Get those memes and sardonic tweets drafted. John Terry may or may not have played his final game for Chelsea, but in the event that he has, Chelsea are ensuring his departure is fondly remembered by anyone with a proclivity for recycling old gags online.
The Times' Matt Hughes reveals this morning that Chelsea are covering all of their bases in the event Terry decides to reject Chelsea's offer of a one-year contract extension, by asking the Premier League for special dispensation to allow Terry lead out his club against Leicester, despite being suspended. Obviously, this begs one question:
#Chelsea have asked the Premier League if the suspended Terry can lead them out against Leicester. Will be wear his full kit?
— Matt Hughes (@MattHughesDM) May 14, 2016
Full kit in this instance includes shin pads, as it did in Munich in 2012. If Terry does choose to leave, it will all be a rather unseemly end for one of Chelsea's finest ever players: unable to play, Terry will stand in full kit as part of a guard of honour welcoming his former manager and new champions Leicester City to Stamford Bridge.
It does look increasingly like Terry will leave the club he has spent his entire career with. He is currently weighing up the offer of a different role from the club, but his emotion at Chelsea's Player of the Season awards this week was that of a man who knows his time is coming to the end:
Emotional Terry https://t.co/SnsTueTGnz
— WeAreChelseaFC (@WeAreChelseaFC) May 13, 2016
If this is the end for JT, he will end his career as he spent much of it, the butt of many internet jokes. But we get the feeling Terry doesn't really care, as he has employed the internet's habit of dodgy photoshop jobs to add the Europa League to his astonishing trophy collection: