A Big Thanks To John Terry... Again

Ahead of Manchester United’s 3-0 thrashing of Chelsea in the 2008-2009 season, the fans booed routinely as the opposition’s team sheet was read out. “…number seventeen, Jose Bosingwa” booooo, “… number 20, Deco” boooo, “… number 26, John Terry” yehhhhh!

This was the first time most of our fans were confronted with the man who was inches away from ruining our summer and denying us our third European Cup. Whilst it was Ryan Giggs who scored our final penalty and Nicolas Anelka who missed the crucial one, John CLL Terry is remembered as the man who could have won Chelsea their first ever Champions League title, but fucked it up. Thirteen other players took a penalty kick that night, yet he was the only one to slip on his arse.

The song we had sung week in week out for our best player, Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 42 goals, was adapted for Terry. Thank you for falling over and thank you for helping us win the European Cup.

Over the weekend, Terry gave us another reason to be thankful, following what was starting to pan out as another disappointment for England, and another scapegoat made of a Manchester United player.

Following England’s pathetic display against Algeria, the players were booed off the pitch, which Wayne Rooney, who has become accustomed to United fans’ unwavering support, didn’t take too kindly to. He sarcastically lashed out at England’s “loyal support”, who had travelled all the way to South Africa to boo their team.

This was of course met with media hysteria. How dare Rooney take issue with the booing fans, considering how much money they had paid and how dreadful England had been. Maybe if his ego wasn’t so big, maybe if he wasn’t so overpaid, maybe if he had played with passion, the England fans wouldn’t have needed to boo. Drop him.

So like David Beckham, Phil Neville and Cristiano Ronaldo before him, England’s inability to perform could now be put on Rooney’s doorstep. Forget that everyone else also played like shite, because Rooney dared to question these lionhearted supporters, he was supposed to be England’s Pele or Maradona, but it turns out that, alongside every other England player, with just two games played, he had let down the nation.

Enter John “I was born to be a leader” Terry.

You have to wonder about the size of an ego to call a press conference to criticise the current England setup to the media, without first speaking to the manager, and believing you can get away with it. Just because he can do no wrong in the eyes of Chelsea supporters, who will show up with “Team Terry” t-shirts after it’s been revealed he was having it away with the mother of his best mate’s kid, and who will boo said best mate and former Chelsea player for having the misfortune of being royally screwed over and publicly humiliated, does not mean he is viewed in the same light by England fans.

His position in the England camp is very different to that of Chelsea too. Hilariously hailed as ‘captain, leader, legend’ within the stadium, Roman Abramovich allows Terry free rein at Chelsea. Because Terry is allowed to give the half-time team talks, force managers out of the club, tell the owner what to do and try getting a contract clause to be future Chelsea manager before he has even retired, he has a self-inflated opinion of who he is, meaning he was always due a fall like this for England, where he isn’t respected a fraction as much.

Like Lord Triesman said, Terry lives in his own little bubble, unaware of his own unpopularity, and believes he can do no wrong.

This kind of behaviour may be tolerated, even supported, at clubs like Chelsea, but at proper establishments, it is rightly shunned. Can you imagine a Manchester United player addressing the media behind Sir Ferguson’s back in this way? They would never wear our shirt again.

Terry told the press that he would be holding a meeting with Fabio Capello to voice the unhappiness of the players with the way things were going, he joked that England players might be sent home like shamed Nicolas “dirty son of a whore” Anelka for voicing their opinions, he criticised the manager’s decision to leave out Joe Cole and didn’t appear to care less what Capello thought of this.

“The players can say how they feel and if it upsets him then I’m on the verge of just saying: ‘You know what? So what? I’m here to win it for England’,” he announced to the world’s press, in a bid to try and prove that he was Mr England, here to save the day.

“I don’t want to say it was me but I went to see Franco after the game and said ‘Look, let everyone have a beer and speak to the manager. Flippin’ hell, let’s just switch off’. For the first time since the manager has taken over we sat there and he let us have a beer.”

Scapegoat? Look no further than John Terry, the player who has thrusted himself in to the limelight with the hope of regaining the respect he once had. As a result, he has made himself look as foolish as ever, as well as taking any criticism and attention away from our Wayne, something our manager has clearly been concerned about.

Terry has since rang The Daily Mail to issue a public apology to the manager, tail between his legs and clearly embarrassed by his behaviour. He spent an hour on the phone pleading his case after the newspaper had accused him of trying to get revenge over Capello for

“All I was trying to do was to say how important it is to me to try to win the World Cup,” he claimed. “I just hope people at least appreciate that I have taken the time to call you and have asked you to report what I have to say in response.”

