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Guillem Balagué, Sky Sports Spanish football expert and writer for AS, tweeted a few extracts of an exclusive interview with Fernando Torres. The rest will be available tonight at guillembalague.com and tomorrow morning (in Spanish) at AS.
UPDATE
Full transcript of the interview after the cut.
Start at the bottom.
UPDATE
20/05/2012
Fernando Torres on the Champions League Final and his season at Chelsea.
I caught up with Fernando Torres after the Champions League Final in Munich. I asked him about his thoughts on the game and his frustrating season at Stamford Bridge. I would appreciate that it if anybody uses any of of these quotes, they could please mention the source. Thanks.
This interview will also be published in Spanish in Diario AS.
Guillem - It's been an incredible season considering that things haven't gone exactly according to plan.
Fernando Torres - That's what football is like, in the end what this season has taught me is that football is made from these moments, these special moments - a group of lucky people and sometimes you need a little bit of luck, and that is what the team has had.
G - Like for example, Drogba, who has scored 9 goals in 9 finals - to me that seems incredible.
FT - In the game against Napoli at home - it finished 3-1, I remember that goal-line clearance from Ashley Cole - if it had finished 4-1 we would have been out of the competition. We won that game, then went to the Nou Camp and it seemed to everyone that we were going to get beat 10-0. But with a bit of luck or hard work or whatever you want to call it....we got through to the final at Bayern Munich´s ground against Bayern Munich, in the 82nd minute we were 1-0 down, then we brought it level and it went to penalties. We went a goal behind at the start of the shoot-out and ended up winning. I think that is what this team has had, especially towards the end of the season, are some championship-winning moments - maybe we've been lucky, but maybe a bit of luck was what the team was lacking in Moscow.
G - And in the 82nd minute, you were a goal down, what was going through your head? Did you think that it was all over? Were you tired?
FT - No, no, we were thinking about winning. I think that what we needed today was to attack, I don't think we did the right thing settling for 0-0 and they punished us with Muller's goal. The thing that has made this team so great, that has made us beat Barcelona, Napoli, Benfica, has been the fact that we defended through attacking, and today we didn't attack. We attacked during the last ten minutes and part of extra time which gave us chances, if not we'd have lost 1-0.
G - When you were brought on, you got involved, you ran for every ball.
FT - It's contradictory because I feel like I'm at a peak moment in my career, with more desire and hunger than I've felt in a long time, but I've had to spend the final on the bench. It was a huge disappointment when I saw the line-up, perhaps the biggest disappointment in my life. I thought I would play in this game and I couldn't imagine not doing so. But in the end I could participate and offer the team something. I'm really happy.
G - What have you learned this season?
FT - This season I have felt things that I never had before. I've felt like they treated me in a way that I didn't expect, not in the way that was spoken of when they signed me. We've had a lot of talks and we'll talk about my future at the end of the season because the role I've had this season is not for me, nor is it the one I expected to play when I came here. I'm not comfortable. A victory like this one against Munich does compensate, but I want them to tell me what is going to happen in the future. Football has been fair on us, on me. Now I do feel like football is worth it but I've been through a difficult time. The worst in my career. And I don't want to go through it again.
G - And what does it depend on?
FT - I don't know. There have been a lot of ups and downs, there's been many times when I've felt lost, I wasn't sure what to do. I felt like I didn't know where I belonged. I'm eternally grateful to my family who have been by my side and also for the support of the owners who have stuck by me. And especially to the fans, if it hadn't been for them this season I would have given up.
G - So, what would be the ideal situation for you next season?
FT - For someone to tell me what is going to happen and what sort of role I will have within the team, what my duties are, what they expect of me and then judge whether it is worth it.
G - Will we see you in Schruns, where the Spanish national team is heading this week?
FT - First London, where we'll celebrate this win and then the next day Ibiza. I'll be hoping to be on the list when it is announced on Monday. As I've said, I feel better than ever, hungrier than ever, but that's what football is like - often, when you feel you're at your best they don't consider you.
G - In any case, you came to this club to win medals such as this one.
FT - Yeah, the European Championship, the World Cup, the Champions League...There's a very important game for me, on an emotional level, against Atletico de Madrid in the European Supercup and I'm counting the days until then.
Source
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 10:40 pm (UTC)I think at the very least, Di Matteo has earned the chance to see the team out for at least a year or two. Objectively, i don't have any clue what to expect in terms of what his plans to overhaul the club would even remotely look like. Chelsea is not West Brom. It's entirely possible he will completely change his gameplan in the fall now that the expectations will be different. In some respects,he was lucky these past months because he came into a situation where there were no expectations. Anything he could do would look like an improvement and he more than delivered. On the emotional wishful-thinking side, I want him to have a Sir Alex-like career with the club. I like the idea of the cultural continuity of having someone with a long history with the club becoming the long-term manager.
On the other hand, my big fear is that we turn into post-2010 Inter!
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Date: 2012-05-20 11:23 pm (UTC)I get the impression Chelsea must be a difficult club for an 'outsider' with a not-so-strong mindset to be in... lots of expectation and demands, not much room for failure or excuses... Of course that's top football in general, but I mean, AVB, now Torres... reading their interviews and seeing how miserable they looked, one has to wonder. Di Matteo would have an advantage in that regard, being one of the club legends; and that's putting aside the fact that's he actually finally won the CL.
On the emotional wishful-thinking side, I want him to have a Sir Alex-like career with the club. I like the idea of the cultural continuity of having someone with a long history with the club becoming the long-term manager.
That's my dream as well, manager-wise. I have a soft-spot for Arsenal primarily because of that (I have a never-ending admiration for Arsène Wenger); Man Utd not so much, but then again I do support Liverpool. ;)
On the other hand, my big fear is that we turn into post-2010 Inter!
That will only happen if you resist change and keep the senior core of the squad. That's what happened with Inter - and without Mou their 'coming down' was dramatic. I may be wrong, but I don't think Abramovich will allow something like that to happen...
no subject
Date: 2012-05-21 12:50 am (UTC)I get the impression Chelsea must be a difficult club for an 'outsider' with a not-so-strong mindset to be in
I'm not sure. I think players need a least a year at Chelsea, especially if coming in from outside the EPL, before we can figure out what their journey will be like (Ramires is an excellent example, Ivanovic is another, though it took him much longer than a year to settle). But it's clear that Abramovich has a particular vision for the club and it really hasn't gone exactly according to his wishes. I'm really on the edge of my seat though to see what happens next. There was so much riding on this final, giving how Chelsea finished in the league and now they are in a much better position to attract new talent and to keep our existing talent. Money can only buy so much.
I was rooting for Bayern (I watched it with a friend who's from Munich and another one who's a Spurs fan, so I didn't really have a choice, lol), but you guys showed incredible heart. Drogba and Cech in particular were legendary
Thanks, bb!! I watched in a bar that was evenly split between supporters and was also sitting next to a group of Spurs fans. Things were heated, to say the least. As much as i was over the moon with this win, it was very hard to see Bastian crying and Robben in a heap on the field (there is still love there leftover from his Chelsea days). There's a touching photo floating around tumblr of Drogba giving Bastian a big hug.