I really hope that John Terry and the team’s level best is good enough to save Foxes
LEICESTER CITY is a club where I spent five of the happiest years of my career, and I really hope they stay up.
Good luck to Dean Smith, Craig Shakespeare and John Terry as they try to lift the Foxes out of the bottom three over the last eight games.
I fear they have their work cut out. I don’t understand why Leicester sacked Brendan Rodgers – who I believe would have kept them up – and left two of his coaching staff, Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell, in charge for two home games while they lined up his replacement.
Those two defeats against Aston Villa and Bournemouth could prove costly when the season ends.
Whoever made the decision to remove Brendan, then waste two winnable home games deciding which way to turn, will have to own that decision if Leicester are relegated.
Smith’s last job was at Norwich, which didn’t go as well as he would have liked, and Shakespeare is a former Foxes manager who was sacked in 2017, but at least he knows the club.
Terry was one of the finest centrebacks, and one of the most decorated captains, of the Premier League era and his playing career speaks for itself.
I am surprised he has not yet been given a chance to be a manager at a high level, like his former Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard, because there is no doubt he has a good footballing brain.
Terry’s arrival at Leicester this week gave a few people the excuse to recycle an exchange of views between us eight years ago, when he called me out for playing “at a really bad level” in my career.
For those who don’t recall the episode in question, he didn’t agree with comments I made when Chelsea had slipped to 15th in the Premier League and he wasn’t on his best form individually.
Basically, Terry said I wasn’t qualified to pass judgement. Here’s what he said at the time: “I’ve come under criticism, individually, from certain players and individuals, players I’ve looked up to and played alongside.
“I’ve taken that on the chin: Rio, Carra, Neville, the very best I’ve come up against in the game. I take that on the chin.
“When others speak, maybe I don’t take it on the chin. When players have not had a career, played at a really bad level in their career … Robbie Savage being one. He’s dug me out a couple of times. I’ll take it from the Rios, Carraghers the Nevilles. All day long. From others? Nah.”
I have no axe to grind with Terry, and there are no hard feelings on my part. We are all entitled to our opinions in football – whether we have played 717 games for Chelsea or whether we captained four Premier League clubs.
I hope he gets Leicester going and if he helps to save them from relegation, I’ll be as happy as any supporter at the King Power. Above all, I hope the players will respond to his coaching – although I’m sure he would agree they are not playing at a “very bad level” but just in need of a little guidance.
As I’ve found out in the past, words matter in football. Sometimes they come back to bite us.
It’s water under the bridge that Terry hammered me for playing at a certain level, but he now finds himself coaching players in the bottom three of the Premier League. I hope he can bring himself to work that far down the league!
So good luck, John – I can’t sit here and pour scorn on everything you achieved as a player as your club career was up there with the very best.
I really hope Dean, Craig and you keep Leicester in the Premier League.
And I hope the sycophantic journalists who laughed along with your dig at me years ago are not laughing behind your back if it doesn’t go according to plan over the next eight games.