Interesting that it is within his capabilities to apologise publicly, given that former best mate Wayne Bridge wasn’t treated with the same courtesy after it was revealed Terry had been having an affair with the mother of his child.

The more time people spend being disgusted with Terry, the less time they’ll spend slagging off our player and putting even more pressure on his shoulders, and for this, I thank him. Can always rely on JT for a good ol’ fuck up eh?

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Dominic Fifield wrote for The Guardian: In the end a quiet aside from a senior member of the coaching staff served to remind John Terry that he is not quite as powerful now as he once was.

His astonishing pitch, delivered publicly, had been that of a player-manager in waiting, though he ended up looking more like what he is: a deposed captain.

There was something very Chelsea about the possible coup when it had first been mooted. The unrest surfaced in Cape Town but it could as easily have been at Cobham. Clear-the-air talks are commonplace in the post-José Mourinho era at the London club. They proved too much for Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose authority was terminally undermined once senior players decided to act upon a groundswell of dissatisfaction, whether it was born of the manager’s training techniques or game plans.

Capello may struggle to accept Terry’s role as the public voice of an apparent revolt. The controversies in the centre-half’s private life, with the effect they had on Wayne Bridge’s international career, apparently forced Capello’s hand in stripping him of the captaincy. Terry has always maintained his acceptance of the manager’s decision, however hard it was to take at the time. The decision to detail his intentions ahead of yesterday’s meeting is open to interpretation but it felt, at times, as if the 29-year-old was intent upon exacting some kind of revenge.

Terry appears to have incorrectly judged the mood of the nation. Back at Chelsea fans have tended to vent their spleen at the management rather than the players when things have not been going well. Grant, Scolari and even, at times, Ancelotti were simply not Mourinho.

Given that the majority of the players at the club still date from the Portuguese’s spell in charge – or at least enjoyed their heyday under his guidance – the Special One’s successors have seemed fallible and appeared easy targets. The players, for whom Terry is a figurehead, were virtually exempt.

That is not the case with England’s supporters. The nation was divided over his loss of the captaincy, some believing he should not have suffered for off-field misdemeanours and others believing that his actions risked splitting the dressing room. Either way he is not lauded by fans of the national team as he is at his club.

Sam Wallace wrote for The Independent: England’s desperate World Cup campaign was thrown into further disarray yesterday when an attempted challenge by John Terry on Fabio Capello’s authority was met with an angry backlash by the former captain’s team-mates.

Terry, who was sacked by Capello as captain in February, promised in his press conference yesterday that he would challenge his manager in last night’s crucial team meeting and said that he did not care if he “upset” the Italian. But his comments at the press conference, which were watched live by England players on television prompted derision and disbelief among the squad.

Having positioned himself earlier in the day as the man to take on Capello at all costs and claiming that he would challenge him over tactics when the meeting took place, The Independent understands that Terry said nothing to the manager last night. He was forewarned by Capello’s coaching staff that it would not go down well.

Capello’s staff and many of his senior players were astonished that, three days ahead of the crunch game with Slovenia, Terry had put himself up as their leader and the man to challenge the manager. Many of them also privately noted that Terry had been disruptive himself in recent weeks. He has had differences of opinion on the training ground with members of Capello’s staff.

Much of Terry’s frustration seems to be connected to a misunderstanding on his part when he was sacked by Capello as captain in February that led him to believe that he could one day get the job back. He was understood to be furious when Capello named Steven Gerrard as the replacement for the injured Rio Ferdinand this month.
Paul Hayward’s view (The Guardian): Capello squashed Terry’s political conceit with no great effort
F365 Mailbox: Am I the only one who has a real issue with this idea that Terry is showing himself to be a ‘true captain’. Surely a captain should adequately judge the mood of the squad, or even better talk to them prior to airing all the dirty linen. Anyone who thinks this is a selfless act of true leadership needs a reality check; this is a cynical ploy of a man who is still p*ssed off at having his captaincy taken away and is trying to make himself look like a leader, thus showing up Capello.
The Chelsea Blog: whilst Terry no doubt saw it as a bit of a battle cry ahead of our ‘must win game’ against Slovenia, rather than standing behind their former leader, it looks as if the ‘troops’ have been left scuffing their heels in the dirt awkwardly and whistling away in an effort not to hear his words – because they’re not interested. And neither is the England boss quite frankly.
Henry Winter’s view (The Telegraph): John Terry’s apology gives Fabio Capello a get-out-of-jail-free card. Following the public pronouncements of concern in the team’s direction by members of his dressing-room, notably Terry, David James and others sotto voce, the Italian has the perfect excuse if humiliation engulfs him and the team on Wednesday.