By Dominic King
He used to be the man whose every touch was central to thousands of dreams but now Fernando Torres could inflict the final ignominy on Liverpool’s season.
The Chelsea striker will return to Anfield for the first time since he left for £50million in January 2011 but, judging by the reception he has received at Stamford Bridge from Liverpudlians, there will be no heartfelt salute from The Kop to their former hero.
Torres may point to an FA Cup winners’ medal and a looming appearance in the Champions League final as proof that his decision was vindicated but what hurt Liverpudlians most was the fact that he never gave Dalglish’s reign a chance.
Which begs the question: how will he celebrate if he scores on Tuesday evening?
Liverpool need a victory to prevent this campaign going down in the record books as their worst at home since 1948-49 and also to avoid the prospect of suffering their lowest ever finish and lowest points haul in the Barclays Premier League.
When he was in his pomp, Torres used to come alive in this fixture and he had a haul of seven goals in eight appearances against Chelsea, including a double at Anfield in November 2010.
John W Henry, Liverpool’s principal owner, was in the crowd for that game but neither he nor chairman Tom Werner will attend this match, having flown back to America following Liverpool’s defeat at Wembley.
That they continue to remain tight-lipped about their plans for the summer adds to the sense of unease on the Red half of Merseyside and some will naturally wonder if this is going to be Dalglish’s final match in the dugout.
Defender Daniel Agger believes Liverpool’s failure to complete a domestic Cup double will be a source of eternal regret.
‘Will it haunt us? Yes,’ said Agger. ‘I don’t know why we played as (badly) we did for the first 60 minutes. But we didn’t turn up and you cannot afford to do that in an FA Cup final. Nobody ever remembers the runners-up.’
