Sport
JOHN TERRY FAREWELL EXPOSED OVER-INDULGENCE IN FOOTBALL
JOHN TERRY FAREWELL EXPOSED OVER-INDULGENCE IN MODERN FOOTBALL
TERRY – LAST OF A DYING BREED
There aren’t many footballers around in the mould of John Terry anymore, both in the physical sense on the pitch and the mental sense. Loyalty can no longer be taken as a liberty in the game, yet the former England captain is leaving Chelsea after a 22-year affiliation with the club, including 19 as a professional, but the longevity of his career at Stamford Bridge doesn’t tell half his story.
“Captain. Leader. Legend” and “Mr Chelsea” are among the words spread across banners in all four corners of the stadium. Terry is a symbol for the Blues, a rock-solid defender who has embodied the club throughout its most changeable years, since Roman Abramovich bought it in 2003. Calling him bigger than Chelsea would be unfair and categorically untrue, but every one of the 13 full-time managers has had to get him on side or risk a very short stay on the King’s Road. Five Premier League titles, three League Cups, five FA Cups, a Champions League and a Europa League have all been lifted by the 36-year-old, but with another FA Cup final to come next week, he has just one more opportunity to do it again for the Blues.
It cannot be argued against that Terry is one of a dying breed at least, a local lad done good. But his send off in Sunday’s final game at Stamford Bridge just did not sit right. In fact, it was downright farcial.
FINAL SEND OFF WAS ALL TOO MUCH
Substitutions in the first half of football matches do not occur often in regular circumstances, so that makes what happened strange to begin with. But when Terry, seemingly by his own request, was substituted with a guard of honour in the 26th minute, the same as his shirt number, it all felt a bit over the top to say the least.
Surely a gesture like that, clearly soaked in sentiment and designed to give him a moment in the sun, should be someone else’s idea. The fact he came up with it makes it feel a little forced, and now is a good time to remember how Chelsea had originally planned, and announced, their skipper’s departure a year ago.
But more importantly, why did Sunderland agree to it? Ignoring any accusations of wrongdoing, with the BBC reporting that that thousands of pounds had been won in bets on the organised incident, which saw the visitors kick the ball out of play, it opened, now former Black Cats boss David Moyes up for criticism. The Scot, who resigned on Monday, was becoming more unpopular with the Sunderland fans by the day, and after his failure to face up to them in the final home game before their season in the Championship, the involvement in this whole saga, pandering to Terry, could not have improved matters if he had stayed.
NEW TREND? LET’S HOPE NOT
Legendary figures like Terry deserve a goodbye befitting of their status, but within reason. Two years ago, when Didier Drogba left the Blues for a second time, his final game was also against Sunderland and saw his teammates carry him off the pitch, albeit he was injured at the time. When these kinds of incidents occur mid-match, it cheapens the spectacle.
Bayern Munich duo Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso and Roma’s own ‘god; Francesco Totti are also waving goodbye to their clubs, and careers, this season. Steven Gerrard had to walk away from Liverpool in 2015, a year after Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs hung up his boots. In none of these cases was there any animosity at all; they got the fitting send offs they fully deserved with no negative reaction, because none of them took the spotlight of the actual game.
Worse still, Frank Lampard, Chelsea’s all time top goalscorer with 211 goals from midfield and the man even Terry says is the club’s greatest ever player, did not get anything close to the same reception when he left in 2014.
WHY THE SPECIAL TREATMENT?
The reasons why this happened for Terry are much deeper than the player himself. It has more to do with modern attitudes and the need to be seen to care, which often takes it too far. These situations are easy to overestimate, but there is a distinct possibility that Terry could be back at Stamford Bridge as an opposing player. Bournemouth, West Brom and Swansea are just three Premier League clubs to be linked with an attempt to sign him.
Antonio Conte has proven he has no place for sentiment this season. Restricting Terry to just nine appearances as he reshaped the team in his image. Granted, the league had been won and the game was a dead rubber, but he cannot have been best pleased with this incident. Professional standards, which the Italian holds in the highest regard, would say it was completely unnecessary.
To best sum up John Terry as a player would be to point to Manchester City’s courtship of him in 2009. City had recently been bought out by Sheikh Mansour and were in need of a top defender. Eyeing ‘Mr Chelsea’ in a £45million deal, Terry flirted, but, fully aware that he could get a new contract from the Blues, never seriously considered the offer. Millions have been spent on new central defenders since. The likes of Eliaquim Mangala, Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones – City can only imagine how much they’d have saved by completing a deal for Terry.
Every club has legendary players who bond emotionally, as well as financially, to what they stand for. John Terry will be missed at Chelsea, having literally put his body on the line for their cause for almost two decades. But the farewell he received has been justifiably criticised, not only because it may breech betting rules, but because it showed football an embarrassing truth.
