On the eve of an important Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev, John Terry has spoken about the togetherness within the squad and insisted the players are united, fully behind Jose Mourinho and determined to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.
The captain, addressing the media at Cobham ahead of tomorrow’s match against the Ukrainian side, spoke openly and honestly about our current situation, and said it’s the players who must shoulder the blame.‘First and foremost the players will stand up. I’ve not been good enough and performances haven’t either. We realise where we are in the league, and where we are in the Champions League group, and we know what we need to do to get out of it,’ he said. ‘That responsibility lies on us, not the manager, it lies on us as players.
Terry, who feels there has been an improvement in performances in recent weeks, explained what it will take for the situation to be reversed.
‘It will take a dressing room that stays together,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen in the last two or three days ridiculous stories about what’s happening within the club and within the dressing room. I can assure you now the players are 100 per cent behind the manager.
‘We’re together and anyone who’s been at the last four or five games of ours will have seen a turn in the way we’re playing. We hold our hands up and in the first part of the season we weren’t good enough, but in the last four games we’ve been extremely unlucky not to come away with a couple of wins.
‘I’m sure we’re on the up and we will turn things around. Being together is the most important thing and we’ll stay together in that dressing room.’
Shortly before Terry arrived, Mourinho had conducted his own press conference, and the skipper was fully supportive of his manager.
‘He’s under pressure because of the way we’re performing,’ stated the defender. ‘He can do all the work he wants on the training field and in team meetings but once we step over that white line it's out of his hands a little bit.
'It’s on us and collectively we know we need to be better, for this football club and for him.
‘As an individual he’ll come and front you guys (the media) after games and take a lot of the responsibility, which is unfair. We are prepared to fight and anyone who’s been at the games can see that in the way we’ve reacted and responded.
‘I’ve known him a long time and he’s always been the same. He’s very demanding and he wants the players to win, even on the training field. He’s really disappointed and devastated after results and he takes a lot of that responsibility on his own shoulders, which is him all over, taking it away from the players because we’re the ones who haven’t been good enough.
‘Collectively, us as players, him, the fans and everybody at the club, we will bounce back and climb up the table, I’m sure of that.’
The defender also responded to recent media reports, which suggested there had been negative comments made by one of our players.
‘In my whole football career I’ve never heard a player come out with those words,’ said Terry. ‘It’s ridiculous I even have to sit here and talk about it. I’ve seen the disappointment in players faces after results, us feeling as though we’ve let the club, manager and fans down.
‘That player wouldn’t get out of the dressing room. If players heard that among ourselves it wouldn’t go down too well, would it?’
Terry went on to respond to comments made by former players working in the media of late.
‘I’ve come under criticism individually from certain players, individuals I’ve looked up to and played alongside, and I’ll take that on the chin 100 per cent from the likes of Rio (Ferdinand), (Jamie) Carragher and (Gary) Neville, we’re talking about the very best I’ve come across in the game,’ he explained.
‘I’ll sit there, listen, take it all in and try to improve. I don’t take that in a negative way. When certain other people speak, maybe not, maybe I don’t listen or take it on the chin from players who haven’t had a career or have played at a really bad level and then come for me after what I’ve achieved in my career, Robbie Savage being one. He’s done it a couple of times. I’ll take it all day long from the very best but other people, no.’
