 |
| Taken from MTN Football |
The French press has once again brought us back to the Stone Age. They are apparently claiming that PSG is ready for a big move to bring Mr. Chelsea to France. Carlo Ancelloti is a fan favourite at Chelsea after achieving the double, but stealing our captain or even thinking about stealing our captain makes my blood boil.
It just about crosses the limit and it’s the same way I felt when I heard City had almost completed a deal to sign John Terry last season. His contract states that he can leave the club only if he wants to and that’s not what I see, even if the world ends in 2012.
Think about it, a man who is a perfect example of “Eat, Sleep, Chelsea”, would he want to move away from the club that he loves, adores and captains?
But moving on to the crux, I found a very interesting story in a Chelsea forum by a former youth player at Chelsea, Sam Tillen, who now plays in Iceland.
It shows Terry as a nice guy and something that the media today completely ignores as his scandalous life makes bigger G’s for the tabloids .
He says that when he was at the training ground he got to see how the players really were. Some were good, some were bad. Sam was injured for about eight months when he was 17. John Terry was injured about the same time and they worked together during rehabilitation.
John always observed him and when Sam had to get his surgery done, he asked the physio to tell Sam to go on a vacation and that John would pay it from the ‘discipline fund’ (money collected from a player if he comes late for training).
He went with his mother as she had also just finished her surgery and they had lost a lot of blood. Sam didnt have enough money to go to an exotic place, so he told John that he was leaving to Sevilla, but John insisted that he should go to the Caribbean and that he would pay for it and also gave him some pocket money to spend.
On returning from his vacation, he was a renewed man and John personally came to see him. Sam also stated that John paid for each and every youth team member’s driving lessons. They only had to tell him how much it cost and he would do it the next day.
“When the youth players clean the boots, they always want to get the big ones. Terry, Lampard, Morris etc- because then they get higher Christmas bonuses.
John never forgot how it was to be a player in the youth team and was the perfect captain. If someone did well, he would encourage them.”
According to Sam, he never forgot the young players and always monitored them.
Sam recollected that on the pitch and the training ground he was magnificent, he had a heart like a lion. He trained after practices, and always put in extra effort. They all looked up to him.
One of the most famous incidents related to his kindness was about Chelsea’s former masseur, AI as he was called. When his car broke down he couldn’t attend training sessions as he was too old to use public transport. John brought him to the parking lot one day, closed his eyes and told him to open it.
There in front of him was a brand new car, all the first-team players chipped in to buy AI a new one. The man was in tears and this happened before Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea.
When AI was really sick, John contacted him and visited him regularly till he passed away and AI’s wife was delighted that John had thought about him.
Sam also stated that Chelsea’s former captain Marcel Desailly was nothing like John Terry. When they had to deliver signed shirts, Marcel usually ignored them but John treated them as equals as he knows how it feels like to be a part of the youth team. He was a good player but compared to John he did nothing that a captain should do. Sam ended with a line which touched me:
“No one else would have done that or even thought about doing it. He is no saint, but there is a reason why Chelsea fans, players and staff look at John Terry as a real leader.”
How many captains or leaders do you see today who care so much about the club? A man who is regarded as the finest youth product, or in reality, the greatest youth product that the Chelsea youth academy has produced, a man who breathes fire and plays for the lion on the chest prouder then anyone else, would he want to move away? When you come to Chelsea you are addicted to the club as a player.
Your heart gets emotionally attached and you forget that your paycheck is enormous and even when a player leaves for another club which offer more money, he would always remember the time when he wore the blue shirt.
Written by Sherry Phillips
Follow me on Twitter @bluebloodSherry
Please like O-Posts on Facebook
Follow the site on Twitter