taken from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/chelsea/article1687370.ece‘Losing to Liverpool two years ago was the lowest point of my career. It won’t happen again’
England’s captain believes Chelsea won’t be seen as a great side until they conquer EuropeJoe Lovejoy
Twenty games unbeaten, a maximum of nine to play and Chelsea are still very much in the hunt for that unprecedented clean sweep of all four major honours, but there is acceptance at Stamford Bridge that one element of the fabulous quadruple holds the key to greatness. Jose Mourinho and his players can carry on winning the Premiership until doomsday without gaining a place in the pantheon unless they emulate Manchester United and Liverpool and lift the European Cup.
Their captain, John Terry, has acknowledged as much, saying: “I want to go on winning the Premiership year after year, but we’ve got to win the Champions League to prove that we are a great side. People will only start believing that when we’re the kings of Europe. It’s the only way we can do it.”
Terry rates elimination by Liverpool in the semi-finals two years ago as “the lowest point of my career at club level” and is determined to “put the record straight” when the teams meet again at the same stage over the next 10 days. The first leg is at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, which means the decisive return, the following Tuesday, will again be at Anfield, where Chelsea’s hearts were broken by Luis Gar-cia’s contentious winner in 2005.
Two years ago, after being held goalless at home, Terry and his team were taken by surprise and intimidated by the ferocity of their “welcome” on Merseyside. “It won’t happen again,” the teak-tough defender promised, a warrior’s glint in his eyes.“All of us found it a bit of a shock that night. It was one of the most impressive atmospheres I’ve played in, and credit to the Liverpool fans for that, especially the Kop. They all had their scarves in the air, belting out their songs. They made it a memorable night — something special. We’ll be better prepared, ready for it this time.”First things first. It is essential that Chelsea take full advantage of the home leg this time. “We’ve got to do our bit here,” Terry said. He is confident that they will. “We know what to expect from them as a group of players, we’re at full strength again, with everyone bar Arjen Robben available. For any opponents looking at our squad, it must be daunting.”
Mr. Ferguson and Manchester United were fixated on the European Cup until they won it in 1999. Mourinho and Chelsea have the same magnificent obsession. “We still feel the domestic trophy is really important,” Terry said. “To play 38 games and finish top at the end is a great achievement. But we need to prove ourselves in the Champions League.”
The archetypal John Bull, England’s captain wants to win in Europe, but not to play there. “Moving abroad doesn’t appeal to me, it’s not what I’m about. I’m English through and through. I’ve told the club that I see my future at Chelsea and we’re looking to sort that out in the summer with a new contract.”
Talks to that end have stalled, but, asked if there were any circumstances in which he could envisage leaving, he replied instantaneously with an emphatic “no”. Surely that had to make negotiating difficult for his agent, Aaron Lincoln? Smiling at the suggestion, Terry said: “I’ve still got two years left on my contract, so whatever happens in the summer, I’m here for another two years anyway. At the moment we’ve reached stalemate and we’re not taking it further. There’s so much going on at the club right now that we’ve agreed to put it on hold. I don’t want to be called in to Stamford Bridge and distracted by all that.
“At the end of the season we’ll look at it again, and I suppose if I got down to six months left on my present deal and nothing was sorted, I’d have to think about moving, but that situation would be a case of Chelsea not wanting me, not me wanting to leave.”
Talking of the future, what do Terry and the other players make of the continuing uncertainty about Mourinho? The captain had been told by the club not to discuss this prickliest of subjects, but his regard for the manager he has described as “the best in the business” is a matter of record and he is not one to duck any issue. “The players do talk about it, but not as much as you might think,” he said. “The manager fills us in on the situation and says everything is okay, so all the speculation doesn’t bother us that much. We’re like a family — we’re that tightly knit that nothing going on off the field affects us.
“It’s the same as contract negotiations breaking down with me and Frank [Lampard]. If we come out and say that, everybody makes too much of it. There has got to be a rift or something has gone wrong. The reality is that contract talks don’t always go smoothly, you can’t have it all your own way. That’s where me and Frank are at the moment, and maybe the manager is in the same boat.”
The absence of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s plutocratic owner, from recent games and his lack of direct communication with his manager and players has been widely interpreted as evidence of the billionaire’s disillusionment, but Terry feels that this had been blown out of proportion. “Last Sunday [when Chelsea beat Blackburn at Old Trafford to reach the FA Cup final] Roman sent word that he wanted to come into the dressing room afterwards, but that he had to shoot back to Russia. We understand We know we’ve got his full backing and he knows he’s got ours. Nobody should ever underestimate what Roman Abramovich has done for Chelsea and for these players.”
There is increasing belief that Abramovich’s perceived dissatisfaction with Mourinho stems from a desire for a more expansive style of play — that on an investment of £500m he expects more than grinding 1-0 wins in return. Chelsea did put four past moribund West Ham in midweek, but such margins are not a regular occurrence, and Terry admits there is scope for improvement.
“Everybody talks about how well Man United have played, whereas with us it’s always ‘Chelsea dug in again’, that sort of thing. Over the past year or so that’s what we’ve been all about, winning 1-0. I don’t think this is ever going to be a side that goes out and wins by three or four every week. United have got that about them, they’re always capable of doing that. With us, we tend to score one and make sure that’s enough.
“We’ve agreed we’d like to kick on and get that second goal more often to kill the game — as we should have done through Sheva [Andriy Shevchenko] last Sunday. We don’t do that often enough, we tend to shut up shop. We wait for the right opportunity to come along, we don’t go chasing it.”
Mention of Shevchenko turns the conversation to the problems he and Michael Ballack have had adapting to the hurly-burly of English football. “Sheva came here from Italy and went about training with their mentality, taking it easy a bit,” Terry said. “Obviously they work hard out there too, but the intensity Chelsea train at is phenomenal and every foreign player we sign finds it unbelievable.
“Eidur [Gudjohnsen, his friend and former teammate] says the training at Barcelona is relaxed by comparison. At our place it can be frightening. Some of the tackles that go in make me cringe. We have sessions when we all fly into each other and the manager has to stop it and say: ‘Calm down, we’ve got a game in a couple of days’. But that’s the way we want it. We don’t want to pussy-foot around, we train as we play. That’s where our will to win comes from.”
There are obvious dangers inherent in such a full-on approach. Terry needed a back operation, which kept him out for seven weeks, after a training incident in December. During that time Chelsea played eight league matches, winning only four. If they fail to retain their title, they will blame the loss of their inspirational leader as much as the skull fracture that deprived them of Peter Cech, the world’s best goalkeeper, for three months.
In the televised game at Newcastle this afternoon one statistic certain to be trotted out is the fact that Terry hasn’t scored since the season’s opening weekend. Laughing, he said: “Every single Chelsea fan I meet every week tells me I’m due one, and every commentator always mentions it. I think the reason is that I’ve done so well for goals in recent years that I’m getting singled out for special attention at set-pieces.”
Nitty-gritty time: do the players genuinely believe that they can win the lot? “There is that possibility, but the games are coming so thick and fast, you don’t get the chance to dwell on it,” Terry replied. “Personally, when I’m at home I like to spend time with my kids [11-month-old twins], not sitting there thinking about the great times I’m having at Chelsea.
“Anyway, we’ve still got it all to do. Last Sunday there was champagne in the dressing room, but nobody opened it, as we had the West Ham game on Wednesday. Mind you, we brought it back with us, just in case.”
The way they are playing, they should get it on ice.
