There are a few, probably controversial points, that I would like to make about John Terry. Firstly, forget about what you think of him, or his general public persona; the best place to start is to talk about Terry the footballer, not Terry himself. We can cover that later. Sixty grand a week is an astronomical sum of money to the man on the street; I get that and always have. What exactly are Villa getting for their money? The transfer itself is a free one, which despite his age, makes sense for a player of Terry's calibre. His 22 seasons at Chelsea yielded 17 major honours. He won 26 individual awards and amassed 717 appearances in his time at Stamford Bridge. He is an icon and a legend at Chelsea; and 78 England caps cement Terry as a world class operator. Whatever your own opinions of him are, the facts and stats don't lie. Outside of Stamford Bridge, you'd do well to find many who'd place him upon the same pedestal.
I'm in no way sticking up for Terry; I know full well that controversy has followed him around for most of his career. Extra-marital affairs with team-mates ex-fiances and racial abuse scandals certainly haven't helped him in the popularity stakes. Those are things that obviously, none of us condone, but I'm trying to focus on the player himself here. When I hear Terry speak in the media, I get the impression that he doesn't care about what people think about him. Of course, I don't know the man and I could be massively wrong; I can only speculate. In reality, whether such matters are put on the back burner for him is debatable but not unlikely, given his insatiable drive and hunger to win and be successful. Others may point to the sheer arrogance of the man; 'I'm a famous professional footballer and former England Captain; I can do as I please.' He's won everything in the game and is going to Villa for the payday right? I'm not so sure, Terry could have earned far more in the Premier League or taking an easier route towards the riches of China for a year before their bubble ultimately bursts. The reasons he gave included Villa's project for the season, and the fact that he wouldn't want to face Chelsea as an opposition player. These reasons seem valid enough to me, but that hasn't stopped people passing them off as codswallop.
John Terry is no saint, that much is apparent, but because of his seemingly inflated ego, his arrogance and off-field problems, outside of Chelsea FC, we forget what he has achieved in the game. Because he is labelled a 'prick' or such like, the honours he's won seem to depreciate in value. I realize, that he has been found guilty of racist abuse in the past, so of course, diluting his footballing achievements is fully justifiable. But what of other players? The same happened to David Beckham, World Cup '98; hanging effigies and all that, and now it's happening to Wayne Rooney. Manchester United are arguably the biggest club in the world. Rooney with 253 goals, is their all-time top scorer, and given the frequency of movement by the modern player, that record is likely to remain unbroken. Rooney has 53 goals for England, the home of football, the nation that gave the world our beloved game; another record that will also remain untouched for a few years. 'Harry Kane will break it' is something I've heard countless times already; our typical football mentality at the moment. It's as if we are desperate for Rooney to be overtaken and have his tally expunged from the record books. Despite the England caps and the achievements at club level, many scholars point to Rooney's career as unfulfilled, which in itself, if you think about it, is a good indicator of how successful he has actually been. He carried a beacon of hope for England, almost on his own at times, and has been singled out for criticism after England's failings at major tournament. Like Terry, Rooney doesn't have the personality or the public aura of say a Frank Lampard. When Lampard speaks, people listen. He is quite rightly lauded as a legend of our game, but his career isn't in any way dissimilar to Terry's or Rooney's.
In this country, we are quick to label and pigeon-hole our players. Players that should be celebrated and hailed for their football achievements. In reality, what we do, is we pick and choose who is eligible for such a status. We judge on the whole package. We analyze the individual before we decide where he belongs in our history, and in the case of Terry, I get it when people say the controversy that he has courted warrants that we banish his career from our minds; I suppose it is just human nature to do so. John Terry is by no means a clean-cut guy. He has been quite rightly labelled many things, but as with the Beckhams and the Rooneys of the football world, our minds are seemingly made up. As a football purist, I find it all a little sad, especially when it comes to the latter. We'd do well to remember the football before all the bullshit that comes with it.
