Rich Kitto believes Chelsea may have to consider selling Fernando Torres if the Spaniard's failure to find top form goes on for much longer.

"One day I discovered that it didn't matter if we [Chelsea] won or lost if I was not playing", Fernando Torres, 17th October 2012.

Many negative comments have been directed at certain members of the Chelsea team over the past few weeks, but on the field the 'Barcelona Blues' have been largely praised for their results and style of football.

Though has the superb contribution of their three attacking midfielders overshadowed the continuous lacklustre performances from their £50million front man? With questions still being raised, and expectations continuing to diminish, is it a case of enough is enough El Nino?

Last week I wrote a piece condemning the recent actions of Luis Suarez at Liverpool, and brought comparison to Torres' time at the club where for a period he was revered across the country for not only being a real sportsman but also a real world class talent.

After his £22million move to Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in 2007 it seemed he'd been born on an English football pitch due to the manner in which he grew accustomed to life on our shores. In his first season he surpassed Ruud Van Nistelrooy to become the most prolific foreign debutant in English football, and then became the quickest Liverpool player to 50 league goals in their history.

Regarded as one of, if not the most, deadliest of strikers in the world during his stint with the Reds - from the way he dismantled Man United at Old Trafford, unraveled Nemanja Vidic on numerous occasions, scored the winner in the San Siro, alongside 'that goal' against Blackburn - for Fernando, much like Felix Baumgartner, the limit was beyond the sky.

Looking back, it's almost unfathomable that he has now fallen so far onto tough turf. He went on to score 65 goals in the league for Liverpool in 102 appearances, with interestingly the team he found most success against being Chelsea, and amassed 81 in total. But blighted by injuries and new management in the 10-11 season, Torres lost his way.

Fans of the Reds will tell you that he wasn't the same player after Rafa Benitez left, and it's true. His face depicted someone who wasn't happy, and his attitude certainly expressed that. He was lazy, he didn't run the channels, he never looked far away from a needless and petulant booking, his shooting was off, and as a result his whole game suffered.

Torres was a hero at Liverpool in the early years - in fact he was adorned by the Liverpool fans before he even joined them after a 'You'll Never Walk Alone' tattoo was revealed under his armband when still at Atleti - so there wasn't expected to be a dry eye in Anfield upon the thought that one day he would leave.

But after Kenny Dalglish declared that 'no player is bigger than the club' and he was shipped off to Chelsea for a British record £50million transfer fee, there weren't many that argued.

Regardless of what Dalglish and Damien Commoli then went on to do with the money, in hindsight it was fantastic business for a player who still continues to show no sign at Chelsea of being the player he ever was in Merseyside. His initial contribution to the team began as laughable before becoming pitiful after a goal against West Ham ended a run of 903 minutes without one.

This didn't act as the launch pad that many Blues fans had hoped for the Spainiard, as on 18 March 2012 his goal against Championship team Leicester City ended a run of 24 games without scoring, and the 31st March marked the first goal Torres scored in the league since 24th Sept, a period spanning seven months of football.

Whilst he has managed to find the net four times in eight appearances this season, he is still some distance away from the lethal front man that he was. This season he has been in many situations whereby he has raced onto a through ball from a team-mate that has given him five yards on the last defender of the opposition, and instead of taking it on and slotting it past the keeper he has miscontrolled, fumbled, or cut back with the seeming intention of avoiding the situation.

This leads to the obvious cries of 'the Torres at Liverpool' etc, but this must be extremely alarming for Roberto Di Matteo and Chelsea fans to witness, as a striker relies so much on confidence and there certainly appears no quick fix to give the kid faith again.

Many thought that the departure of Didier Drogba would be just the ticket - as Torres could become the hero of the team, the leader from the front, and gain consistent match practice - but the brilliant displays from Hazard, Oscar, and Mata in particular, have masked the poor performances of their sultry Spanish striker, and there is only so long they can continue to carry him.

There is some feeling around Stamford Bridge from fans that they have had enough. After all, Torres has never endeared supporters there in the same way as up north, especially after speaking out and criticising the team the morning after the Champions League victory in Munich.

Minds rush back to Andriy Shevchenko when contemplating how long to flog a dead donkey for, and as Edison Cavani and Radamel Falcao continue to maintain their lethal form overseas, you can forgive fans for thinking just how good this current Chelsea team can be with either of them leading the line.

Torres spoke recently of the latter, who is forging a familiar path to his at his former team: 'if the player becomes bigger than the club, you can't hold him back because that is no good for anybody'. Similarly, if the player is no longer big enough for the club, then something must be done.