Manchester City new boy Ferran Torres has expressed his frustration towards the chiefs at Valencia for the manner in which his exit was handled.
Torres was announced as a Man City player after the completing his medical in a deal worth £21 million.
He also reveals that he had the intention of staying at the club knowing the project they were on to building. But the winger has revealed he was told ahead of the 2019/20 season that the club were not going to count on him that much which was said to have triggered his decision.
In an interview with Spanish outlet Marca, Torres said: “I started thinking about it [leaving] last summer after the European Under-19 Championship. The club told me personally that they weren’t counting on me. They literally said that I was the fifth winger in the squad, that reinforcements were coming and other players from other positions were ahead of me.
“It was a very hard blow for me, but what was worse was that they even put me on the market and offered me to teams in Spain. There were calls from 12 La Liga clubs, including Levante and one Segunda Division club. That’s when I started thinking about leaving.
“The problem is that there are people within the club and a few journalists who are determined to damage my image. I don’t want to leave on bad terms because I’m a Valencia fan.
“When the club decided to put me in the first team I began to come under pressure and criticism. It wasn’t just me, but they wanted to harm my representatives and my family.
“The same people who now campaign against me said then that I would fail, which hurt a lot at 17. I have to say that there were other journalists who treated me with love and respect. There are, though, club employees working to smear my image.
“I’m sure I can [return to Valencia one day]. I refuse to think otherwise. Even if there are crooked people. A lot of them won’t be there in a few years and I’ll have shown that I deserve to return.”
The youngster who made 44 appearances in the 2019/20 season also talked about conditions that were involved in a contract renewal offer agreeing to move to City.
He said: “One was for [Valencia owner] Peter Lim to be involved so that I knew I was important, another was to be captain as I had seen other clubs do, [Atletico Madrid] with Fernando Torres, for example, and the third was to be one of the highest paid players. I wanted two of the three, but none were fulfilled.
“I wanted to stay and I put forward the conditions to do so. They weren’t above the club’s means. I know they’re not in the same position as big European clubs, but I was able to lead that project and wanted to be treated as such. The club didn’t want to keep me.”
