Page 103 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

Benítez did score two great successes in the transfer market: Pepe Reina, the goalkeeper, and
Fernando Torres, their striker. Torres was a very, very talented individual. We watched him many
times and tried to sign him when he was 16. We expressed our interest two years before he joined
Liverpool, but we always felt that our contact with him would end only in him receiving an improved

contract at Atlético Madrid. We watched him in many youth tournaments and always fancied him. He
was ingrained in the fabric at Atlético, so I was surprised Liverpool were able to prise him away.
Benítez’s Spanish connections must have helped.
Torres was blessed with great cunning: a shrewdness that was borderline Machiavellian. He had a
touch of evil, though not in a physical sense, and he had that total change of pace. In a 45-yard sprint
he was no faster than several Liverpool players, but he had that change of pace, which can be lethal.
His stride was deceptively long. Without warning he would accelerate and slice across you.

Conversely, I’m not sure he was at his best when things were going against him because his reactions
could become petty. Perhaps he was spoilt at Atlético Madrid, where he was the golden boy for so
long. He was captain there at 21.
He had a fine physique: a striker’s height and frame. And he was Liverpool’s best centre-forward
since Owen or Fowler. Another star, of course, was Steven Gerrard, who didn’t always play well
against Man United, but was capable of winning matches by himself. We made a show for him in the

transfer market, as did Chelsea, because the vibe was that he wanted to move from Anfield, but there
seemed to be some restraining influence from people outside the club and it reached a dead end.
His move to Chelsea seemed all set up. A question kept nagging at me: why did Benítez not trust
Gerrard as a central midfield player? The one thing we could be sure of in my later years against
Liverpool was that if their two central midfielders won it off you they would not do much with it. If
Gerrard was in there and he won it against you, you knew he had the legs and the ambition to go right
forward and hurt you. I could never understand why Liverpool so often neglected to play him centre-

mid. In 2008–09, when they finished second with 86 points, they had Alonso to make the passes and
Gerrard further up the pitch behind Torres.
Another of our advantages was that they stopped producing homegrown talents. Michael Owen was
probably the last. If Michael had joined us at 12 years old, he would have been one of the great
strikers. In the year he played in the Malaysian youth finals we had Ronnie Wallwork and John Curtis
there on England duty. When they returned I gave them a month off – sent them on holiday. Michael

Owen was straight into the Liverpool first team, with no rest and no technical development. Michael
improved as a footballer in the two years he had with us. He was terrific in the dressing room and
was a nice boy.
I think that lack of rest and technical development in his early years counted against him. By the
time Houllier inherited him, he was already formed and was the icon of the team. There was no
opportunity by then to take him aside and work on him from a technical point of view. I made a
mistake with Michael in the sense that I should have signed him earlier. There would have been no

chance of him coming straight to Man United from Liverpool, but we should have stepped in when he
left Real Madrid for Newcastle. He’s a fine young man.
Of the other Liverpool players who gave us trouble, Dirk Kuyt was as honest a player as you could
meet. I’m sure he was 6 feet 2 inches when he arrived and ended up 5 feet 8 inches because he ran his
legs into stumps. I’ve never known a forward player work so hard at defending. Benítez picked him
every game. But then, if something happens in the opposition penalty box, will he be sharp enough or

is he exhausted from all the scuffling?
Despite my reservations about him as a person and a manager, Benítez persuaded his players to