Jamie Carragher said he and his Liverpool team-mates were happy for Fernando Torres to join Chelsea - because his best days were behind him.
And Carragher reckons Torres was affected during the whole of his three-year spell with Chelsea by the fact that he'd been thrown into a debut against former employers Liverpool .
At Chelsea, Torres never quite recaptured the form that had made him such an exciting signing for Liverpool, and was eventually shipped out on loan to AC Milan in 2014, before eventually returning to his former club Atletico Madrid.
Carragher said Liverpool were over the moon to be paid £50million for the Spansh striker in January 2011, after initially rejecting a £40m bid a few days earlier.
"We didn't want to stop Torres signing for Chelsea," Carragher recalled to Sky Sports .
"His time was done - £50m was more than enough, we couldn't believe it.
"I was shocked by the money they paid.
"I knew he'd wanted to go from the summer - he hadn't had a great 18 months, he went in the January - but his one good game that season was against Chelsea at Anfield when we beat them 2-0 and he scored both.
"We knew he wasn't the Torres when he'd first arrived."
Torres was thrown in at the deep end by Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelott, the Spanish striker making his debut at home to Liverpool and having to endure the taunts of his former club's fans before eventually making way for Salomon Kalou.
Liverpool won the game 1-0 thanks to a winner from Raul Meireles.
And Carragher said: "I thought it was a mistake by Carlo Ancelotti to play him in that game.
"He'd just signed, it's against Liverpool. It's a big game - I didn't feel sorry for him but to go in against your old club, getting a lot of stick, I think it affected him for his whole time at Chelsea."
