21 Apr 2012

Is LFC misfit right with this ludicrous 'Beckenbauer' comparison?

Liverpool loanee Joe Cole believes that former team-mate John Terry is one of the most 'technically gifted' defenders he's ever seen, and he's compared the deposed England captain to one of the game's all time greats.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Cole - who is currently on loan at Lille - argued:

"John Terry for me is the best defender technically I’ve ever seen.

"I used to say to him: come out with the ball, but English football always encouraged him to be more aggressive, play on his power and determination.

"We should have tapped into his technical ability. He could control a game in same way Beckenbauer could, but that wasn’t the English way"


I've seen John Terry play dozens of times (and several times live), and he's never displayed any Beckenbauer-esque tendencies. Anyhow, it's an insult to compare a thug like Terry to a gentleman like Beckenbauer.

Cole is not the only one given to nonsensical flights of fancy. Last year, in what could've only been a fit of drunken fantasy, Alex Ferguson made a similarly improbable comparison when he argued the following:

"Look at Pelé. He was a very aggressive attacker as well who could look after himself. So can Rooney. There are similarities that way in strength, speed and determination".


I don't recall Pele spending his entire career diving, do you?

Cole is no stranger to ridiculous comparisons either; when he first arrived at Anfield, Steven Gerrard came out with following gross hyperbole:

"[Lionel] Messi can do some amazing things, but anything he can do Joe can do as well, if not better. I really fancy Joe for the [player of the year] award this season"

Jaimie Kanwar


30 comments:

  1. It's all very well people saying what players could be like and who they could be like, but it's what they are and what they are like that matters most.

    Maybe Terry could have been one of the greatest technical defenders ever, but that's not what he's spent his career being.

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  2. DEFINATELY NOT A BECKANBEUR - BUT A GOOD PLAYER AND CAPTAIN NEVER THE LESS AS FOR ROONEY AND PELE YOUVE GOT TO BE JOKING FERGIE HAD OBVIOSLY HIT THE WINE BOTTLE.

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  3. Fergies never off the alcohol, hence the Big Red Nose, the lying cheating old Bar Steward.

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  4. JJohn terry is an accomplished racist!

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  5. I just think that joe might have been saying that as a friend trying to big up terry thinking that it might improve his own chances in playing for england hes crying out for attention since he's been in france everyones forgotten about him

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  6. You simply cannot compare the silken skills of Beckenbauer and his style of captaincy with those of Terry. One is a polished gentleman and the other ..... well that's all I want to say.
    Nevertheless, Terry is a very effective central defender and captain and anyone who says otherwise is in denial. I think JT would settle for that!

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  7. terry is a scumbag,no class.
    someone should tell him turning up to post match interviews with no top but captains armband still on is a bad look.
    absolute nonsense from cole.

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  8. Now I've heard it all. What a f****** comment. Maybe J Cole's brain don't work anymore since he's moved to France. What a twat.

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  9. Get a proper job jamie

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  10. Bitter, bitter, bitter. I am a Chelsea fan and would not claim JT was a beckenbaur but he IS a very good technical player. He can use both feet, run with the ball, ping 50 yard passes with ease and is a captain gerrard could only dram to be.

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  11. Gerrard likens Joe Cole to Messi, so its only right that Joe Cole continues the tradition of talking rubbish.

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  12. maybe gerrard should shag his best mates wife and be a good captain then.

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  13. hahaha, Gerrard's comparison of Messi and Cole is a classic.

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  14. Aye, listening to him and KK, is hard work!

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  15. Sorry Jo. No comparison to Captain Fantastic. Not even close.

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  16. Oh boy... JT could not even lick the Kaiser's boots. