Interviews

Here's a collection of interviews and articles on John that I've collected. They're in date order with most recent interviews first. If you have any magazine/newspaper interviews etc with JT that aren't here, email me a copy and I'll add them!

Ok three articles from the weekend of the FA Cup 4th round, 25th January. These all feature John's elder brother Paul who plays for Conference Side Dagenham & Redbridge who were in the 4th Round for the first time in their history. Well worth a read.

Source: Guardian 25th January 2003

Terry driven by missing the boat

The Dagenham midfielder sets his sights on the fifth round

The air was thick with banter at Dagenham last night at the final training session before their fourth-round FA Cup tie at Norwich tomorrow. But the targets were not strained hamstrings, dodgy left pegs and mistimed volleys; the majority of the stick was being dished out over the press cuttings of players who have discovered a new celebrity since the club reached this stage of the competition for the first time.

Paul Terry, elder brother of Chelsea's centre-half John, says: "Danny Shipp got a lot of grief over that picture of him in a wheelbarrow. He looked as though he had a double chin and with all that stubble, he was a dead ringer for Desperate Dan. But no one has had more than Westy [the defender Steve West] for his metal detection hobby. Mind you, he's always had stick from us over that."

Behind all the kidding and despite their non-league status, they are footballers who take the game seriously. Only a few, like Mark Stein, may have experienced life at the highest levels but the remainder, like Terry, feel that they could have, and maybe should have, been contenders.

Terry, at 23, is young enough not to give up hope that the next knock on his door might be from the manager of a league club rather than a Jehovah's Witness, though old enough to have adapted to reality. He says: "It knocked all the stuffing out of me when Charlton and then Millwall found reasons not to take me on. I was at Charlton from 14 to 18 and the knock-back broke my heart. But you have to go out and find a job."

Until a year ago he was working from six until six as a fork-lift driver but decided that it was too demanding. Now he spends two days a week at home looking after his nine-month-old daughter Georgia and the rest of the time training to be a driving instructor.

Having taken Charlton to a replay in the third round two seasons ago, losing a well fought game by a single goal at home, Terry and his pals are confident they can put on a show at Carrow Road. "We're not frightened, that's for sure. We're ready for the challenge and will give it a good go."

Tomorrow, whatever the result, the players and their wives will introduce a good old-fashioned Dagenham knees-up to East Anglia, having booked into a hotel for the night. That means Terry will be unable to make the journey to Shrewsbury to watch Chelsea on Sunday, though that was always unlikely, hangover or no hangover. He says: "We both try to watch each other's matches as often as possible but this weekend hasn't worked out well in terms of locations."

Daggers players understand the role of underdogs since in the Conference they are often cast as the fat cats who are deemed not to fancy mixing it on windswept afternoons at Morecambe. And this season their FA Cup exploits have usually been followed by an FA Trophy tie. Terry says: "I know our opponents have been thinking we wouldn't be up for it after the FA Cup glamour but we're up for every game here."

Dagenham missed promotion last season on goal difference and had a right to feel hard done by when Boston were allowed to take up a place in the Third Division despite financial irregularities that led to them having four points deducted before they had any.

The Daggers looked odds-on to win this season's Conference but they have taken their eye off the ball on too many occasions, though it is not, says Terry, because they have been blinded by the FA Cup spotlight.

He says: "We were so determined to prove to everyone that we were the ones who should have gone up that we were trying too hard and, when you do that, you find the little things don't come off. It's only in the last few weeks that we have relaxed a bit and started to play. But we're currently eighth, only six points off a play-off place, and we know we're capable of going on a run."

If the FA Cup helps to launch a climb into the play-offs, Terry is confident they will do well. "The play-offs are like a series of cup games and we seem to thrive in that atmosphere. That's why we will be walking out at Norwich believing that we can win."
*~*

Source: Times 25th January 2003

Terrys look forward to a rare moment on same stage

John and Paul Terry are close. They ring each other before matches, wishing each other good luck, and after matches, too. “What’s the score? How’d you get on?” The sibling rivalry of their teens fell by the wayside years ago, left on a field in Barking where they played one-on-one.

“We had a few little arguments every now and then,” John said. “As brothers do,” Paul chipped in, amused at the memories. “We’ve always been good friends but always competitive as well,” John said. Mutual respect reigns, the bond unbreakable. The Terrys may have gone their own ways since the kickabout days in Essex but they have been drawn together again this weekend in the FA Cup fourth round. Paul, the midfield player, plays for Dagenham & Redbridge against Norwich City at Carrow Road this afternoon; John, the central defender, plays for Chelsea, probably as captain in the absence of Marcel Desailly, against Shrewsbury Town at Gay Meadow tomorrow.

John, 22, Barclaycard Premiership, Europe, big money, big profile, has made it. Paul, 23, Nationwide Conference and trainee driving instructor, has not. Big brother in the Terry family maybe but little exposure until the Cup comes around.

Yet there is no jealousy, no resentment that John has got what he hasn’t. “No, nothing like that,” Paul said. “I’m pleased for John and what he’s doing now. Obviously, I’d love to be in the same position as him but if it’s not going to happen to me, then the only person I’d want it to happen to is him.”

It could have been different. They played in the same youth side before the talent of the younger Terry took him into a higher age group. He dropped back, forced by league officials who considered that playing against older boys was an injury risk, before joining Senrab, the renowned East London club that also spawned Ledley King, Paul Konchesky, Jlloyd Samuel and Bobby Zamora.

“Senrab won all the cups, everything,” John said. “We’d win six or seven-nil every week and loads of people would come to watch us because they’d heard how good we were.” He trained with West Ham United and Arsenal but did not enjoy it and switched to Chelsea. “From day one, I loved it,” he said. He had arrived. Paul spent four years with Charlton Athletic but was rejected at 18. It hurt. Deeply. “I don’t think I dealt with it very well,” he said. “I bottled it all up, I didn’t really want to talk about it. It really affected me. I didn’t talk to John about it, I didn’t talk to anyone. I just tried to put on a brave face.”

John tried to help but had flown the family nest and was living in digs. Their paths crossed rarely. Also, he had just joined Chelsea’s youth training scheme. As Paul’s dreams lay shattered, John’s were taking shape.

“I was happy but the emotions at home were mixed,” John said. “Even when I did see Paul, he wouldn’t talk to me. I could tell he was troubled. He must have been devastated. The fact that he was so upset made me even more determined.” Paul recovered gradually. “I had stopped enjoying football but I went to Millwall for a while, then on to Bromley, then Dagenham,” he said. “I started enjoying it again.” He has had five years at Victoria Road, still waiting for the call that could resurrect a career with the professionals.

John has had his darker moments, too, drink-related incidents creating unwelcome headlines. Yet he has learnt from his errors and the label of FCC — Future Chelsea Captain — sits easily on his shoulders. England may beckon as well.

For Paul, the Cup gives him a taste of what might have been — the rounds of interviews, column inches, national interest. Camera, lights, action. But no more introspection, no more bitterness. He is content with his lot.

Today and tomorrow, the Terrys will be fighting for the same cause, a place in the fifth round. “Shrewsbury will be no pushovers,” John said. “They showed that against Everton in the previous round. It’s all about us, winning the battle first and then our ability should come through.” “We’re always thought of as minnows but we expect that,” Paul said. “We’ll enjoy it while we can but if we get knocked out by Norwich, then we’ll get on with the Conference and FA Trophy. We’re not going to win the FA Cup, anyway.”

And if Chelsea and Dagenham both won and were paired in the last 16? Imagine the “Terry’s All Gold” puns, the brothers-in-arms gags. Paul, the ginger-mopped one, laughs; John, spikey-haired and taller, muses. They have never played in opposite teams. “That would be perfect, wouldn’t it?” Paul said. “But it would be a bit weird also. I suppose we’d have to put everything aside for 90 minutes but, I mean, you’ve got your own team-mates and the tackles are still going to be flying in. If someone put one in on John, I’m not sure I’d be too happy about that.”

*~*

Source: Mirror 25th January 2003

All You Need Is Bruv

WITH football rapidly discovering no one is perfect, step forward John and Paul Terry as unlikely FA Cup role models.

Both have had their fair share of setbacks in the game. But their resurgence is one of the best examples from which young players can learn today.

Paul, 23, was released by Charlton five years ago after 12 months as an apprentice. John, 22, missed Chelsea's FA Cup Final defeat to Arsenal last year when he fell ill on the morning of the game. He was also frozen out by Sven Goran Eriksson after a fracas at a central London nightclub, of which he was eventually cleared.

But both are back. Paul to inspire his Dagenham side against First Division Norwich this afternoon and John, determined to sweep aside Shrewsbury tomorrow. Yet during their lowest points, they were there for each other. Paul, now training to be a driving instructor, explained: "You talk to anyone my age and they always tell you how much they regret the first year of their apprenticeship.You seem to take it for granted and think, 'Yeah, I've got another year to impress' but that first year goes by very quickly. "I didn't go AWOL or anything like that. But maybe I could have stayed behind and done that extra hour's training and worked on little things that could have improved my game." John added: "When I did my YTS I had my jobs to do but while Paul had something to go home to, our mum and dad and his girlfriend, I was in digs. But maybe that helped me, because after my duties I would go back out and do a little extra training as otherwise I was going back to an empty house."

