When John Terry was substituted after 53 minutes on Monday, it turned into yet another interesting side note to the unmitigated disaster that was Chelsea's season. Terry was the undoubted backbone to Chelsea's title triumph last year. He had recovered from a dip in form to once again show that he was the best defender in the Premier League during the twilight of his career.
Jose Mourinho was waxing lyrical about him at every opportunity and he was justifiably being given a lot of credit for Chelsea's march to the title. Fast forward a couple of months and the situation couldn't have been any different. Terry lined up alongside Kurt Zouma against Leicester and proceeded to look every bit his 35 years of age particularly as Jamie Vardy skipped in to open the scoring after in the first half.
Terry was subsequently hooked shortly after Leicester went 2-0 up and Mourinho then firmly threw his central defenders under the bus during his final post match interview.
I know one of my best qualities is to read the opponent and these two goals are very difficult to accept. I feel my work was betrayed.
All last season I did phenomenal work and I brought them to a level more than they really are. Or this season we are doing so bad.
It was a staggering thing to hear from a manager who has always tried to build an 'us against them' feeling in the dressing room. 'Us' had been turned into 'me' and 'them' was no longer outside forces, it was his own team. Terry has long been considered the central figure in the Chelsea dressing room and when he was thought to be turning against Mourinho it was unlikely there was any coming back from that for the Portuguese boss.
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However, now that the deed has been done and Mourinho is out of a job, Terry has decided to post the following message to his former boss.
Thank you doesn't seem enough
Sad sad day
Gonna miss you Boss
The Very Best I have EVER worked with, unbelievable memories together
Whether or not that's just a bit of lip service is open for debate, but it's certainly interesting to see that kind of heartfelt message considering the rumours of a dressing room mutiny that have been doing the rounds over the past month or so.
