Torres facing race against time to master Abide With Me
Friday 04 May 2012 14:17
Chelsea face Liverpool in the FA Cup Final this weekend – but, according to Back of the Net's Paul Watson, their reborn striker has a problem...
Chelsea striker Fernando Torres is struggling to prove to Roberto Di Matteo that he has mastered the tricky final verse of Abide With Me in time for tomorrow’s FA Cup Final against Liverpool.
The Spanish marksman has returned to form of late after an 18-month wobble, but he may still miss out on English football’s showpiece event.
Reports suggest that Torres will lose out to Didier Drogba for a place in the starting 11 after faltering badly during training ground renditions of Abide With Me – the hymn traditionally used to prepare the soul for death or footballers for an FA Cup final.
“Fernando’s sensational at ‘when other helpers fail and comforts flee’ but he just can’t seem to find any fluency with ‘Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadow flees’,” a source told FourFourTwo. "You can see him getting frustrated because his work rate is truly phenomenal.
“But Roberto [Di Matteo] just has to look to experience on occasions like this and when you’ve got Didier Drogba able to sing all eight verses, including the slightly jarring second stanza, you can’t see past that.
“Besides, his harmonies with Gary Cahill are just heavenly. It’s no secret that his majestic descant was one of the main reasons Gary was brought in.”
There have been reports that Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has been leading a pre-training session chorus of Abide With Me for the last month, but conflicting reports suggest the Scottish boss may actually be singing Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses, something by Teenage Fanclub or just speaking as normal.
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