COMMENT: The fickle world of the football fan.

Before Christmas Liverpool had dispensed with the joyless tenure of Roy Hodgson and Reds legend Kenny Dalglish was in post and suddenly results began to improve with striker Fernando Torres now finding form and beginning to score.

Torres, the darling of the Kop, he who shifted more named shirts than anybody else, he who could do no wrong in the eyes of Liverpool fans.

What could possibly go wrong? Everything actually. In the space of a few short hours on Monday 31st January the Spanish World Cup winner swapped red for blue and immediately went from hero to zero.

He was still the same player, the same person, but he would now be plying his trade with rivals Chelsea and would overnight become persona non grata amongst the Anfield faithful.

Torres shirts were burned, blogs, tweets, newsgroups, radio phone-ins and letters pages all heaped vitriol on his head for daring to change allegiances so abruptly.

The fact that Liverpool had also bought players from other club's, presumably also upsetting their fans, seemed to get overlooked in the great scheme of things.

When Torres made his anonymous debut for Chelsea against Liverpool and was substituted in the second half, joy was unconfined amongst the visiting fans, and when the Reds scored cries of, "Torres, Torres what's the score" were almost mandatory.

The problem is, for a football fan a club is for life - for player's it's until the next big contract is dangled in front of them by their agents.

Meanwhile just down the M6 at Blackburn, Venky's took control of Rovers in November after a £23million deal to buy the club from the Walker Trust.

Now, the late Jack Walker was revered beyond comprehension for the way he transformed the club from bottom feeders in the old First Division to Champions of the Premier League in 1995.

The Walker Trust was not as enthusiastic about their investment as Jack and had long been looking for a buyer.

Rovers were still in the Premiership and managed to punch above their weight despite struggling financially even if it did come at a cost.

That cost was Sam Allardyce whose style of play was functional at best but it did keep the Ewood Park outfit in the top flight. An acquired taste he might be, but to the fans he was getting the job done.

Venky's started their reign with bizarre comments over the level of ambition, ranging from top ten to top four finishes.

Then we had pronouncements as to making moves for all the top players in the world. Rovers supporters were not impressed.

The final straw was the sudden sacking of Allardyce by the new owners to be replaced by the unknown Steve Kean.

The previous stability of the club was being shaken and with it any credibility. Rovers were now making Newcastle look well run.

A backlash against the new owners and Kean followed, with half-hearted protests and mutterings of boycotts.

Gradually Rovers style of play became more pleasing to the eye, results improved, culminating in a stunning 3-1 win over Liverpool.

Last Wednesday events turned full circle as the new owners were given a warm reception when they arrived at Ewood Park for the game against Tottenham.

The crowd of 23,253 inside the ground clapped as a brief message from co-owner Anuradha Desai was played on the big screen just before kick-off.

Blackburn lost 1-0 on the pitch, but for the new owner's there was the comfort of a result off the pitch - the fans appeared to have been won over.

A quick straw poll of supporters showed a mellowing of attitude towards Venky's based mainly on the more attractive football being played.

"I was disappointed when Sam left but since then the football has improved," stated one fan.

Even the recent axing of long serving chairman John Williams hasn't overly polarised opinions against Venky's as would have happened in the a few weeks ago.

A couple of decent signings in the transfer window and owners can have the fans eating out of their hands particularly if you hint there is more money available for squad strengthening in the summer.

In short, the football fan is very blinkered - as long as their team is winning, all is right with the world regardless who owns them or plays for them.

The fickle world of the football fan.