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Posts Tagged ‘interview’

• Striker says Liverpool fans do not know truth about move
• ‘I was let down and don’t understand why the fans hate me’

Fernando Torres has repeated his attack on Liverpool’s conduct ahead of his transfer to Chelsea 11 months ago, claiming his old club’s fans do not know the truth about the move.

Torres, talking to Spanish TV station Canal+ Liga, claimed Liverpool’s owners had lied to him and broken promises before he completed the £50m move, and said he does not deserve to be a hate figure at Anfield.

Torres said: “The Liverpool fans don’t know the truth about why I signed for Chelsea. The fans don’t even know half of what happened. They don’t know what the people in charge at Liverpool are like – they have a completely different perception of what they are like.

“They made promises that they didn’t keep and I left because I realised I didn’t have time to be part of a project that would take years. I have nothing against the Liverpool fans. I didn’t want to leave Liverpool the way I did but the club lied. I was let down and I don’t understand why the fans hate me.”

Also in the interview Torres said he was confident he could rediscover his form at Chelsea, and prove he still has the quality which helped him score 56 goals in his first three Premier League seasons.

“I am going to try to be very humble and get back into the Chelsea starting line-up,” he added. “My form has not been good but I am world and European champion and I deserve more respect. It’s hard being on the bench but I respect the players who are playing. I’m going to support the team and get back in.

“It’s true that [the Spain head coach] Vicente del Bosque is worried about me and my form for Chelsea. It’s up to me to go back to being the striker I was before. If I go back to how I was a few years ago, I will again play an important role in the Spanish national team.”

Fernando TorresLiverpoolChelseaguardian.co.uk

• Manchester United manager rejects poor league assertion
• Ferguson wants club to match Liverpool’s European record

You could tell winning the title meant a lot to Sir Alex Ferguson because he made a rare post-match appearance, relaxing in the interview room with tie loosened and arms draped across the back of adjacent chairs. Watching the clinching game had been agony, he confirmed, and few Manchester United supporters would argue with that, but it hardly mattered in view of the fact Liverpool had been finally de-perched to an extent that Ferguson could never have dreamed of when he arrived at Old Trafford in 1986 with the score 16-7 to Anfield.

“I don’t know if I ever actually said that about knocking Liverpool off their perch,” the United manager said, making a half-hearted attempt to change history after spending the afternoon making it. He definitely did say those immortal words, although what he meant was that he saw his main task as stopping Liverpool regarding the title as their own, not overhauling their all-time record. Even a decade ago, when the comment was made, Ferguson could not have predicted he would be in charge long enough to accumulate the 12 titles necessary to put Liverpool’s total of 18 in the shade.

“This means a lot; winning a 19th title is a great achievement,” Ferguson said. “Not so much because we have gone past Liverpool, but because we have now won more league titles than anyone else, as well as more FA Cups. That’s what Manchester United should be about. Ideally we would have won more European Cups as well, but we still have a little ground to make up there. We’ve got a good chance [of winning another one] again this season. But, in domestic terms, we are out on our own and that’s what pleases me most.”

Ferguson accepted it had been far from a sparkling United performance at Blackburn, although he refused to accept that this had been a lacklustre campaign or an easy win due to a lack of convincing challengers. “It’s not fair to say it’s been a bad league this season; it’s been a hard league to win,” he said. “Harder than usual, possibly. We have dropped points to sides such as West Brom, Wolves, Bolton, Birmingham and Sunderland, but so have the teams below us. Our away form has not been great, I admit that, and this match was another draw when we were looking for a win. But our home form has been terrific throughout the season and, when Chelsea had their blip, we managed to stay strong.”

United created so little at Ewood they needed a fortuitous penalty to make the game safe, when Javier Hernández made the most of contact from Paul Robinson, despite having little chance of reaching the ball. Wayne Rooney scored from the spot, but admitted he had been a “nervous wreck” while he waited for referee Phil Dowd to check with a linesman and discuss the matter with aggrieved Blackburn defenders before confirming his decision. “It was terrifying standing there just waiting,” Rooney said. “It was a long, long time before I got to take it.”

Ferguson confirmed he now intends to rest some of his players in next weekend’s final league game at home to Blackpool, ahead of their Champions League final clash with Barcelona a week later. Yet he insisted he will still select a “strong team”, in a game that could have huge ramifications in the relegation battle. “It was a long day, but we got there. I can now afford to rest a few players for the next match [Blackpool at home], but I will still put out a strong side. We have a responsibility to all the other clubs in the league to do that.”

Manchester United will hold a Premier League victory parade in the city at lunchtime on 30 May, two days after the Champions League final.

Premier LeagueSir Alex FergusonManchester UnitedBlackburn RoversLiverpoolPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk

• Suspicion remains CIC is involved in Kenny Huang’s bid
• Aston Villa accounts may explain Martin O’Neill’s exit

When Kenny Huang’s consortium “categorically” denied on Saturday that its bid to take over Liverpool is backed by the China Investment Corporation, it came as a massive surprise to Digger.

As regular readers will recall, this column repeatedly stated last week that China’s sovereign wealth fund was financing Huang’s bid. That conviction was based not only on the information received from Huang’s people and from among those who are selling the club – although such assurances were indeed received – but also from Digger’s own experiences.

Last Thursday, the day CIC’s sale of £351.4m of Morgan Stanley shares – exactly the sale price for Liverpool to the nearest decimal place – was reported here, out of the blue Digger was invited to appear on the Chinese state radio station, CRI.

CRI’s reporter introduced the interview, broadcast last Friday morning on the Beijing Hour – its English-language equivalent of Radio Four’s Today programme – by saying: “Speculation in the British press is mounting that Huang’s bid could be backed by the state-owned China Investment Corporation.”

Now the Middle Kingdom may indeed