During John's well-publicised England troubles it was Paul who proved a shoulder to cry on. Now John hopes to repay that support by forcing his way into the England squad to face Australia next month. John said: "We speak every day and if Paul reads something untrue about me he knows me well enough as a person to ignore it. I don't think anyone would hold against me what has gone before in terms of England. People can believe what they like, but as long as my friends and family support me that's all that matters. I would love a chance. The senior England squad has always been a dream and, if I can get a nice run of games together, hopefully that dream will come true. William Gallas and Marcel Desailly have done really well at the back for Chelsea and it's been quite difficult to break into that partnership because I had a knee injury last summer. That put me out for six months and since I have come back they've been playing well. When I got back to training there was nothing I could really do, no matter how well I played. But all I did was knuckle down and I knew sooner or later I'd get my chance whether it was through one of them playing badly or a suspension."

Cup runs for Paul's Dagenham side were ended only by Charlton and Ipswich in the past two years. Although the Daggers are in the fourth round for the first time, he was still disappointed not to be facing Chelsea this weekend. Paul said: "It would have been a dream come true for the family. Our parents have always been behind us. They drove us all over the country. Mum, dad in the front, me, John in the back sleeping."

Both boys have heard the talk about big-time Chelsea switching off against lower league opposition and Dagenham simply settling for a nice day out. Yet they are hoping to prove the critics wrong. John said: "We know that is not the case with Chelsea and the lads have talked about it. Hopefully our ability is going to come through, even though we respect Shrewsbury a great deal." Paul added: "Dagenham are not expected to win so people think we want to just enjoy it. But we've shown we get ourselves up for the cup matches and anything can happen. There is no reason why we can't get a result."

*~*

Source: Guardian, 14th December 2002

'I can't express how scared I was'

Chelsea's John Terry breaks his silence on the ordeal of his trial.

John Terry cuts an unassuming figure in the modest surrounds of the Holiday Inn, a goal-kick from Chelsea's similarly unprepossessing training ground. A sweat top and trousers cling to his bulky frame, an image far removed from the Gucci stereotype normally associated with the Stamford Bridge payroll. But this is no attempt to hide away from the furore that has surrounded the Chelsea defender for the past year, despite rumours of an £8m move to Newcastle in the January sales which he firmly denies. As he discusses publicly for the first time last August's high-profile acquittal of charges of actual bodily harm and wounding with intent, Terry recalls the sequence of events with disarming frankness.

The night of January 3 2002 will always haunt the 22-year-old from Barking in Essex. An evening at the Wellington Club in Knightsbridge with his team-mate Jody Morris and Wimbledon's Des Byrne ended in a fracas with the doormen which entailed police assistance and the subsequent arrest of all three men. In a cell for 22 hours, Terry's protestations were ignored as he was placed in solitary confinement to dry out.

"Being in that cell was horrendous," he recalled this week. "I remember being woken by three or four fights in the corridor and crying most of the time. I kept thinking about my family, the football club and what would happen in the coming days."

All three men were charged with affray and actual bodily harm, and Terry and Byrne were also charged with the unlawful possession of weapons. Terry would also be charged with the more serious crime of wounding with intent, after claims by the club's doorman Trevor Thirlwall that he had been cut by a beer bottle.

"When my solicitor told me my charges carried a penalty of anything up to life imprisonment, I was in total shock," Terry said. "I knew I hadn't hit anyone with a bottle and I was innocent, but it was still worrying that my future would rest in the hands of 12 people on a jury. If they had any preconceived ideas about me or the prosecution did a really good job, I knew my career could be over."

A six-month hiatus between the incident and trial heightened the anxiety. Terry found solace in his football. "Coming into training was a big release," he said. "For three or four hours I could forget what was going on and concentrate on my football. Everyone connected with the club was brilliant and stuck by me when it could have been easier to turn the other cheek. Graeme Le Saux and Gianfranco Zola were particularly helpful leading up to the trial and I also received a message of support from Tony Adams. Players like that backing me was the boost I needed."

Middlesex Crown Court resembled a media scrum when the trial began in August. Subjected to intense questioning, Terry broke down on several occasions. "I can't really put into words how scared I was - the worst experience of my life. The first week was difficult because you listen to the case against you and no matter how frustrating it is you have to bite your lip because the jury watches your every reaction. Then it was my turn to stand in the box and the intense questioning caused me to break down. I was being made to look guilty and the injustice really got to me. It wasn't until the final couple of days that I got an indication that the verdict was heading in our favour."

Although closed-circuit television footage of the alleged incident involving Terry proved inconclusive, his trump card came in the examination of the weapon allegedly used against Thirlwall. Extensive laboratory tests concluded that the wound found on Thirlwall's face could not have been caused by a beer bottle and certainly not attributed to the accused. The prosecution was in tatters and Terry was a free man, cleared on all four charges.

"Even then, it wasn't until the verdicts were read out that I finally felt free. I remember holding Jody's hand and giving it a really tight squeeze as our fate was decided. I looked back at my family, friends and girlfriend, and the tears were flowing again. The fact all 12 people on the jury voted in our favour on all charges speaks volumes for the injustice of the whole episode. But I've stopped looking in the past now - it's time to move on."

Nevertheless, the thick skin that has grown these past 12 months may prove a useful resource in the coming weeks. "I know there's going to be some fall-out from what's happened," Terry said. "I'm going to get stick from some fans.

"I've also decided to cut out the drinking, and last Saturday [his 22nd birthday] was the first time I'd had a drop since the incident. If I'm going to make the most of my career I've got to focus on my football and not let outside influences get in the way. That's the way it'll be from now on."

William Gallas is now the Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri's preferred choice alongside Marcel Desailly in the club's march towards the Premiership summit, but Terry - who has missed the first two months of this season with a knee injury - is steeled for the challenge.

"It's frustrating, having been a regular in the side for two years, but the pair of them are playing brilliantly, as are the whole team. The club hasn't been able to spend money this season and I think that's helped. We haven't had new players needing time to settle, and we're all familiar with the system the manager wants to play. It's strange, but a lack of cash has worked in our favour."

Perhaps the only fear among supporters now is that all Chelsea's good work will be undone by a need to balance the books. But Terry, for one, says he is not going anywhere. "I've still got two years left on my contract and I'm staying. We will be discussing a new deal next year and I want to stay because I still have a big ambition of captaining Chelsea on a regular basis and then making the step up with England. I know it's within my capabilities but that will only happen once I'm back in the Chelsea team.

"It's frightening to think that all my plans could have been taken away from me this year. But now everything is back in my hands, I'm even more determined to make the most of every opportunity that comes my way."

*~*

Source: Skysports.com, 5th December 2002

TERRY READY FOR LONG CAREER AT CHELSEA

John Terry is looking forward to "a long future" at Chelsea after Claudio Ranieri made him captain for the Worthington Cup thrashing of Everton. Terry has spent much of the season on the sidelines as Frenchmen William Gallas and Marcel Desailly have struck up a miserly partnership at the back.

The former England under-21 star has been linked with a January switch to Newcastle, but he is determined to stick by the people who supported him during his court case earlier this year. He said: "It was a huge boost for me to be given the armband. The chairman, the manager and everyone at the club stood by me and I take my hat off to them for that. The bad times are behind me and I'm looking forward to good times. I want to have a long future here at Chelsea. I wasn't behaving in a bad way or anything like that but I'm now eating properly, training harder and working harder in the gym. I just want to be back in this great Chelsea team. Marcel Desailly and William Gallas are both playing well but hopefully I'll get my place back soon."

Terry is already relishing the prospect of a Worthington Cup quarter-final tie at Old Trafford, and is confident the Blues can repeat their success ther last season, when they won 3-0. "Obviously it's going to be a tough game. They are playing well at the minute but so are we and we will go there hoping to win. Will we have any fear? No. Everyone finds it difficult to go there and get a result but we had a good result there last year and won 3-0. They haven't really been putting a full-strength side out in the Worthington Cup and we're looking forward to it."

*~*

Source: Sunday Mirror, 25th August 2002

3 articles from the Sunday Mirror, all part of an 'Exclusive' interview with John about his trial experience. The third is probably the most in-depth interview with John that I've ever seen - and well worth taking the time to read.

MY RELIEF

AFTER spending more than seven months with a court case hanging over him, John Terry is looking forward to focusing purely on football again. His first priority is to regain his place in the Chelsea line-up. But the former England Under-21 skipper has set his sights on a full England cap. And Terry, 21 - who was close to a call-up to Sven Goran Eriksson's squad before that fateful night at the Wellington nightclub - admits he would love to lead his country one day.

"It's a challenge for me to get back in the Chelsea team and I'm just relieved and happy that I have that opportunity," said Terry. "Beyond that I would love to pull on an England Under-21 shirt again and, hopefully, if I'm playing well enough, promotion to the full squad will eventually come. "That is my biggest dream and has been all my life. And you can't imagine how relieved I am that that opportunity is there for me, because my career could have been in ruins if that verdict had gone against me."

Terry was cleared at Middlesex Guildhall Court on Thursday of affray, possessing an offensive weapon, wounding with intent and an alternative charge of unlawful wounding.

He added: "I've had seven months of my life taken away from me by this case. It's a long time but I have every confidence in my ability. "I've not become a bad footballer because of this case and the confidence I have remains. "I haven't lost the hunger or desire to fulfil my potential, it's just down to me to give people a reason to play me."

