Controversy surrounding Torres comments could silence talkative Spaniards

The Chelsea striker's comments about his teammates being too "slow" are being scrutinised by his club management, which could scare away quotes-happy Spanish players from the media.

Fernando Torres was accused of criticising his Chelsea teammates for being "very slow" and "old" in an interview with the website of the Spanish league.

Chelsea are investigating, with Andre Villas-Boas, the coach, seeking an explanation and the original interview. As a linguist who speaks several languages including Spanish, he will be able to understand perfectly what Torres said. The former Liverpool striker did do an interview while on international duty with Spain last week. He was upbeat and praised Chelsea for their ambition.

The version which appeared said: "When I changed club I knew it was going to be a slow process, although I didn't expect it to be so long. Chelsea is, [of] the English teams, maybe the least English.

"They have a slow way of playing; to always have the ball makes the rival fall back easily so they leave no holes [behind the defence].

"That's because of the kind of player Chelsea has: an older player, who plays very slow, who has a lot of possession and that's what the club is trying to change now."

Ouch. Except Torres says that he said no such thing and that he has been mistranslated.

Spanish players are usually open with their media, but incidents like this will only make them more guarded - more like most English players, in fact.

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