McClennan wrote:
He's 23 now and hasn't been able to generate or hold onto a starting position in either of the two top class teams he's played for, even when they've struggled. I may be assuming here but given the number of managers who've looked at him, if he had something I imagine one of them would have given him a free run instead of putting other strikers in ahead of him. That he has never been able to secure successfully either opportunity suggests that his managers have been in agreement with that point of view. It can't all be bad luck at his age.
He was 19 when he left you. You were in the beginnings of your massive buying spree.
At Chelsea he had Didier Drogba ahead of him. And the last couple of seasons even Drogba was undermined to try and accommodate the misfiring Torres.
Even though he was shunted out on the wing last season he still outscored Torres and matched Drogba. It was only Roman's desperation to make the Torres move work that meant we persisted with him when the clearly better option of giving Sturridge a run was ignored.
I don't know whether he will make it to a high standard. I've liked most of what I've seen when he has played but he's never been played long enough to know how good he will be. But Citeh didn't make some expert assessment on him at 19, Chelsea have given him virtually nothing to work with. Chelsea fans have generally offered him zero support while bending over backwards to support Torres.
When on loan at Bolton he scored plenty. When actually played at Chelsea he did enough to show he deserved more opportunity.
With Joe Cole I would have driven him to Anfield to help that move through. But I think that CFC are taking an insane risk by selling him to them. I am 100% against him being sold to the scousers.
Us letting Sturridge go when Torres is our only striker strongly suggests that we're buying bigger in January. Either Falcao in a permenant move or David Villa on loan. Either of those are clearly on a different planet to Sturridge so I shouldn't be that bothered. But I think LFC will be hugely helped by signing Sturridge, and it pi55es me off.
Most CFC fans write Sturridge off as a greedy player who doesn't play for the team. And a bottler too. And there's supposedly problems with his arrogance. I can't comment on his arrogance as I have heard no actual examples, but I think the selfishness and bottler claims are just woeful examples of supporters rushing to judgement because they don't want to like a player. Given his lack of opportunities at CFC of course he is going to be on the selfish side.
Obviously there are massive financial considerations that play a part, but for me if it was my choice to dump a striker in January I'd be dumping Torres. I think we're flogging a dead horse with Torres and expect that next season Sturridge will be banging in plenty more than Torres.