EPL Talk » John Terry

How Important Has Foreign Influence Been On The English Premiership?

Rami Soufi — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:21:27 +0000

The influence of foreigners on football in England cannot be underestimated. While Coach Fabio Capello has guided England through the qualifiers and instilled a winning mentality amongst the players, the skills of English players such as Wayne Rooney and the presence of leaders like John Terry must also be credited with the change in England’s fortunes. It could very well be a combination of Don Fabio’s managerial skills, the quality of the players at his disposal and the maturity of certain players. The time is ripe for the likes of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard to deliver for England.

On the club level, the English Premiership has in excess of 330 foreign players representing over 60 countries while the English makeup less than half of the league’s total eligible players. The contribution of non-English footballers has been enormous with Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Gianfranco Zola, Didier Drogba, and Fernando Torres, just to name a few, all providing the fans in England with numerous highlights. While such classy players brought flair and showmanship to the game, the core values of the English game, in particular hard work, drive and commitment to the team, the fanatical support of the fans and their dedication to their clubs, have all meshed well together to transform the English clubs into perennial challengers on the European front. Manchester United lifted the Champions League twice since 1999 while Liverpool won it once with a further appearance in the final (both Arsenal and Chelsea also made it to the final in recent years). The positive displays and achievements in Europe are a sign of the new heights reached by football clubs in England to the pleasure of local fans.

Off the pitch, foreign owners have invested heavily in English clubs with Manchester City and Chelsea the leading example of the exuberant funding provided by some of those tycoons. Roman Abramovich has spent a fortune to turn Chelsea into a contender and helped the London outfit win the league title for the first time in several decades while the past several months have seen extravagant sums paid by Manchester City’s owner Dr. Al-Fahim. Foreign ownership extends beyond those two clubs to include Liverpool and Manchester United among others.

The foreign element has brought the skills of talented footballers to England and provided some clubs with massive funding while putting to good use the core characteristics of football culture in England, basically the loyalty and fervent support of English fans, the unrefined and raw talent along with the fighting spirit of English players. Simply put, diverse talent from around the world has been “coming home” to football’s motherland to provide high quality entertainment.

The English game had the fundamental ingredients needed to move forward and was only missing a key component to become a successful recipe. With the combination of local flavor and foreign infusion, the elements of success have finally aligned together. England’s Premiership has overtaken Italy’s Serie A in many ways according to well-respected critics, and that certainly is no easy feat considering the quality of Italian clubs just a few years ago.

Diamonds Are Back In Fashion At Stamford Bridge

Paul Bestall — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:49:55 +0000

Carlo Ancelotti has certainly stamped his mark on Chelsea early in the season so far. A Community Shield victory, coupled with 3 Premiership wins on the bounce has seen Chelsea rise to the top end of the table. So far, so what then? Nothing surprising in that in itself, would we expect the any of the big four to not already be putting markers down for the early running. What did make me sit up and take notice was Michael Essien being placed on the bench so early.

Ancelotti said after yesterdays game that he wanted to rest Essien as he was tired after his efforts in the midweek win at Sunderland. Two weeks in to the season and rotation is already being seen in Chelsea’s team selection. In the two games since the opening day win against Hull, Ancelotti has changed 4 players in both starting line-ups, with only 6 players starting all 3 games.

Cech, Cole, Boswinga, Terry, Lampard and Drogba are the the six in question with only Lampard retaining his place in Ancelotti’s much discussed midfield diamond formation. Perhaps this is the managers way of dealing with the fragile ego’s that modern footballers display on a daily basis by showing that match time is available to as many of the players as possible. Yet, Lampard has been moved around the midfield diamond, starting on the right against Hull, on the left hand side against Sunderland and then at the forward point against Fulham.

Against Fulham, Lampard was consistently further forward throughout the game than I’d seen in a long time. Whilst there is no doubt that Lampard remains the most potent and consistent attacking midfielder in the Premiership, his position often saw him playing alongside Drogba and Anelka at Craven Cottage.I’ve only ever seen him playing so offensively in cup matches against lower league opposition but Fulham never got to grips with Lampard positioning. Chelsea’s were then able to control the ball and Fulham never looked likely to stop the flow through to the strikers.

Perhaps this is a part of the new midfield system that Ancelotti is trying to instill into the Chelsea midfield. By rotating the starting positions of the midfield, especially with such experienced international players keeps their opponents guessing. It seems designed to confuse teams that will be looking to specify defensive midfielders to do a man marking job on Lampard. Clever players can always cope with these systems, that seem to allow the midfield to rotate fluidly throughout the match.

