Revealed: Reina explains why Torres REALLY left Liverpool
Published 21:47 18/11/11 By David Maddock
Fernando Torres may be a hate figure for Liverpool fans, but former team-mate Pepe Reina believes the Chelsea striker was right to leave Anfield.
The Spanish forward faces the Reds’ faithful at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, and is anticipating another hostile reception from a support that used to idolise him.
The Kop feel betrayed after Torres walked out on them in January to pursue a Champions League dream with the west Londoners.
But Reina, Torres' closest friend and ally at Anfield, reveals the striker also felt betrayed.
The keeper says there is another side to the story – one that he himself sympathises with.
Reina admits he was in a similar position to Torres last season and would have quit Anfield, too, had he got the chance, because he also felt betrayed by broken promises.
In his autobiography, Reina says: “As much as it hurt the supporters to see him [Torres] go, I can understand his reasons for leaving.
“When Fernando started to feel that Liverpool were never going to be competitive again, it quickly became inevitable that he would accept the offer from Chelsea.
“I did know he was really angry because he felt he had been betrayed by Liverpool before he left. There had been plenty of lies, plenty of promises which had not been kept.
“It became clear the Liverpool we were at was not the Liverpool either of us had joined.”
When things worsened under previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, both players despaired that Liverpool could ever go forward again.
Reina said they both felt betrayed by the regime, who had promised so much, and he insisted Torres had every reason to leave, even if it hurt the fans.
“All you can do is accept it when the club makes it clear that you cannot leave, but in return you want the club to prove to you that you should want to stay," Reina says.
“Fernando never felt this happened. In the end, he decided he had to play at the highest level he could and he could not wait for it to happen at Liverpool.
“I was sad for him in the way it all happened. He never got the goodbye that he deserved and the Liverpool fans never got the goodbye they deserved from him.
"It’s sad it ended this way.”
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