before signing for new club Napoli, received the perfect tribute from striker Fernando Torres, who claimed that the Spanish coach had vastly improved Chelsea as a team during his time there. Now it’s hard to see who wouldn’t succeed after inheriting a side so packed with riches and talent, but yet one cannot take away from the Spanish tactician or his methods that secured the Europa League title and a third place finish in the Premier League in what has been a very grueling season for the Blues.

Asked to take charge in November, the ex-Liverpool boss wasn’t a popular choice among the fans and was practically booed all the way practically till the end of the season. His signing was justified by a few saying that he probably was the only man who could get the then European Champions firing with Torres leading the attack. And after nearly 70 games played and a season that looked like it was going to implode, the one thing that certainly stands out as one of Rafa’s major achievement, is the fact that Torres has found his scoring boots.

Fernando Torres landed on English shores in 2007 with a reputation that certainly packed a punch and that’s more or less what he did. Hustling and bustling the Spaniard scored goal after goal as as he took to the English game like fish to water. Lethal and reliable, he was the hero of Anfield and was certainly coveted by many. He did go through a slump in his last season at Liverpool, but many attributed it to injury and stress and all expected him to be back fitter and even deadlier.  Then in the transfer window of January 2011, Chelsea made the audacious bid of about  £50 million to land Fernando Torres and that’s precisely about when the goals seemed to dry up for the talented Spaniard. Having played under Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas Boas and Robbie Di Matteo, Torres found it hard to find inspiration and even harder to find the back of the net. Low on confidence, lacking on passion and uncomfortable and threatened to be playing second fiddle to other strikers, he drew a forlorn figure unsure of where he was headed. The once lethal striker that made defenders quake in their boots was now being out run and muscled off the ball like he didn’t exist. He tried as hard as he could and though the effort was there for all to see, he was simply not scoring which became a common ground for frustration for Chelsea supporters and management alike. Quite annoyed and worried as to what Chelsea had bought themselves into, despair was just around the corner. That was until the hierarchy decided to bring in change in the shape of the highly controversial hire of Rafa Benitez.

And the change is there for all to see. After scoring a disappointingly meager total of 12 goals in his first one and a half seasons, Torres finished last season as top scorer for Chelsea notching up a welcome 23 goals in all competitions. He may have not set the Premier League on fire with his eight goals, but he certainly contributed to their run in the FA Cup, Capital One Cup and the title winning Europa League campaign. All of a sudden gone were the deflected and miscued shots that somehow found the back of the net, but instead fans were treated to sublime sure finishes. His probable goal of the season came in the Europa League final where Torres rolled back the years to score the opener against Benfica in the final of the Europa League. Breaking away on a counter after half time, the ball landed at Torres feet in the Benfica half. After having outpaced the opposing captain Luisao with ease he entered the penalty box with only goalkeeper Artur to beat. Seeming to have all the time in the world, he rounded the keeper with ease, to finally stab the ball home from an acute angle. And as he ran to the corner flag to celebrate and salute the fans, he probably knew that he was back.

There is no doubt that under Benitez, Torres was awarded more patience and greater playing minutes to help him find his mojo. He was protected more than others, with a lot of flak deflected off the somewhat fragile striker. His work ethic was praised and so was his defending. Mata, Oscar, Hazard and the rest of the Chelsea team did their best and played their part to integrate the club’s most expensive signing. And it does seem like all of this has worked to bring out not necessarily the best but at least a kind of efficiency and dependency that was missing in Torres.

The pall of gloom may have disappeared and it may be all smiles for Torres as he celebrates what has been a reasonably good season for him by earning a call back into the Spanish national team. There is without a shadow of a doubt who is responsible for this excellent turnaround and don’t be too perturbed if you find Torres singing into the night, “Gracias Señor Rafa.”

Moving On…To A Great New Season

We may still have a few nail-biting weeks to go before the end of the season but the events that have transpired in the footballing world over the last few days have been anything short of dramatic. If you were expecting the focus to be on title chases, the battle for glory or for some even survival, you are most certainly quite mistaken. Instead be prepared for a manager merry go round like one you’ve never seen before.

The catalyst for what is going to lead to a very interesting post season is the decision by Sir Alex Ferguson to call time on his reign at Manchester United at the end of the season. After guiding the Red Devils to their 20^th league title, the Scotsman will finally step down after over a quarter of a century in charge. With a job available to lead at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, a lot of names were thrown into the hat, but the powers that be at Old Trafford acted swiftly to usher in David Moyes from Everton as their man. This has now left a manager’s post vacant at Everton and the bookies favourite to get that job is Roberto Martinez of Wigan. Also in close contention are Malky Mackay of newly promoted Cardiff City, Michael Laudrup of Swansea City and Neil Lennon of Scottish Champions, Celtic. If any one of these managers are to take up the Everton job, it would in turn lead to a chain reaction that could end up sucking in more clubs into this game of musical chairs.

In addition to the above, there is the guessing game of which manager could be on the move. Rafa Benitez is at Chelsea on an interim basis and is most likely making way for Jose Mourinho who seems desperate to make the switch back to London, considering he is running out of friends in Spain. Should the move materialise, Carlo Ancelotti could be on a plane to Madrid from PSG.  Reports coming out of Spain also suggest that Manchester City have reached an agreement with Manuel Pellegrini, leaving Roberto Manicini probably without a job. Pep Guardiola will be taking over at Bayern Munich, putting current manager Jupp Heynckes, who is on the verge of a historical treble, out there in the job market too.

With the kind of speculation in the media, the PR machinery at the clubs are definitely working in overdrive to contain any negative impact such announcements, statements or assumptions could have. One such action taken is Real Madrid being forced to cancel a pre match press conference for this weekend to avoid any further controversies.  Also with all to play for certain clubs, such rumours could destabilize a team and its players. Both Manchester City and Wigan will face off tonight in the FA Cup final, which is their last chance for silverware this season. But with both managers jobs under scrutiny for different reasons, one can totally understand if they do not really feel committed to the cause.  Players too could end up being distracted focusing on where their future lies rather than getting the job in hand done. Wigan are also involved in a relegation dog fight that sees them needing to win at least one of their remaining two games and hope that other results go their way if they have to avoid the drop.

There is no doubt that such movement among managers will certainly have a direct impact on the club transfer policy. Clubs are obviously looking to steal a march on their rivals by getting players to commit well in advance and Mario Goetze’s switch to Bayern Munich is one such transfer of note. On the other hand a club could end up having a disgruntled player who doesn’t agree with the incoming managers policy and like Wayne Rooney put in a transfer request.

This is without a doubt only the tip of the iceberg and you can certainly expect a lot more drama to unfold in the coming weeks. With more money being made available and more movement expected in both players and managers to come this post season could well be fantasy football at its very best.