Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher says Liverpool were dumbfounded when Chelsea paid them £50m for Fernando Torres.

The Spaniard's contribution at Anfield had declined after initially scoring 56 goals in his first 79 Premier League games.

He went on to score 20 goals in 110 matches for Chelsea, which didn't come as a surprise for Carragher.

"I couldn't believe it. I knew we had kidded Chelsea. Those last 12 months, he was a shadow of his former self," Carragher told Sky Sports.

"For 18 months at Liverpool, he was the best striker in the world, and I think he had such a good record against Chelsea that obviously stuck in the owner's mind.

"Chelsea at that stage, I think the owner was still buying players who he wanted, [Andriy] Shevchenko was another case.

"What happened that was fortunate for Liverpool, that season we played Chelsea, and we weren't having a great season and Torres was having a really poor time but he scored two against Chelsea.

"I think the decision was made then - as soon as January comes, we are going for Fernando Torres.

"£50m was major money at that stage and we were all in a state of shock, we could not believe we had got £50m.

"We ended up doing something similar ourselves in buying Andy Carroll for £35m, but we did get Luis Suarez out of it. I was not surprised at all that it didn't go well."