Terry has to break the French pairing of Marcel Desailly and William Gallas to return to the Chelsea line-up. But he said: "Every day after court I've been going back to Stamford Bridge to maintain my fitness. "I was running, swimming and doing weights so I'm in pretty good shape. What I lack is match fitness but that will come. "I feel extremely fit but the telling moment will come when I kick a competitive ball again - that's when I will know I'm free from all this. "I've got to get back playing football now and, through my football, make people forget all the rubbish that has gone on. "All I want people to talk about now is my football, I don't ever want people to have the opportunity to drag all this up and throw it in my face. "It's just about football for me now, it's about showing people like Claudio Ranieri and Sven Goran Eriksson I'm good enough to play at the highest level and fulfil the potential they and other people believe I have. "I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I have always dreamed about leading my country. At every level I've played at I've captained the side, it's something that's in my blood. "This, in a strange way, is a new beginning for me and I don't want any opportunities in football that come my way to pass me by. I'm determined to push on as a player, to show people I have the ability to play at the highest level. "At the first opportunity I will be banging on the door to England and I will grab the chance, if it comes, with both hands."

FOOTBALL: THANK YOU

JOHN TERRY has saluted the friends in football who supported him during his trial. The Chelsea centre-back was cleared on Thursday of a bottle attack on a nightclub bouncer. "The players at the club have been fantastic, they have kept me going when I was really low," said Terry, 21. "Throughout the case they have texted me on my phone, supported me and told me to keep my head up because things were going to be all right. "They never had any doubt I would be found not guilty, they always talked about me being back and playing and that helped. "But it wasn't just my own team-mates that gave me support, it was players from other clubs. I didn't realise I had so many friends in football, even people I didn't know wished me well. "Even players that didn't contact me directly passed on their best wishes through other players. "People in the game were constantly phoning me and wishing me the best and that meant a lot to me, I was very touched by that."

I PACKED MY TOOTHBRUSH AND BEGAN TO WEEP .. I FEARED I'D BE JAILED

HIS designer clothes taken off him and sealed in a plastic bag, footballer John Terry sat shivering in his cell at Belgravia police station in a wafer-thin prisoner's boiler suit. For once, neither his Premiership salary nor the connections open to him as a rising star at Chelsea, one of Britain's most affluent soccer clubs, were of any use. All he could do was sit and count the tiles on the wall, trying not to breathe in the stench from the toilet in the corner as doors around him clanged open and shut. And he cried. For hours on end tears streamed down his face as he relived the early hours nightclub melee for which he and two others had been arrested.

For the next seven months, as he awaited trial for assault and affray and a near-certain jail term if found guilty, the image of that cell kept flooding back, bringing with it wave after wave of fear. Prosecution evidence at the lurid three-week trial, which ended on Thursday with Terry's acquittal, painted an unflattering portrait of a swaggering, booze-swigging loudmouth.

But the John Terry I meet the day afterwards cuts a sombre, subdued figure - relieved the jury believed his innocence, but humbled by the knowledge he could so easily be behind bars. He says: "I had my bag packed all ready for prison. I had my toothbrush, my wash-stuff, a book and a radio. I knew I was innocent - but I had to be ready in case the jury went against me." In hushed tones, he goes on: "A day in that cell seemed like years. It went on forever. I was in there for 22 hours. I kept thinking during the trial: If a day in there was that bad what would a year or two years or whatever in prison be like? "I tried to stay strong for my family and my friends but deep down I was a bag of nerves."

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, Terry says: "Ever since I was six I wanted to be a footballer - but it would all have been over if the jury hadn't believed me. "I've often been crying myself to sleep at night like a baby. I was scared and I'm not frightened to admit it. I was scared I'd go to jail for something I didn't do."

The fracas erupted after Terry, Chelsea team-mate Jody Morris and Wimbledon defender Des Byrne were thrown out of the Wellington Club in Knightsbridge, London, early on January 4. The three had been having a drink in a bar in Epsom, Surrey, when they decided to hit the West End. After 40 minutes supping cocktails in the celebrity hang-out they were told to leave. Staff said they were too drunk to stay. The players claimed they were just in high spirits, They were shown to the reception area where tempers flared as Irishman Byrne lunged back in, claiming he had been racially abused by a doorman. Terry, a former captain of the England under-21 side who is tipped to skipper the full national team, followed Byrne in - but only he says because his friend was being beaten up.

"I couldn't just stand and watch," he said. "Three of the bouncers were laying into Des. I had to do something. I was trying to get him out."

The fighting spilled out onto the street and a full-scale brawl ensued. Bouncer Trevor Thirlwall claimed Terry smashed a bottle in his face. Terry denied it and the jury believed him. But it will be a long time before he forgets that night in the cells where he and the other two were carted off in handcuffs. "I was shivering," he said. "It was freezing cold and I felt totally alone. I didn't have a clue what was happening. I was so naive that I thought I'd be out in a couple of hours and allowed to go to training in the morning. "I kept asking the police what was happening and they kept saying I'd be out soon. I'd never been in trouble with the law in my life so I didn't have a clue what to expect."

CCTV footage of the brawl was vital in securing Terry's acquittal, showing no sign of the alleged bottle attack. But the grainy tape was still uncomfortable viewing for Terry as he sat playing it on his video in the months before the trial. "I couldn't help myself," he said. "I kept putting it on and freezing it at different bits." Night after night, he would stare longest at the frame which shows the three men about to leave before the fracas broke out. "Every time I saw it I would say to myself, 'Go home lads, go home now before it gets nasty, get a taxi and go,'" he says, wincing at the memory. "If we'd gone then, none of this would happened."

Terry is now an innocent man, free to resume one of the most promising careers in English football. His team-mate Morris, charged with affray, was cleared too. Byrne was cleared of affray but fined £2,000 for having a bottle as an offensive weapon. But a chastened Terry, who wishes he'd never gone out in the first place, is not gloating. He said: "If I could turn back the clock there is no way I would have been there. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near the place. "I didn't do anything to break that law that night. I didn't do anything wrong in that way - but I am guilty of putting myself in that a position I shouldn't have been in and I totally accept that."

The incident at the Wellington came after Terry and three Chelsea colleagues were condemned for going out drinking the day after the September 11 terrorist outrages. They knocked back drinks in a hotel bar at Heathrow Airport full of outraged Americans whose flights home had been cancelled. Terry and team-mates Morris, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Frank Lampard were fined two weeks' wages each by Chelsea and warned about their future behaviour. Docked another fortnight's money after the Wellington incident for breaking Chelsea club rules, Terry had lost four weeks wages in the space of four months for drink-related behaviour. Clearly, it was time for a re-think.

"Sometimes it takes an experience like this to make you sit up and take notice off things," he says. "I had a good think about what I was doing and I've changed my lifestyle around now. I haven't drunk alcohol for six months now and that's the way I think it will stay. I haven't been to any nightclubs either. "As a player I realise that I have got a responsibility to myself, the club and the kids who follow the club to behave in a proper manner and I have learnt my lesson. It's about looking after myself too so that I stay in the best shape I can." It's surely no coincidence that the book Terry packed in his prison bag was a well-thumbed biography of former England captain Tony Adams, who battled alcoholism and was jailed for drink-driving. Adams, who is managed by the same SEM agency that looks after Terry, warns in the book of the dangers and temptations facing young footballers who suddenly begin earning big money with lots of free time on their hands. Terry, who just five years ago was pocketing £46 a week as an apprentice at Chelsea and was struggling to pay his tube fares to and from the club, is now eager to heed his advice. "I've read the book a couple of times already," he says, before insisting: "Despite what people think, I've never been a big drinker and I never used to go out that much. I really didn't. But I've decided I owe it to myself to change things round."

A night out for Terry now is a meal in his local Italian with girlfriend Toni, a beauty therapist he met four years ago while still living with his parents in Essex. Inevitably, other women have made passes at him. He is young, successful and handsome. But Terry insists: "I always just walk away when it happens. I've been with my girlfriend for a long while and we're very happy. "It's hard for her sometimes because people make up all sorts of rumours about you as a footballer and make out that you have been with this girl or that girl but she knows not to listen to it."

Terry admits he earns a handsome salary - but makes the usual point about the brevity of a football career. "Half of what I earn I don't see because it is goes into investments and my pension." His wealth has allowed his former fork-lift truck driver father Ted and odd-jobbing mother Sue to retire. It's also allowed his brother Paul, 23, to concentrate on playing for semi-professional football side Dagenham and Redbridge. Paul was a schoolboy on the books of Premiership Charlton but was released aged 18. Now he is trying to resurrect his career. Terry says: "Last year I told my brother to stop work and just concentrate on his playing." Terry's mum and dad scrimped, saved and borrowed to ensure their sons were always kitted out with football boots and kits - and now Terry says he is repaying his dues. "I am taking my turn to look after them. We are all very close. I'm just so grateful that I have such fantastic family. They, my agents SEM, and my friends Paul Nicholls and Aaron Lincoln have all supported me through this difficult ordeal. "But I wouldn't let my mum and dad come in to court until the last day It would have broken my heart to have them up there worrying about me every day."

Nothing was worse, Terry says, than looking into the eyes of the 12 jurors, wondering what each was thinking, worrying whether a flick of the hair or twinge of the face was a message of good or bad news. "It's your life in their hands," he says. "Nothing can prepare you for going through it. I'm just so thankful that it's over and that they listened to me."