It’s certainly given Chelsea a little bit more mystery when they play. Against Sunderland, they were constantly breaking in waves, pouring forward from the midfield but seemingly taking turns to lead the charge. Deco would go, then Ballack, then Lampard, occasionally Essien would burst forward confusing the opponents even more. Perhaps he’s already trying to work out how things will shape up when the African Cup Of Nations kicks off in January.

I’ve been very impressed with Ancelotti’s work so far, but the first real test will in October when the Blues entertain Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.Once we see this fluid diamond formation come up against top class midfielders trying to dismantle it, it will interesting to see if still works as well.

Is John Terry Really Going To Join Manchester City?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:38:05 +0000

The rumours first started in January that Manchester City were interested in landing John Terry, but nothing seemed too concrete and I, perhaps along with a lot of people, just dismissed it as paper talk. Why on earth would Terry leave the Blues to take a risk on Manchester City. Now though, its official, City are chasing Terry and they’ve made two offers.

Friday’s offer of £30 million plus the agreement to pull out of the arbitration process over Daniel Sturridge’s compensation certainly raised eyebrows, but Terry has been very quiet. Whilst the club and new manager, Carlo Ancelotti have both stated that Terry isn’t for sale, it just strikes me as odd that they’ve decided to make it public knowledge. If someone comes in for your club captain, you reject it out of hand and leave it at that don’t you?

Are Chelsea laying the ground for Terry’s exit by allowing the bid to come out in to the public domain? By playing to the fans in this way, saying that they don’t want him to go, it seems designed to get Terry to commit to the club publicly. Surely Terry wouldn’t forgo Champions League football for £300,000 a week would he?

If I’m honest, I wouldn’t be that surprised if Terry does request a transfer. After seeing Kaka state at 10am that he was sick of the speculation of him leaving AC Milan and he wasn’t going anywhere, then 6 hours later agreeing terms with Real Madrid, nothing would shock me this summer. Apparently Terry hasn’t closed the door on Manchester City, but then again maybe he’s using that as a leverage tool to renegotiate his contract.

He’s currently on around £140,000 a week at Chelsea and knows he could at least double that if he did join Mark Hughes outfit. At 28, he’s hardly over the hill but City would offer him at least a 5 year contract worth a total of £75 million if he were to join them. That is a frightening amount of money in anyone’s book and perhaps that’s why Terry has yet to come out and state his intention to stay at Chelsea. Would an increased bid of £40 million see Chelsea let him go?

The crucial factor here is the fans response and Terry will have noted the ridicule and insults that Gareth Barry has had to suffer since he agreed to leave Aston Villa to move to Manchester City. Barry’s comments from last summer, when he stated that he wanted to leave purely for Champions League football, became an empty gesture when he went to Manchester City in June. Of course, football fans and commentators forget that in the real world when someone offers you twice the money you earn to do the same job somewhere else, you bite their hands off.

The emotional attachment that we all have as fans blinds us to reality sometimes, we love the clubs we support and don’t understand it when we see players we feel don’t share the emotional attachment. Terry has already crossed the line once in his career, walking out on his boyhood team, West Ham, to join Chelsea as a fourteen year old, so emotional attachment is not too strong a tie for him. He may be club captain but is he a Chelsea fan or a professional footballer?

Makelele Blames Terry for Mourinho Exit

Brian Louie — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:43:37 +0000

Claude Makelele’s grit in Chelsea’s midfield and ability to play a quick pass made him the fitting example of the ‘Claude Makelele’ role, whatever that means. It’s even been said that he’s managed to define the holding midfield position as much as Franz Beckenbauer the sweeper role. And he’s now cashing in on the footballer bio.

Makelele may have been adored at Stamford Bridge, but perhaps not so much anymore. Maybe it’s an attempt to sell hardcovers, or perhaps there’s some sort of perceived slight from Chelsea’s brave captain John Terry on the former French international while he played under Jose Mourinho in London. Undoubtedly, it’s an attempt to remain relevant at the end of his career, as any bio indicates.

Whatever the reason, much like Ashley Cole’s revelation that Cesc Fabregas was the main perpetrator in Pizzagate, Makalele’s decided to heap the culpability for Jose Mourinho’s departure from Chelsea on JT’s broad shoulders.

Apparently, Terry was unhappy with Mourinho’s assessment of his performance in the wake of back problems and went to chief executive Peter Kenyon to issue a transfer request. And this is where the word ‘talisman’ comes in. In owner Roman Abramovich’s mind, that was JT and not Mourinho, and the Portuguese was out.

