Former England and Liverpool star, Peter Crouch, has made some damning claims about former Chelsea captain, John Terry.
Terry joined Chelsea at the age of 14 and went on to become their most decorated captain ever.
The Englishman led the Blues to five Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, one Champions League and one Europa League title.
He left Chelsea at the end of the 2016-17 season and played one last campaign with Aston Villa before retiring as a player and took up his current role as assistant head coach to Dean Smith.
The Sun, UK quoted Crouch as saying that the former England captain used to manipulate officials to avoid bookings and red cards.
“What I saw creeping into the game, during my time, was when the captains would go in before the game and speak to the ref,” he said.
“To me, they would always be ‘ref’. I have grown up with just ‘ref’. Now it’s like Mike and James. They are all called by their first names. It’s all to get them onside.
“I remember Darren Fletcher was good at it. But John Terry was amazing at it. Just getting around the ref. ‘Ah, Mike, you alright? How is the family?’ All this.
“Unreal. I thought: ‘This is disgusting.’ He was crawling around the ref.
“And it meant [the ref] would think twice. If he clattered someone in the first minute, he’d get up and say: ‘Sorry Mike.’ He would then think twice about booking him. It’s little things like that.”
Comments