*~*

Source: Players Lounge (The 1st Digital Football Magazine for your PC) Issue 1, August 2002

Life and Times with John Terry

The Chelsea and England Under-21 Star tells Players Lounge how he made it to the top

Arsenal and Manchester United were keen to sign you, so why choose Chelsea?
As I say, mainly for me it was the training. My Dad always used to say if I’m happy, then he’s happy, and my Mum. But, erm, the way they looked after me and my family, you know? It was like after school, I’d leave, I think it was ten minutes early from school, I’d come out of training, and there was a car there and took me to training. Battersea Park was about like one hour 15 minutes in the car at the time. Rather than put me on the train which was a bit risky at that age you know. They picked me up, looked after my family, dropped me home, give me expenses and food, get me dinner on the way back and stuff, and they did this for all the boys you know. I just felt comfortable and happy at the club.

As a United fan, how difficult was it to turn down their advances?
Yeah, I got scouted playing for Essex again, by the Man U Scout Malcolm. At the time, they took me up, as we went up, went up with David Beckham in the car and stuff. He was going up to sign his YTS I think, or maybe at Pro. I went up for like a two week trial. They asked me to sign schoolboys after that, but at the time I just loved it at Chelsea that much, that I wanted to stay. Even though I was a Man U fan growing up and everything, but I just choose Chelsea.

What was life like as a YTS trainee, and who’s boots did you clean?
Quite difficult to be honest. You come in, as you say, clean the boots, you get allocated one of the rooms, I had to hover this room I think it was, clean the walls and clean the windowsills. If the YTS Manager come in and found a bit of dust, you’d get fined, and sorted out by the boys as well! (Laughs) Which wasn’t good, but there was all things, just lads being lads.
*
Erm, I think I had about four pairs of boots a day. At the time I had Dennis Wise, Eddie Newton, Dave Lee, and obviously my own but to be fair they all looked after me. [Interviewer: Did you get a nice tip at Christmas?] Yeah, think they gave me a hundred pound each so it was nice. Being on 40 quid a week it was nice to get a little bonus. (Laughs)

Is it true that Tony Adams is your all-time footballing hero?
You know I was a midfielder, started out in midfield when I was younger. But erm, always admired him and used to watch him when he was on telly. My Dad used to look up to him as well I think. [Interviewer: He’s a local lad as well isn’t he? He used to play..] Yeah he’s a Romford boy, he’s an Essex boy. He used to play for the same county. So obviously being a local lad, I sort of looked up to him that little bit more.

Were you in awe of the star players at Chelsea when you first signed pro?
A bit first of all, you have to pinch yourself, next to Zola, Desailly, Vialli, next to the worlds best you know, and sort of training with them. But during training I always held my own and stuff, and was never, you know. Off the pitch I was a little bit in awe of them, as you say, but on the pitch it was a different matter, you know, I just treated everyone the same.

Did you receive helpful advice from Marcel Desailly and Frank Leboeuf?
Yeah, definitely helped in training, the pair of them. Mainly Frank, he used to talk a lot anyway, (laughs), but even during training you know, he used to say to me ‘do this’, ‘do that’, you know ‘maybe if the attackers coming here you need to do this’, but he was good like that. Marcel used to keep himself to himself, and still the same now really. But erm, people like Doobs [Michael Duberry] as well. Doobs was the main influence on me at the time. In training, sort of, I used to partner up alongside him, and look-up to him in training, and he always had 20 minutes, 30 minutes to talk to me, so obviously thanks to Doobs.

Who accelerated your first team opportunities in the early days?
Definitely Vialli, obviously I thank him for everything. And sort of he’s, well, when he took over, I was training with the first team every day, and he really gave me my chance, even though I didn’t get a run of games under him. You know, I felt part of the squad, training with them, I was travelling with them every game and everything like that. He got me involved and made me feel part of the team.

And obviously Claudio Ranieri has been a major influence.
Yeah. He’s come in and he’s given me my real chance to be honest with ya. I’ll never forget that as well so obviously I owe him a lot. He come in, and he watched a reserve game first of all, and we beat Coventry 3-2 at the time, and from then on, Ray Wilkins said that he liked me, and it’s just gone on from there really. He’s given me my chance and had faith in my to keep playing me.
*
Er, when he first come in, yeah I was on the bench, but erm, he pulled me to one side, and he said ‘I know you’re for the future, and just be ready cos I’m gonna play you soon’, and he did. He ended up dropping Frank Leboeuf, just to show he had a bit of courage as well, to drop the big players and put the young lads in.

What are your aims this season, both personally and as a team?
From a personal point of view, obviously I wanna play in every game next year. Erm, hopefully I can do that if I’m playing well. Erm, from the team’s point of view, hopefully we can make Champions League. I think maybe pushing for the title is a little bit unrealistic, and at the time we, you know, haven’t strengthened the squad. But we’ve got some good players, we’re a good enough side to compete against the likes of Man U and Arsenal, and hopefully we can do that. But Champions League would be massive for the club, and all the players next year.

Do you still harbour ambitions to play for England?
Yeah, of course, it would be a dream come true if it finally does happen. I think every kid wants to play for their country, and I’m no different. So hopefully, as I said, if I have a good season for Chelsea, that that’ll come in the future.

*~*

Source: Planetfootball.com, July 16 2002.

Terry’s Freak Injury

Chelsea defender John Terry has suffered a pre-season setback after bizarrely picking up an injury watching tennis.

Terry has recently been under the surgeon’s knife to rectify the knee injury he collected while watching Tim Henman’s Wimbledon semi-final against Lleyton Hewitt. The 21-year-old centre half has been forced to miss Chelsea’s trip to Italy and is likely to be back in action in a fortnight.

After having the operation to cure the problem, Terry revealed how he inadvertently hampered his pre-season preparations. “Me and the lads were watching the tennis down at the training ground when Henman was playing Lleyton Hewitt in the semi-final,” said Terry. “I think he was two sets down when someone called suddenly to me from behind. As I turned around I felt something go in my knee. it was painful but I didn’t think too much of it. I managed to train but the problem got worse throughout the day. By the time our afternoon training session came around I couldn’t train on it. I went to see a specialist and ended up in hospital.”

Despite the temporary delay in his pre-season build-up, Terry is confident he will be ready for the big kick-off in mid-August. “I’ve had an arthroscopy which I think is a bit of a clean-up inside the knee,” added Terry to The Sun. “The doctors told me a week ago that I would be out for three weeks. I’ve had to take it easy for the past week but am back at the training ground tomorrow (Wednesday). I can start running in a few days and doing weights so there’s no long term problem.”

*~*

Source: Chelsea Magazine, August 2002 Edition, Issue 73.

Tel Boy

John Terry looks ahead to next season and shares his personal ambitions with us

It’s the last Friday of term, a day before the Aston Villa game, and the players are finishing off their last training session of the season, at the Bridge. It’s a warm day and, despite the fact that the FA Cup Final has just been lost to Arsenal, everyone’s in pretty good spirits. And in the last seven-a-side of the season the players are really trying to turn on the style. Melchiot does some outrageous flicks, Zenden scores a couple of scorching goals and Zola - well you can imagine what sort of stuff Zola gets up to.

Not the sort of situation you’d imagine a hard-man centre-back to thrive in. But then again, John Terry isn’t your average hard-man centre-back. At one point Zola dribbles towards him, feints to the right and goes left. JT sticks his left foot behind his right, and not only blocks the ball, but passes diagonally off his heel to Melchiot who passes on to Zenden who scores past Bosnich. It’s the sort of stuff, alas, you never see in a competitive game. But proof that the young English defender sweats class.

It’s a tough time for Terry, with his court case coming up, but this doesn’t stop him from being generous with his time. A parent asks him if he can have a quick kick about with her ten-year-old kid, who’s wearing a Chelsea shirt with his hero’s name on the back. JT not only obliges, he’s actually there for a good 20 minutes, finishing the session off with a penalty shoot-out. The kid wins. ‘What a lovely gesture,’ I say to Rob, the photographer. ‘It would be if it didn’t eat into the time we’ve got with him,’ growls Rob, who’s been in the business a while.

I’m sitting in the dug-out, occasionally wandering, Ranieri-like, to the edge of the manager’s enclosure, eager to grab JT before he goes down the player’s tunnel and into the no-go area of the players dressing room. However, when he does finish Chelsea TV are there before me, and he spends a further ten minutes doing a round-up of his season with them. He finally emerges, a little media-weary, and I remind him of his obligation.

“Listen, I’m in a rush,” he says. “Can we do it in the dressing room, while I change?”.
“Um, er, yeah, I suppose so.”

I wander behind him down the tunnel, and into the white-walled, slightly steamy dressing room, full of the players I’ve just been watching, in various states of undress, some of them singing. I try not to catch anyone’s eye. I’m in a place I’m not really allowed to be in. The rules are relaxed on the last day of term. JT sits down at the back of the room. I sit beside him. I pull out a piece of paper dense with typed questions.

“Oh my god,” he says, genuinely alarmed. “You’re not going to ask me all those, are you?” I immediately fold the paper in half, missing out the stuff about his early career. He looks a bit more relaxed. I ask him, trying to compose myself, about the FA Cup Final and his mystery illness. Vertigo, I venture.