Understandably, this may have simply been the inevitable outcome when two egos as large as Mourinho’s and Abramovich’s inhabit the same club. The notion that Mourinho left Stamford Bridge via ‘mutual consent’ was always hardly believable, but even the outspoken Mourinho had to filter his comments regarding the billionaire owner; he is a Russian oligarch after all.

It’s easy to label this as more celebrity footballer heresy, a tactic to sell books. But it isn’t hard to believe that what Makalele says is true. While Mourinho and Abramovich may have built Chelsea into the contender they are today, they also built a cult of personality around their players. Even Makelele was one, having ‘defined’ his eponymous role, and Frank Lampard and John Terry were the biggest of the heroes.

John Terry has endured a long career at Chelsea. He may only be 28, but his body has endured the abuse that can age a man, due to beginning his first team career early and his selfless attitude on the pitch. He’s the first man for Chelsea to put his body on the line for the good of the side. But at some point the hero worship must get to every player, and I’m sure one of the highest-paid at Chelsea isn’t immune to believing his own hype. Like all top center-halves, his experience will extend his career, but even the best are falliable.

Perhaps it was the end of a whirlwind ride for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. Perhaps the itch was already there for the charismatic manager, and the rest of Europe beckoned anyway. But you have to wonder if there was a legacy there for the taking for the Blues and Mourinho. Since his departure, it’s been nothing but heartache for fans and there’s a certain aura surrounding Chelsea, epitomized by their loss to Barcelona in the Champions League.

It’s hard not to see a group of overpaid, overblown egos, from Didier Drogba to Ashley Cole, and yes, perhaps even the selfless captain. Makelele also blames Mourinho for ruining the camaraderie of the dressing room at the Bridge, going to show that despite being a sport of men, it’s a world of little boys, all getting their feelings hurt. Guus Hiddink may have the opportunity to end his time at the club with the satisfaction of a cup win today, but Chelsea remain a pilot-less ship.

[ESPN, Daily Mail, Times]

West Ham Fans To Get A Surprise

Paul Bestall — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:54:31 +0000

When the final whistle went and those West Ham fans who’d spent most of Saturdays game against Chelsea abusing former old boys, Frank Lampard and John Terry, had disappeared to the pubs around and about, I bet they never thought they’d ever see either player back at Upton Park that soon. Obviously they were unaware that both players have agreed in principle to play for West Ham in a testimonial match for the Hammers’ academy director, Tony Carr as a celebration of his 36 years working for West Ham.

Now the West Ham fans have to swallow their pride after Saturday and think about how their actions toward those two former players reflects on Tony Carr’s night. Here’s a guy who’s given years of service to West Ham United and brought through countless players since he took over the role as Director Of Youth Development in 1973.There’s no doubt if Chelsea had played anywhere that weekend, they’d have got a lot of stick, especially Lampard and Terry and the chants weren’t that bad in the context of some of the things that are sung at football matches.

Yet, Lampard hasn’t helped himself before, with some comments about how his time was at West Ham, that he didn’t enjoy it as well, his family was badly treated by the club, he also said in a Chelsea supporters meeting he’d love to score the goal that sent West Ham down as well as the allegation that when he broke his leg playing for West Ham, some fans were cheering. I’d hate to think that was true, in fact I find it very hard to believe that West Ham fans would do that at all.So the abuse he got on Saturday was to be expected really.

People forget that Lampard has a history of slating West Ham whenever he seems to be interviewed but to say Lampard had a tough week last week would be an understatement, with the anniversary of his mothers death, an on air argument with a sad little shock jock and then the gauntlet of abuse he ran at Upton Park.

West Ham fans didn’t sing anything about his mother, but they did about the rant with the DJ and splitting up with his girlfriend, Terry got the same about his mother’s shopping indiscretion. That’s what happens at football matches, away players get rude songs sang at them, always have done, always will do. Some of the criticism the West Ham fans have received seems to be rather calculated in my opinion and I don;t think the stick they got was any worse than they would have received at Arsenal, Tottenham and Fulham.

I’m sure the majority of West Ham fans that attend Tony Carr’s testimonial remember it’s a celebration of someone that has brought through the calibre of Joe Cole, Lampard, Carrick, The Ferdinand brothers, Glen Johnson, Mark Noble,Tony Cottee, Paul Ince and the latest batch of Collinson, Tomkins, Sears and Stanislas. Let’s hope the minority don’t spoil a celebration of a man who would bleed claret and blue if you cut him, a more humble and proud Hammers fan you’d be hard pressed to find. Save all your singing for the next time you play Chelsea and give them the stick you feel they deserve, just don’t overstep the mark or spoil Tony Carr’s night.