Here’s why Terry has to be my No 1
AN ERA is coming to an end after John Terry announced he will leave Chelsea at the end of the season.
I’ve spoken about his qualities many times in these pages, so to look at what he has added to our game in a different way, I’ve decided to name my top 10 centre backs who have played in the Premier League.
This is something I’ve enjoyed compiling, because I’ve reflected on so many different centre backs, but it has also had a bittersweet feel, given the desperately sad news of Ugo Ehiogu’s premature passing. 1. JOHN TERRY MY TYPE of defender, someone who would put his body in front of anything to stop a goal. It should not be forgotten, though, what a great footballer he is and I know from playing alongside him how effortlessly he could ping a 60-yard pass with his left foot.
During Jose Mourinho’s first spell at Stamford Bridge, with Terry commanding in the middle and Petr Cech in goal, it felt almost impossible to score against them.
Chelsea only conceded 15 goals in 2004-05 en route to the title and that season signalled the start of five consecutive years of him being named in the FIFPro World XI.
He has won 14 major honours and kept 214 Premier League clean sheets. 2. TONY ADAMS THE only reason he doesn’t top this list is because I feel his best days were for the George Graham Arsenal sides who were crowned champions in 1989 and 1991 before the Premier League began. Plus Terry is better with the ball.
Still, Adams won four titles in three different decades, which shows how he adapted his game as the demands on central defenders changed.
The best evidence for that is his famous left- foot half volley against Everton at Highbury to seal the title in 1998. 3. RIO FERDINAND THE best footballing central defender on this list. Ferdinand (right) had the skill to be a midfielder and that was where he played when we had our first battle in the 1996 FA Youth Cup final, when Rio was with West Ham.
But don’t think that his ability on the ball affected his defending. He ended his career with 189 Pre- mier League clean sheets. His partnership with Nemanja Vidic was one of the best in Europe during a spell when Manchester United reached three Champions League finals in four years. 4. VINCENT KOMPANY A MAN mountain. For three years, before injury problems took hold, I wouldn’t have wanted any other central defender in the world in my team. He had everything: pace, power and aggression, as well as ability on the ball. He produced one of the best performances I’ve seen from a defender when City beat Manchester United in September 2013. City have spent hundreds of millions to find a partner or replacement for him, but haven’t got close.
Kompany cost £6million from Hamburg in 2008. It is the best transfer business that City have ever done. 5. RICARDO CARVALHO SOME might be surprised that this master of the dark arts has taken such a high place in my list but I thought he was brilliant. Carvalho was an expert reader of the game, very good and cool on the ball, but also very aggressive.
I like the fact that, like me, he wasn’t the tallest or most physically imposing but he always got the job done.
I called him a ‘magnet’ after one game between Liverpool and Chelsea because the ball kept being drawn to him. His partnership with Terry is the best I’ve seen in the Premier League. 6. NEMANJA VIDIC I WOULD have loved to play alongside him and I almost did. Rafa Benitez thought he had signed Vidic in December 2005 but Manchester United came in and gazumped Liverpool.
Vidic was one of the main reasons Sir Alex Ferguson wrestled the title back from Mourinho in 2007. I was tempted to move him higher up this list but I can’t forget some of the games he endured against Fernando Torres! 7. JAAP STAM WHEN Ferguson admits a mistake in selling a player, he must be good! I faced Stam four years after he left the Premier League in the 2005 Champions League final. He was a massive influence for Manchester United, particularly in the 1999 Treble season. United had not won the Champions League until that point because they had never had a central defender of Stam’s quality. 8. SOL CAMPBELL WE talk about the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ of 2004 and the team who won the Double two years earlier and drool over their attacking play. It is easy to forget, though, that virtually the same squad had won nothing for three years. That changed with the controversial free-transfer signing of Campbell. If Liverpool had taken him from Tottenham, it could have been us winning those titles because we finished second to Arsenal. 9. MARCEL DESAILLY HE CAME here after winning the 1998 World Cup with France. I don’t think he showed his best over six years, but when he was on form it was a man against boys. Michael Owen always said he was the best he had played against. If Desailly had been here at his peak, he could easily have taken top spot. 10. SAMI HYYPIA ONE of the greatest pieces of business Liverpool did was getting big Sami (below) for £2.5m from Willem II in 1999. What followed was a decade of supreme consistency. He transformed our defensive record and won 10 trophies. The only thing he lacked was pace but he was the best partner I had at club level and our numbers over eight years were excellent. SO that’s it. No place for Ledley King or Jonathan Woodgate, both of whom had rich talent but were prevented by injuries from scaling greater heights and cannot match my top 10 for honours. I also left out myself because I think it’s only right John Terry gets the accolades this week! Feel free to join the debate at