“Yeah, obviously I got out of bed, and I knew I wasn’t well,” he says, holding his foot and turning towards me. He makes no move to change out of his training gear. I know that once he does, I’m losing ground, so I try to keep the conversation running, without pauses.

“The doctor gave me a injection,” he continues, in that measured, deliberate tone he’s adopted for interviews (Ray Wilkins Jr?) “But I had an injection and I was OK after that. I came back and told everyone that I was ready to go, that I was 100%, which I was. I was OK to play, but I never got picked in the end.” Suddenly, a revelation. I didn’t know this.

“So you were OK to play?”
“Yeah, I was 100 per cent.”
“So I guess you were a bit gutted not to be on there from the start.”
“Yeah, definitely,” he says, in a tone that registers about nine on the 1-10 scale of guttedness. “I was involved in the 2000 FA Cup Final as sub, and I played in a couple of games, and scored a goal, but didn’t get on in the end. Then this year I’d played in every game and scored a couple of goals so I really felt part of it and was really disappointed not to get on the pitch for the start.”

We talk of Baba’s [Celestine Babayaro] injury, and the fact that JT was warming up, ready to go on, in the first half. I say that the Nigerian’s injury must have created a mixed response in him, dying, as he was, to play.

“Obviously it was very sad for Baba to be injured in such a big game, but obviously I was very pleased from a personal point of view to get on.”
“And you felt 100 per cent.”
“Yeah, as I said I was 100 per cent, I just wasn’t picked.”
“And, er, how did you feel the game went for you?”
“Um, it was a great experience for me to take part in, and hopefully it’s something I can build on in the future.”

We both know that JT had a bit of an off day. but he’s not about to blame his illness, so I don’t dwell. I ask him about the atmosphere at Cardiff.

“It was frightening to be honest. No-one will ever take that away from me. It was a great buzz, the fans on both sides were fantastic, the players were all hyped up, so it was just a great day for everyone.”

I ask John how he thinks the season went for him. He replies that his very happy with his progress. Probing for more of a reaction, I ask him how he felt a year back when William Gallas was signed. “It’s the sort of news you don’t want to hear.” he says. “I played the second half of 2000/2001 and then to hear that Chelsea have gone and spent seven million or whatever on a new centre back was a bit of a shock. But in the end I’ve been playing, I’ve learnt off William, and it’s been a good experience for both of us. I’ve got nothing against him from a personal point of view but it’s a bit - a bit heartbreaking, to be honest, when you read it in the paper.”

“Please let me go, because I don’t love you any more,” sings Zenden in the background. There’s lots of laughing. Gwyn Williams is going around getting shirts signed. It’s not proving easy to get inside the head of young John Terry. I try him out on tackling. The dialogue goes like this:

“Can you tell us about the art of tackling?”
“It’s just timing really. When someone’s running at you, keep your eye on the ball, try not to watch their leg. When I used to do one-on-one with Franco [Zola] he used to tell me things like that, and it’s paid off.”
“Is it best never to go down?”
“Sometimes you have to go down. And sometimes you realise that if you can’t get the ball, you have to get him as well. Rather than let him go through one-on-one, rather than let him get through, then I’ll take a booking for it. There are certain things that you have to think about. Some players don’t like being tackled, so they might jump out the way and by the time they’ve jumped out the way there might be someone covering behind you.”
“Do you have to approach tackling differently in the box?”
“You have to be more careful in the box. But as I said, it’s all down to timing. If he’s inside the box, if he’s going away from goal, there’s no reason to tackle him.”
“Would you say tackling was the biggest strength of your game?”
“Yeah, I would say it was.”

I decide to move on, but stick with the ‘hard-man’ theme. “You had 12 stitches in the Everton match.” I venture, rather alarmed at the sight of a naked Zenden walking towards me on his way to the shower. The Dutchman pokes me in the ribs. “Interviews in the dressing room now?” he says in mock disgruntlement that shows he really does mind a little bit.

“Was that a personal record?” I continue, sticking to my stitches theme.
“Yeah there was about 12 minutes gone, and I just ran into the post,” he remembers, with a smile. “Cracked me head open. I ran off the pitch into the dressing room, and I thought I’d come on again, but I looked in the mirror and there was this great big lump of skin hanging off my head. It was horrible. I asked Banksy [Mike Banks, physio] if I could go back out afterwards, and he said ‘no you can’t.’ So I had to take his advice.”

Referring to the headband JT wore for several games afterwards I ask him if he remembers Steve Foster. He reveals he was called ‘Fozzie’ in training for that period. I say it was like a captain’s armband on his head, and ask him whether he feels like he could ever be a Chelsea captain.

“A few managers have said so, and I like to organise things at the back. I was captain of Chelsea youth and of the Under 21s. My role model is Tony Adams, and he was a natural captain. I’d like to carry on the way I’m going and one of my ambitions in the future would be to captain Chelsea.”

We’re reaching injury time in JT’s last interview of the season, in a summer when he might have been playing in the World Cup if circumstances had been different. I look to the future. “What are your ambitions for next season?” I ask, aware as he is that it’s a question that’s loaded with uncertainty.

“My personal ambition is to play in the side week in week out. To be captain would be a fantastic achievement for me. Obviously to get into the Champions League and to have a crack at the title would be great. We’re one of the clubs that could do that, we’ve got the players here,” he says.

I ask him if he’s got any messages for the fans, reminding him that he’s a real cult hero. “Just thanks for all your support on and off the pitch. it really means a lot to me.” Then, after a pause, he becomes more earnest. “You know,” he intimates, “out there on the street you get the odd doughnut, saying things and whatever, and you just have to let it go. Obviously everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. But a lot of fans, even opposition fans, come up and say ‘really, I hope it goes well’. And those who’ve been like that have really done me a lot of good, and I can’t thank them enough.”

“Hopefully you can repay them all with the Championship.”
“I’d like to think so.”
“And hopefully with you lifting it.”
“That would be nice.”

It’s evident, in a summer of football when John Terry might have been part of the global football festival in Japan and Korea, that his mind is on much more serious matters. And you can’t blame him. I thank him for sharing his time with us, and shake his hand, sincerely hoping out loud that next season the young centre back can continue his considerable progress on the pitch - and fulfil his ambition to lift the Premiership trophy. He thanks me for the thought. And, without question, you can see in his eyes that his words are not hollow.
[Words: Alex Leith]

*~*

Source: Metro Newspaper, May 3 2002

Impressive Terry Has Come Of Age

John Terry was an unknown Chelsea trainee earning £40 a week just a couple of years ago. now he is a highly-paid England Under-21 international defender, facing not only his first FA Cup final appearance but also a court case and the threat of prison. His life in between has been something of a rollercoaster which anyone outside football would find hard to understand. Terry does not deny breaking a club curfew and an incident followed which is now before the courts. Although the player maintains his innocence, he is clearly under pressure.

He comes across as a wise head on young shoulders, being as confident with the press as he is on the pitch. But he is still only 21 and has found more money, more fame, and more followers in the past two years than most people could imagine in a lifetime. And when talking about tomorrow’s FA Cup final against Arsenal, he gave an insight into just how much change he has experienced so far in his short career.

“It has been hard to go from one extreme to the other,” he said. “I went from YTS money - £40 a week - one minute to a lot better money the next minute, and kids need advice. You just want to go out and buy things you can’t afford - a new car, a new watch, help your family and you still may not be able to afford them all. I’m one of those people who need to know when I get my money what it is I’ve got - this is what I need for bills, this is what I’ve got to spend and so on. Basic things.”

Despite financial security, Terry is determined not to change as a person. His brother Paul combines playing part-time for Dagenham & Redbridge with starting work just after dawn as a fork-lift truck driver. The Chelsea star, therefore, knows what the other side of life looks like. “I’ve always been the same,” he added. “I’ve got the same friends, I’ve always been close to my family and I never forget where I was brought up. When I was a kid, my mum and dad struggled for me to have the best boots, and things like that, so now I can repay them for all they’ve done.”

The Football Association has banned players facing court charges from being picked at international level. That means Terry will be kicking his heels this summer thinking about his impeding trial, rather than playing in a major tournament. Missing out on the Under-21 European Championship hurts the most after Terry captained the side earlier this season.

He has risen rapidly through the Chelsea ranks since his first-team debut back in 1998, becoming a regular in the side when Claudio Ranieri took over two years ago. Having won the club’s Player of the Year title last season, beating the likes of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Marcel Desailly in the process, he is in with a good shout this season as well. Throughout his ordeal off the pitch, his form for Chelsea has not dipped. And whatever his fate, tomorrow will mark the biggest game of his career to date.

*~*

Source: Planetfootball.com, April 16 2002.

Terry’s Future Is All-Gold

A place in England’s World Cup squad may be out of the question for Chelsea’s John Terry, but as the Opta Index shows he has a glittering future ahead of him. The commanding Blues’ centre-back has been outstanding for Claudio Ranieri’s side this season and in ever-changing line-up, Terry has seen more action than any other Chelsea defender.

It was in the FA Cup semi-final at the weekend that Terry affirmed his place as one of England’s brightest young players, but it is the quality of his displays in the Premiership, as a mainstay as one of the Premiership’s meanest defences this Season, that has singled him out as a potential England international.

