Following his announcement to leave Chelsea earlier this month, there has been a multitude of debates between football fans across the nation as to whether John Terry is the best defender the Premier League has ever witnessed.
Terry’s history
Terry has played 477 league games for the Blues, winning three titles and scoring 40 goals. With these stats, he has given himself the reputation of a defender who loves to place his name on the scoresheet. Nowadays, clubs are aiming to ‘home grow’ their players, John Terry was almost the epitome of this. Last year alone, the Chelsea skipper won 66% of his tackles and his discipline was superb, bestowing 10 free-kicks and receiving only two yellow cards all season. If you were to add these stats with all of those since 1998, you would have one of the, if not the best defender in the Premier League ever on your hands. However, this is up for healthy debate.
The Englishman’s personality has proven somewhat controversial in recent years, simply installing his name in fans bad books. This is simply a reason not to frame him as the face of the Premier League, never mind his footballing successes.
Comparison with others
Fans have observed several outstanding defenders since the Premier League’s inception. This includes the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Tony Adams, Ledley King, Rio Ferdinand and more. The question is, whether Terry tops the list.
Nemanja Vidic was a main candidate to take the title off of Terry, as soon as the argument arose. The Serbian leader played only 211 games in the league for Manchester United, nonetheless he won five titles with Red Devils and provided himself the name of one of the best Leaders in world football.
Tony Adams is perceived as an English rival for this prestige, who made his debut for Arsenal in 1983, became their youngest ever captain at 21 and held that honour until his retirement in 2002. Some say that Adams is like a clone to Terry; Adams made 669 appearances, scoring 48 goals. This gave him a similar reputation, generating lengthy arguments which have evidently arisen again.
Is he the best? Perhaps...
There have been numerous rumours of Terry’s future whereabouts, regarding areas such as China, Qatar or even the unthinkable for a player of his stature, retirement. Although, what we do know is that Terry has proven himself as one of the best the Premier League has ever seen.
Whether or not he will go down in history as the best remains to be seen, but finishing the season with yet another trophy to add to his collection would give him a big helping hand.