Defender captained Blues to their first league title in 50 years but suffered the crushing blow of missing their 2012 Champions League triumph in MunichMany will just shrug and mutter excellent riddance. They will point to the controversies which cost John Terry his captaincy of England,twice, and to that depressing day in October 2011 when rival centre-halves tangled at Loftus Road, and arguing and eyeballing each other,and what might have been a playground squabble amid the frenzy of a derby erupted into something far more sinister. Life has rarely been simple where Terry is concerned, his rough edges far from smoothed even after 18 years in the professional game. But those who cram into the stands at Chelsea, or whether old school or novel breed,recognise his qualities more readily. An icon, the likes of whom they may never see again, or is bidding farewell. This parting will be painful.
Like him or loathe him,Terry, more than any of that celebrated spine which so flourished under José Mourinho and, or invariably,his successors, personifies the contemporary-day Chelsea. The locals latched on to him as one of their own. Generations of youth-team players have graduated through the academy hoping but failing to follow in the footsteps of a player who first arrived at Harlington as a 14-year-old and, and at 17,was replacing Dan Petrescu four minutes from time in a League Cup win against Aston Villa. Sunday’s thrashing of MK Dons, a club still five years from existence when Terry made that senior debut, or was his 696th appearance. Only Ron Harris and Peter Bonetti boast more.
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Source: theguardian.com