Terry has undoubtedly learned from one of the best in Marcel Desailly, and according to Opta he has outshone the World cup-winning legend - as well as the majority of Premiership defenders. The 21-year-old centre back has recently adorned a protective headband following a collision with a post, but that hasn’t stopped him giving his all in ariel battle for the Blues. With more than 150 headed clearances to his name this term, the former England Under-21 skipper has been strong in the air.

Terry has been equally effective on the ground. His tally of 78 tackles is the fifth-best by an English central defender this term, while from the same group only Rio Ferdinand and Chris Perry have made more interceptions than Terry’s 20.

While he copes admirably in the thick of the action. Terry has shown great composure with more time on his hands too. The one time Nottingham Forest loanee has completed more passes than any other English centre back this season with 944 successful attempts to his name, but crucially his accuracy both in his own half and opposition territory has been higher than that of any English defensive counterpart.

Add to the mix the danger that Terry poses from set-piece situations - as witnessed first-hand by Fulham on Sunday - and you have a player capable of creating havoc in opposition boxes, diverting it in his own area and building moves competently with the ball at his feet.

One question mark which may hang over Terry would be his disciplinary record. Terry was dismissed while captaining the Under-21 national side against Greece, and is currently unavailable for England selection after off-field incidents. But looking at his league record this season it would be harsh to prejudge the youngster. Terry has been booked just four times in the Premiership, and has committed only 44 fouls in his 2,457 minutes on pitch - that’s less than two a game on average.

He may have to deal with the frustration of not figuring for England this summer, but at his tender age Terry has plenty to look forward to and ample time to improve on what is an already impressive, all-round game.

*~*

Source: Planetfootball.com, April 16 2002.

Terry ‘Gutted’ At Missing Out

Chelsea defender John Terry has admitted he is ‘gutted’ that his off-field problems have forced him out of the running for a place at this summer’s World Cup finals.

Injuries to key men Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell and Ugo Ehiogu have left England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson scrambling for defensive cover. Terry would have been a strong candidate for selection for the friendly with Paraguay on Wednesday were it not for the upcoming court case that has prompted the FA to overlook him for selection. The FA took the decision that no player would be considered for selection while under investigation for criminal offences, and Terry admits he has to live with the decision.

The Stamford Bridge ace, who has been in fine form of late and scored the winner over Fulham that took Chelsea to the FA Cup final said “I’m really gutted. It’s not just about not being in the senior squad, I have been a major part of the Under-21 scene and I’m disappointed about not being allowed to go to Switzerland for the European Championship. But that’s something the FA has decided and I have to live with it.” Terry added “I’ve been speaking to some of the Under-21 lads and I’m hoping I can go out there and support them. I have to keep playing and when the court case is out of the way, I can concentrate on playing football and get on with my career.” Terry admits his only solace is pulling on a Chelsea jersey, adding “It has been difficult off the pitch at times this year; I have only felt comfortable about things once I have got out and played. In training, my team-mates at Chelsea help me, but the disappointment will not be being allowed to play in the finals.

*~*

Source: Soccernet.com, April 2 2002.

Terry So Grateful For Support

Chelsea’s outstanding young defender John Terry has dedicated his winning goal in their semi-final victory over Fulham to the people who have supported him during his troubles this season. Terry, who would have been in Sven-Goran Eriksson’s depleted England squad this week were he not facing charges following an incident in a London night-club in January, scored the 39th-minute goal which set up a final date with Arsenal. “It’s been difficult off the pitch at times this season but my family, the club and the fans have been great and that one was for everyone who has supported me,” said Terry.

He still faces criminal charges following an incident which also involved club-mate Jody Morris, but Frank Lampard believes the Chelsea defender’s problems are almost at an end. “When John’s problems blow over, which I am pretty sure they will, I am confident he will go on to do great things for this club,” said Lampard. “He’s strong, quick and reads the game so well. I train with him every day and he’s a good mate of mine. He can be as good as he wants to be and definitely good enough to get himself into the senior England squad in the future.”

Terry said: “The Final is going to be tough but it’s a great game for everyone. In the meantime we want to win our last three Premiership games and see if we can make the Champions League. It was a tight match against Fulham. In the first half they let us play but in the second they pressed us a lot higher.” Terry, who played with a bandage covering a head wound sustained against Everton eight days before, said he will seek the advice of team-mate Marcel Desailly when the two London rivals meet in the final. “Marcel has spoken to me when we have played Arsenal before,” he said. “He tells me what runs Thierry Henry makes and advises me not to get too tight on him.”

*~*

Source: Chelsea website, February 7 2002.

Terry: Football has been my Sanctuary

He said today: “Hopefully all this will end soon, but in the meantime I can forget everything when I am out on the pitch. It’s been a difficult few weeks, but now I will hopefully be making headlines for different reasons. All I can do is concentrate on the football, and not let anything else affect me.”

Terry was presented with a bottle of champagne as man-of-the-match but said: “I can’t drink that at the moment. I’ll celebrate with a glass of water.”

The Barking-born defender also admitted he was expecting a tough time from his family after heading Chelsea into the 5th round in the 92nd minute. He added “All my family are West Ham fans, and I was there for three years when I was a youngster. I was in a group with players like Paul Konchesky, who is at Charlton, Brighton’s Bobby Zamora and Joe Cole. It was going well, but then our coach changed and no-one enjoyed it after that. I had spells at Arsenal and Manchester United before coming to Chelsea. I am expecting a lot of stick from my family and friends after scoring that goal. When I fell into the crowd behind the goal in the first half I’m sure some of my family were sitting a few rows back. I could hear them giving me grief then.”

*~*

Source: Soccernet.com, February 1 2002.

Terry: Ranieri has saved my season

John Terry has thanked Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri for not turning his back on him at his lowest moment.

Terry’s World Cup dreams were effectively shattered after his arrest following an alleged altercation at a London night-club on January 4th. Chelsea fined the England Under 21 defender two weeks’ wages for being out less than 48 hours before the FA Cup clash at Norwich, but Ranieri has continued to select him despite his misdemeanours. That judgement bore fruit with Terry’s outstanding display in Wednesday’s 2-0 Premiership win over Leeds that kept Chelsea in the hunt for a Champions League spot.

The defender admitted he is grateful Ranieri chose not to make an example of him. Terry said “The support he’s given me has helped and I owe a lot to him. He could have dropped me. The club have shown great faith in coming out and speaking publicly abut the support they’ve given me. That’s nice and I owe it to him and the club.”

Terry’s performance against Leeds was in marked contrast to the mistake against Spurs a week ago that turned the course of the Worthington Cup semi-final. The defender agreed his form had been slipping, but maintained it was nothing to do with his off-field problems. he said “I’ve dipped in form a little bit in the past few weeks but I feel I’ve performed well in the last two games against West Ham and Leeds. I’ve not been affected by anything outside football. I don’t want to go into that but it’s not really affected me on the training ground or the pitch at all. it was just a dip in form; it’s good to see that I’ve picked up again. I can focus on just one thing. Once I go out on the pitch, it’s totally football. I’m not worrying about the other thing either, I’m just concentrating on my game. So hopefully that can keep on going well.”

Ranieri admitted the victory over Leeds would mean little if his side slip up at Leicester tomorrow. Terry agreed, saying “We have suffered with inconsistency over the past two or three seasons, where we’ve performed well and then, against the so-called lesser teams, we haven’t done as well. We can’t put our finger on it but we need to go to Leicester and prove we don’t just beat the big sides.”

*~*

Source: Chelsea Magazine, March 2001 Edition.

John Terry: English Backbone

Claudio Ranieri has always thought highly of John Terry, and it wasn’t long before the new boss gave the Londoner a place in his team - a vital vertebra in the side’s English spine. We caught up with the quietly spoken 20-year-old a couple of days before the Gillingham game...

So, are you still waking up with a smile because of the goal you scored against Arsenal? Is it still the first thing you think of in the morning?
It’s worn off a bit now. I haven’t forgotten it, but it’s moved a bit further back in my mind.

It was your first Premiership goal, but you scored against Gillingham in the F.A. Cup last season. Was this better?
Yeah I think so, because of it being such an important goal, and at Highbury. Definitely.

Can you talk us through it? It was a scambly sort of thing wasn’t it?
Yeah! Wisey’s crossed the ball ... I just remember Eidur [Gudjohnsen] jumping with David Seaman, and putting him off... then Lee Dixon and somebody else scrambled it off the line, and I just knocked it over.

It wasn’t the most difficult goal to score ...
It wasn’t, but they all count, so...

How did you feel, having just scored a vital goal like that in such an atmosphere?
I don’t know, to be honest. I just turned around and ran, and I just grabbed Jon Harley, and then everybody caught up with me and mobbed me.

You hadn’t worked out a celebration routine beforehand?
No, I haven’t got one sorted yet. I think I need to work one out.

Having you been thinking about working out a celebration? Because you nearly scored against Ipswich too...
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it a little bit. I nearly scored another header in the next game - I just couldn’t get enough power to get it over the line. But Gus [Poyet] was there to smash it in.

Does that count as an assist then?
Yeah!

Okay, we’ll put it in the mag as such. What does it actually mean to you to have scored a Premiership goal?
Oh, it’s a great feeling. It’s unbelievable. That Saturday night I went out for a couple of drinks with my friends and stuff, and had a meal. I couldn’t sleep that night, and for a few days more it was the first thing I thought of. But you have to move on, and after a while you have to start thinking about other things because you have another game to play.

