Valencia legend Mario Kempes is not surprised by Ferran Torres' early success at Manchester City.
The 21-year-old joined City from Valencia last summer in a deal initially worth €23m.
Torres arrived at the Etihad with a burgeoning reputation after three seasons in the Valencia first-team, in which he made 97 appearances across all competitions.
Growing pains have been minimal for Torres in his debut season, with his goal against Crystal Palace on Saturday taking his season tally to 10 from 32 games.
Speaking after the game, Pep Guardiola was effusive in his praise of the Spain U21 international.
"Ferran has scored a lot of goals, but today was first game is I saw that he can handle the physicality of the Premier League," said Guardiola.
"He was a little boy and now he is a man, when you have this aggression in the Premier League it is good."
Having watched Torres closely during his days at Mestalla, Kempes isn't surprised by his progress in Manchester.
"No, I'm not surprised at Ferran's success at Manchester City," the Argentine legend told Tribalfootball.com.
"Torres formed part of a great spine of players at Valencia CF who were sold off… like [Dani] Parejo and [Francis] Coquelin and Rodrigo.
"That was a special group of players at Valencia. What's happened is that Ferran Torres has gone from a good team (Valencia CF) to a really great team (Manchester City) and that quality makes the difference and he has shown his worth in England in the Premier League and in the Champions League."
As mentioned by Kempes, the departure of Torres, along with a number of senior players, has seen Los Che fall dramatically in La Liga this season.
And the World Cup winner says the club only have themselves to blame.
"If you see the "altibajos" (ups and downs) at Valencia CF since he left, you can draw your own conclusions," he added. "Valencia CF are not going to get relegated but they are way off places to play in Europe.
"I suffer watching them play because I see they only need a little more punch to be quite a bit higher in the league table. They're missing a couple of quality players to lift the team to where it should be."
You can purchase Mario Kempes' new autobiography, Matador, by clicking the link here.
