Fernando Torres: Samuel Eto’o isn’t my enemy, I wish him all the best at Chelsea

 
Simon Johnson16 September 2013

Fernando Torres insists he is not unsettled by Samuel Eto’o’s arrival at Chelsea and says they are friends, not enemies.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho signed Eto’o from Anzhi Makhachkala last month and picked him ahead of Torres and Demba Ba in the first game after the international break against Everton on Saturday.

The decision was surprising because Eto’o only trained for a few days with his new team-mates due to playing for Cameroon while Torres was at the club throughout the fortnight having been left out of the Spain squad.

He also scored in the team’s previous outing against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup.

But Torres, who came on as a substitute in the second half of the 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park, is not concerned by having to battle with the 32-year-old and Ba for a first-team place this season.

He said: “There is now more competition up front but Demba, Samuel and me are not enemies, we are friends. We are team-mates and are fighting for the same targets. I think it’s really good for the team.

“Eto’o is one of the best strikers I have ever seen. I played against him in Spain many times and you can see the record he had there with Real Mallorca and Barcelona, as well as in Inter.

“I am sure he is going to really enjoy this period of his career with Chelsea. He is training really well, I wish him all the best and will help him in every way that I can.”

Torres feels Eto’o has given Chelsea even more of a chance to challenge for silverware this term.

Mourinho’s side begin their Champions League campaign against Basle at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night, having failed to progress beyond the group stages last season for the first time in their history.

But Torres, 29, is feeling upbeat about their chances in Europe as well as domestically. When asked about his targets for the season, he added on Chelsea TV: “To win everything. That can be realistic because we have a great squad. We have to think positive.

“Having players who can regain the ball and be really quick is one of the big qualities we have this season in our squad. We have those type of players up front and on the wings.

“That is good for us to play in the space behind. The main thing is to take it step by step, score goals, work for the team and do well when we have the chance and win a trophy.

“Our training has been really good. The tempo is really good.

“In the beginning it is always like this, everyone wants to show [what they can do] and prove that they’re ready to play. We will see during the season how things are going but as of today everything is good.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in