After the Arsenal game, you did the press conference too...
Yeah, it was good, to be honest. It was the first time I’d done it. It was a bit strange walking in and just sitting there in front of all those journalists, but I think it went well.

You’ve pretty much - touch wood and all that - established yourself in the first team...
I’m not too sure about established myself. I’ve put together a run of about ten games. I’ve just got to take each game as it comes and do the best I can. But I feel part of the team and my confidence is high so ... long may it carry on.

When you say your confidence is high, does that affect the way you play on the pitch...
Yeah. Last season I got a game here, and game there; but this season I’ve had a run, so it’s boosted my confidence, which in turn affects the way I play.

Do you feel less nervous now before matches, now that you are used to starting games?
No, I still feel nervous before games. Everyone does, I think. I always did before youth games and Reserve games. About half an hour before kick-off, you start getting a bit of nerves. I just think it’s natural.

Do you have any rituals to calm yourself down?
Not to calm myself down, but I do have some superstitions and stuff. I wrap a bit if tape three times round the top of both my socks. In the toilets in the changing rooms I don’t go in the middle one, I either go on the left or on the right. Sometimes you have to wait when there’s someone there, which can be embarrassing, but it’s just one of those things...

Do the players take the mick out of each other’s superstitions, or is it something you don’t touch?
You don’t really take the mickey, because they’re things everybody keeps to themselves. I mean, nobody knows that I wrap the tape round three times, because it’s not the sort of thing you’d notice. And everyone’s got their own little private things.

You’re being talked of as one of a group of young players coming through at the moment. Does it help to have others, like Sam Dalla Bona, coming through at the same time?
Yeah, definitely. It’s the same with Jon Harley and Jody [Morris]. At some stage - in youth or Reserve games - we have played with each other. So it really helps, because we know one another and can help one another on...

Do you still feel like you’re finding your feet a bit with the first team?
A little bit. I still feel like a young lad, and I like to have a laugh in the dressing room. It’s a bit more serious with the older players who don’t mess around so much. But with Jon, Jody, Sam and myself, there’s enough youngsters to have a laugh. I like sticking around with the Reserves a bit too. I still go to watch every Reserve game. It’s a lot better than staying in on a Monday night.

People were talking about you as an England prospect after the Arsenal game. Is that going a bit far, just now?
Yes, I think people who are saying things like that are getting a bit ahead of themselves. As I said, I’ve played ten games or so on the trot and that’s that, really. I’d just be happy playing for the Under 21s for the time being and waiting a few years before thinking about the full England team.

You’ve got one cap, haven’t you, for the Under 21s?
Yeah, I’ve been called up for three squads, but I played one game - In Finland against Finland. It was a good experience. I played alongside Titus Bramble from Ipswich, who is a good player. We drew 2-2. I had the chance to clear one off the line and I sort of slipped and it went under my leg! But it was a great experience, and I want more of it.

When you first wear the three lions of your chest, it must be a proud moment...
Yeah, I just wish my family had been there. They didn’t manage to get to Finland, but hopefully there’ll be a game in England soon that they’ll be able to come along to.

Let’s talk tactics. You’re playing a lot in a back three now. Is that a position that suits you?
Even in the youth team we played three at the back, so I’m used to the position. I’m comfortable in a three or a four. I think maybe I prefer four, but I can’t really complain.

Against Arsenal in particular it looked difficult in a three. Why was that? Were they out-flanking you, or what?
They caused us a few problems. Pires and Parlour got forward, and Ljungberg as well. He was pulling out wide and stuff, and if they were catching us on the break it would be me, Marcel [Desailly] and Frank [LeBoeuf] against Henry, Ljungberg, Parlour, Pires and Wiltord, which was making life a bit difficult. They were pulling out wide, which would pull either Frank out or Marcel out, and that would leave a big hole in the middle. I think the manager made a good tactical decision at half-time to go to a four.

It seems to be easier to play three at the back at home. Is that because you attack more, keep possession more?
I don’t know, to be honest. I think the manager does prefer three at the back, and at home we’ve got the supporters, and we keep the ball well, so maybe it’s a good thing...

Is it easier to keep possession in a three? You seem to always be running for each other, and creating options...
I don’t know, really. There might be a couple more options; but as a four as well, if you work for each other, you can make good angles. But... I don’t know, it’s hard to say.

Can you tell us a bit more about your Chelsea career to date? How long have you been at the club?
Six years now, since I was 14. Right the way up through the system basically.

Who else has come through with you all that way?
Jon Harley, right from the beginning - although obviously he’s a year older than me, so he was in the Under 15s when I was in the Under 14s. But occasionally I got moved up an age, and I played alongside him in the youth team. And now in the first team, which is amazing.

That’s obviously been your dream for a long time, and you’ve fulfilled that dream. When that happens, do your dreams change? Do you have a new set of dreams?
Well I want to get more of a concrete place in the team, and stuff. Play in the team for a whole season. Maybe after that I can look to new dreams.

Are you happier now you’re in the first team?
Oh, yeah. It’s such a buzz playing in the first team. In training, on the pitch... I get more out of every moment.

Last year, you went on loan to Nottingham Forest. Loans are getting more and more common for young Chelsea players. How good an experience was that for you?
It was brilliant for me, as it goes. Obviously Luca [Vialli] was good mates with David [Platt] and they came to an agreement and I went there for a couple of months. They were struggling at the time, and confidence was low. But first they got a win when I wasn’t playing, and then I was on the bench and I came on, and after that my confidence just grew. The team spirit in a lower-league club is a bit different I think. They were more together. But it was a brilliant experience for me: for my fitness, for my confidence. Then I came back here, and I was on the bench for the Cup final, which was a surprise, really.

Do you look out for Forest’s results?
Do you know what? I really do. Seriously. I think it’s a great club. After the game on a Saturday, I look for my brother’s result - Dagenham & Redbridge - and then Forest is the third result I look for. The lads keep phoning me and telling me to come up, but it’s so far away, and I haven’t really got time at the moment.

Tell us about the Cup final. I saw you after with your medal... we put you in the magazine. It must have been a thrill.
Yeah. It was undoubtedly the highlight of my career so far, winning a FA Cup winner’s medal. I can’t explain it really. Sometimes in my house I just look at it, and I can’t believe it’s mine.

Did you think you might get on the pitch, when you were sitting there on the bench at Wembley?
I was hoping the lads might go two or three up, then I think Luca might have put Jon or myself on. Jody got a couple of minutes, which must have been brilliant for him. But just sitting on the bench, and being part of the squad was an amazing experience. Next time I hope I’ll get out on the pitch, though...

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Source: Soccernet.com, February 10 2001.

No Regrets For Terry

John Terry does not look with envy at the glittering array of medals that adorn the chests of today’s opponents Manchester United - even though he has every reason. Six years ago he was invited to sign an Old Trafford contract but turned it down so he could join Chelsea. Today the 20-year-old Terry is expected to line up in the home defence against United at Stamford Bridge. Yet, he has no fears about facing United and their star-studded strikeforce. “They won’t faze me and they won’t worry me,” he said. “All I’ll be anxious about is what I do myself. I know I could have been playing with them, instead of against them, but I turned United down because I believed I stood a better chance at Chelsea.”

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Source: Soccernet.com, January 17 2001

Terry Knows All About Pain Game

When he takes his place on the terraces at Victoria Road for tonight’s FA Cup replay between Dagenham & Redbridge and Charlton, there will be two reminders for John Terry that life in professional football can sometimes be painful. One is the bruising around the left eye of the 20-year-old Chelsea central defender. It is the legacy of a challenge from Arsenal’s Patrick Viera in an ariel clash during the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Highbury on Saturday. The other will be 21-year-old brother Paul, who will be lining up for the Conference side when it was his dream to have been part of the opposition. John Terry shrugs off physical injury as part and parcel of the game but knows it is difficult to accept pain of the more lasting variety when, as a young man with your heart set on a career in football, you are discarded at the age of 18. That happened to Paul Terry three years ago when Charlton manager Alan Curbishley took him to one side and told him there was no future for him at the club. “He had big hopes and after he was given the news he was really upset,” said the younger brother. “It must have been hard for him, but he’s fine now. He has a job as a fork-lift driver, trains with Dagenham and is the happiest I have seen him for some time.”

John is also a lot happier after his goalscoring performance against Arsenal last Saturday. “Buzzing,” is how he described his emotions after the 1-1 draw at Highbury. “It was the biggest game I had played in, my biggest test. You are up against people like Wiltord, Viera, Pires, Keown and Henry. He must be the best striker in the world. The time just flew by. I looked up at the clock once and there were only ten minutes to go.” But, after his brother’s setback, John is keeping his feet on the ground. He knows there is only a thin line between success and failure in football. However, once he makes his 20th start in this latest sequence of games - he is just five away - he will be in line for a new contract. Barking-born Terry has made it clear that he wants to stay at the club despite the top-quality competition, including the club’s vast array of foreign stars, for places. “I have always had the attitude that I want to make it here, and I always believed that I would,” he said. “The target is to be a regular in the team by the age of 22. If I am not, then maybe I will have to look elsewhere. As for the foreign players, I have just tried to learn from them. When I was a YTS player, I used to go and watch them if we finished training before them. I used to see how they would go in the gym and do exercises. I learned they are careful about what they eat and look after their bodies. As for advice, Marcel Desailly and Frank LeBoeuf are always willing to talk to you. When it comes to the new contract, I really can’t see a problem. As long as I am playing or involved I would like to pledge my future to Chelsea.”

