Lazy Daily Express story on John Terry designed to stir up trouble at Chelsea

Searching through this morning’s news in the search of some credible transfer gossip, I stumbled across a worrying headline that reinforced the view that John Terry – and others at Chelsea – are wielding too much power at the club.

The headline, in the Daily Express, unwaveringly says: “Terry: I run Chelsea with Lampard and Drogba”.

It seemed, or so one might be tempted to think having read the headline, that our esteemed captain had given another misguided press interview and made a statement that undermined not only Ancelotti but also Chelsea’s push for silverware. 

In essence, the article claims Terry believes he, Lampard and Drogba literally control the club and are ‘bigger than any manager will ever be at Chelsea’. It states that Terry said it is those three players who should take sole credit for keeping the team going through managerial upheaval. The paper also claims that Terry thinks it doesn’t matter who the manager is – ‘with those three in the dressing room, Chelsea have a chance’.

But to come to all these conclusions, what do the Express actually quote Terry on? Well:

“It has been a test for me and not only for me, but Frank and Didier too. They deserve real credit because people hear about me, they don’t tend to hear about what they do behind the scenes”.

And that’s pretty much it. The Chelsea captain does add:

“I can tell people that Frank and Didier are great and it is really important I have got their backing, because we have had so many managers over the last few years. But it was important that not only myself, but Didier and Lamps kept everyone together and said listen, as long as we keep doing our job, the fans will be there supporting us. That is what matters, Chelsea Football Club, not the manager or the players”.

Perhaps it’s worth paraphrasing what he’s has actually said in those two quotes. They boil down to Terry saying there have been some tough times during managerial upheaval, but Lampard and Drogba have been great and deserve credit for their role in keeping the Chelsea effort on track. Regardless of all that at the end of the day, the football club itself – and its fans - are more important than either players or manager.

There is absolutely nothing about what he’s said that is controversial or could be misinterpreted as a suggestion that there are players who are more important than Ancelotti. What’s more, Terry is speaking about the past – how the club weathered managerial changes on the pitch – and his words are exactly what I would expect from a responsible captain of club or country. Going further, he has very deliberately singled out Lampard and Drogba for praise, which seems pretty sensible bearing in mind that the form of those two players over the coming months will probably be the most significant factor in Chelsea’s push for trophies this season.

It’s such an easy story to write – no thought or research required – but there is no story here (compare the Express article with the Guardian’s take and the contrast is telling). It’s lazy journalism, and there’s no excuse for it. There is plenty to write about on football at the moment, even without the endless transfer gossip. The African Cup of Nations, the re-emergence of Man City under Mancini, the supposed decline of the FA Cup, the war between the Liverpool board and the club’s fans...I could go on. The sensationalist article follows well-trodden (and equally nonsensical) lines and can only be designed to stir up trouble at Chelsea.

I shouldn’t get so wound up about it. It’s no conspiracy, and journalists write stories like this about the top clubs every week. I suspect the likes of John Terry are used to it, too. But there are a wealth of issues to debate about the beautiful game out there and, when football journalists have the ear of hundreds of thousands of fans, we deserve more from them.

You might also be interested to read:

• Does John Terry have too much influence at Chelsea?

Comments

[boris]

the rags that write this guff are trying to raise thier dwindling sales figures, how many chelsea fans are going to buy this paper, the ones that were buying it are thinking why, fans of other clubs are reading the truth and thinking what a crock of shit, it's not just the so-called reporter (im using this term very lightly) but the editor, im sure that an editor who can let this sort of tripe be published in his paper is fast approaching his redundancy. We can thank the express for the good publicty it has given JT, the internet is alive with this story, and i would assume that a lot of people are now thinking twice about what they read of our captain