CHELSEA legend John Terry used to lull his opponents into a false sense of security in the tunnel – then clatter into them on the pitch.
The 42-year-old played over 700 games for the Blues and is the most successful player in the club’s history.
Terry skippered Chelsea more than 500 times, winning the Premier League and FA Cup five times, the League Cup three times, the Champions League and Europa League in a glittering career.
And the Blues veteran would do all he could to get any kind of mental edge on his opponents.
In an interview with snooker legend Stephen Hendry on YouTube, Terry was asked if he was ever friends with opposing strikers.
Terry said: “I’d be all friendly in the tunnel before the game and stuff like that [saying] ‘can I have your shirt after the game’? making them feel really comfortable as if it’s going to be an easy afternoon.
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“Then first tackle [clapping motion], little bits like that.”
Terry would even continue the mind games while away on his summer holidays – both with rival players and with team-mates.
The ex-defender would go on runs on the beach so everyone could see him, just so he could get a mental edge over everyone else.
Terry revealed: “Even going back to that on holiday and stuff you’d see people on holiday and you’d be down the beach.
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“I used to make sure that I’d wait for all the players to get there, obviously we all used to go to Portugal [and] Dubai, wherever it was.
“I’d wait for all the players to be there, I’d stick my trainers on and go for a run along the beach.
“Everyone would go ‘what [are] you doing?’ and I went ‘I’m just getting fit for next season’, and the next day mentally you’d start seeing them running and stuff like that.
“I’d go for a 20 minute jog but just mentally I was always trying to play with other people and trying to get in people’s heads.
“I spent the rest of the holiday on the sunbed while they were running and thinking that I was in the gym every day.”
Terry would even prank rivals and team-mates into thinking he had been to the gym at 5.30am on holiday as part of his plan to be ahead of everyone else mentally.
He continued: “I used to go down in the gym and you know you get the pad of when you sign in and sign out.
“I used to put 5.30am. The night before [I would] sign in the following morning ‘5.30am John Terry’ and my room number. So when they’d come down at 10 o’clock they’d see my name at 5.30.”
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When asked by Hendry if this was to his team-mates, Terry replied: “My team-mates, other players from other teams.
“I was always trying to get an edge on people mentally. It’s weird, but it worked.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