His qualities have attracted admirers and a list of ambitious First Division clubs - among them Preston, Birmingham, Watford and Nottingham Forest - were keen to sign him. In fact, Terry went to Forest for two months last season and played a part in helping them to stay up. Moving would not provide any domestic difficulties for the independent youngster. He left the comfort of digs at Isleworth to buy his own house at Epsom, where he is happy to do his own cooking and washing. But Stamford Bridge is where he wants to be, and he said: “I know I have to be patient and that is what I intend to be while I work towards a regular first team place at Chelsea.”

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Source: Chelsea Magazine, New Season 2000 edition

First Day Back

Exactly how fit are the Chelsea players after their summer break? We follow John Terry through his first-day-of-the-season paces to find out ...

“Eddie Neddie, what’s happened to your barnet mate?” says Chelsea kitman Aaron Lincoln, sitting in the canteen, as goalkeeping coach Niedzwiecki walks in. It’s early morning on the first day back at Harlington for the Chelsea staff and players, and it’s very much like the first day back at school: everyone’s checking out the new haircuts and suntans, checking up on what everyone’s been up to over the summer, and looking forward to meeting the new boys - in this case Mario Stanic, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who are due in a little later. There’ll be no sign of the Euro 2000 players though - they’ve all been given an extra week off to recuperate from their exertions in the Low Countries.

It’s a time for joshing and back-slapping, but there’s serious work to be done, too. The most important man in the club in the first week back after the close season is undoubtedly Antonio Pintus, the ‘slave-driver’ or fitness coach who Vialli snapped up from Juventus two seasons ago to put Chelsea’s players through the most rigorous and up-to-date individualised training routines yet invented. Tomorrow the real pre-season training begins: two sessions a day for two weeks to get the players back into shape. Today each player has to undergo a five-stage physical test, mirroring one they took at the end of the season, to see what sort of state they are in, and exactly what sort of training they need. The players’ starting times (each test takes about an hour and a half) are staggered, so they’re arriving one-by-one, twenty minutes between them. Jody Morris is the first in - an hour and a half early - but Gianluca Vialli is the first to take the tests.

I grad a quick five minutes with the less-jovial-than-normal Pintus and he explains what he’s doing with the players today. “First up is the Mognoni test, conducted by Mike Banks, which measures the stamina of the players. Then they have to do an opto-jump test to find out the power of their legs and the speed of their reactions. I do that. After that there is the real power test where they have to try and lift their own weight, conducted by Ade Mafe. Then there is a couple of 1000 metre runs, looked after by Ray Wilkins and a bit of ball work to finish off, with Graham Rix. The heavy stuff starts tomorrow. And it will intensify. The second week will be the worst for the players. At the end of it they should be fit.”

Pasta and McDonalds

Third up for testing is John Terry, who’s looking relaxed after his two-month break. The young centre-back, starting his third season in the first-team squad, has cheerfully agreed to let us follow him through his routine. “I went to the Bahamas for a couple of weeks. Just me and the girlfriend” he replies to the obvious question. “And yes, I’ve been keeping in training, doing runs and the like. It doesn’t pay to get completely out of shape.” He is, he says, very much looking forward to his two-weeks of preseason training, though his tongue is pretty firmly lodged in his cheek as he talks. “In the morning it’s just running” he says, raising his eyebrows. “In the evening it’s ballwork. I can’t wait until they get the balls out.” He says he hasn’t quite forgotten what it feels like to kick a ball, because there’s always one in his living room, and he occasionally does keepy-uppy practice in his garden.

We follow John into the gym, and Mike Banks starts prodding him with a large pair of pincers with a dial on, which turns out to be for measuring his body fat. Morcheeba are blasting out from a hi-fi in the background. “Lets see if you’ve been living it up,” says Chelsea’s physio, before realising that Terry is actually thinner than he was last season. “Been eating pasta all summer JT?” he quips. “Pasta and McDonalds” laughs the youngster. Banks then fits him out with a heart monitor, and takes a prick of his finger, sticking the blood on a tab into a little Walkman-sized machine. “We test his blood before and after he goes on the treadmill for a set period of time. He has to run 1.375 kilometres at 13.5 kms per hour. This is to measure how aerobically fit he is - how much he can cope with a stamina exercise without using his energy stores. If he is aerobically unfit the lactic acid his body produces will show up on the machine. Then we will be able to work out what sort of pre-season exercise he needs to do. There’s no point giving him exercises to increase his aerobic fitness if he doesn’t need them. All our training routines nowadays cater to the individual player, rather than the whole group.” John, sucking his finger, gingerly steps onto the machine. Ten minutes later he’s all done, having hardly broken into a sweat. He is, it turns out, pretty aerobically fit.

After a quick breather, it’s time to see Sr Pintus himself, who’s in a dressing room with a laptop wired up to two yellow and black rods on the ground. John positions himself between the rods, and is asked to jump in the air, keeping his hands on his hips and his legs straight. “Antonio’s a nice man really,” says John, before launching himself. “31 centimetres” barks the fitness trainer. Again, Terry gets serious. “That’s crap,” he says, and jumps again. “34” says Pintus. “That’s better.” I ask what a good score would be. “47 is the best at the club.” John looks serious. “I was 37 at the end of the season,” he moans. “We will have to do a lot of jumping exercises over the season to improve the power in your legs,” says Pintus. Next he makes John do similar jumps with his legs bent at 90 degrees, and a reaction test in which John has to jump into the air after seeing a light flash in the screen of the laptop. All the information is tabulated in Pintus’ notebook. I’m still wondering who’s got the biggest jump in the club. Later John the photographer tells me he has sneaked a look at the book and seen that the club’s Dick Fosbury is Gianfranco Zola.

Taking the mickey

Next up is weightlifting with former Olympic sprinter Ade Mafe. Terry has to lift a weightless bar ten times, then do two sets of ten on 25 kilos, and four sets of ten of 50 kilos, taking a breather and stretching between each session. “These are purely for lower body strength, though we also improve upper-body strength in the gym,” says Mafe. “John has been developing a lot and it’s crucial he keeps up defending himself.” By the time he’s onto the fifties John is complaining a bit. “I only got up to 40 last season,” he moans. “You got up to 50,” says Mafe, and it’s the end of the argument. In the background Jon Harley has taken his shirt off for the treadmill, and everyone’s taking the mickey. “Wasn’t there a muscle there last season?” shout Terry, his best mate. “Where’s it gone?”

Eventually John leaves the gym and strolls past the cricket pitch into the ‘secret pitch’ behind, where Eddie Niedzwiecki, Ray Wilkins and Graham Rix are dealing with running and ballwork. It’s a lovely day and they’ve all taken off their shirts. Wilkins hands the centre back a stopwatch and tells him to run two laps, round the little discs that mark out the distance. “Blimey, when I was your age we used to go to Bognor for the summer,” he quips, on learning Terry’s holiday destination. “I suppose it starts with the same letter! Don’t go over 4 minutes ten. Don’t strain it though. Nice and easy.” In the background Graeme Le Saux and Jody Morris are doing running keepy-uppy exercises with Rix and Niedzwiecki. After 3 minutes 44 seconds Terry completes his second lap, and he’s finally broken into a sweat. He pours a bottle of mineral water over his head and the two men start talking golf. “What loft have you got on your driver John?” asks Wilkins, and other such questions. Pretty soon Terry’s off on his second 1000 metre lap. He comes in on 3 minutes 50 seconds.

Next up it’s over to Graham Rix. Terry has to do various exercises, most of them involving keeping the ball in the air whilst walking between two markers, then turning round and coming back. By now he’s looking pretty tired. But it isn’t affecting his performance. At one point he jogs the distance bouncing the ball from one thigh to another, knees it over his head, turns round, catches it on his knee again, and returns from where he started, without letting it hit the ground once. “I guess centre backs weren’t so skillful in your day?” I say to Wilkins. “I don’t know,” he replies. “John Dempsey was pretty useful with the ball. But in general, you’re right. JT’s got a good touch. He’s got two feet as well.” Meanwhile Rix is barkingb more instructions. “Walk away from me, keeping the ball up, not letting it come above your knee, then, when you hear the whistle, do a little Cruff turn and sprint back here.” Again Terry performs the test to perfection. “Now do the same with your left foot.”

After 15 minutes of increasingly difficult exercises, mixed with bouts of stretching, John looks pleased his day is finished - apart from a chat with Luca Viall, the final ‘test’ in the players timetable. As we wander back to the changing room we see some of the other players who’ve turnedup for their schedules. Mario Melchiot is high-fiving everyone, a big smile on his face, no doubt glad to be starting the season uninjured, and happy, he tells me, to be sharing a changing room with compatriotes Hasselbaink and De Goey. Albert Ferrer is talking football with programme editor Neil Barnett and Hasselbaink. We can hear Gus Poyet guffawing from behind a closed changing room door. Then Roberto Di Matteo turns up in the canteen with a number one haircut which makes the chef’s assistant Tracy scream and everyone else’s day. It’s much more radical than Eddie Neddie’s trim, and puts a smile back on everybody’s face. It’s just as well, because tomorrow the real work starts.

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