Like every other Chelsea fan on 31st January 2011, my face was glued to the TV to find out if Chelsea had successfully managed to buy Fernando Torres from Liverpool and to all Chelsea fan's delight, we did!!
Most people expected Torres to hit it straight from the start and form a great partnership up front with Drogba and so did I.
But against Liverpool Chelsea struggled and so did Torres, maybe Torres just needs another game to get used to playing in a different team. Next game against Fulham, Torres once again struggled and I was at the game to witness it.
Most people are now slating Torres off at whatever opportunity they have and it's very unfair. He has come into a new team, in the middle of a season and has no opportunity to settle in. Imagine your first day of work and getting thrown straight into the middle of a major project and they want nothing more then the best. Tough isn't it?
This also got me thinking, how many players have actually moved in the transfer window and gone on the make an immediate impact for their team and helped them achieve something. My research threw out a few names over the years. A website I shall not name did a top 10 January buys of all time and some of them made me laugh. Names like Reyes (No.5), Ashley Young (No.1) and Walcott (No.7) were just ridiculous. Reyes made no impact in the first 6 months he was there, Young didn't and Walcott didn't make an appearance at Arsenal at all when he signed.
But they did choose a few decent players such as Henrik Larsson who in the 3 months he was there, did a good job and helped united win the title that season, David Bentley was another which popped up when he signed for Blackburn and helped them survive relegation.
I did a bit more research and found a few names which weren't in any lists or which people didn't consider to make a huge impact in the first 6 months of their career. Personal one's I thought who made big impacts were Christopher Dugarry, who in the 6 months he was at Birmingham, helped them avoid relegation in their first season in the Premiership and also Jonathan Stead, who joined Blackburn and scored some vital big goals to help Blackburn avoid relegation in their season.
Overall every website had put Ashley Young somewhere in their top 10, he wasn't the best signing in his first 6 months at Villa but he went on to be a massive hit at Villa. So I would say to everyone and all Chelsea fans, give Torres time, not many players make an immediate impact and the old saying 'good things come to those who wait'
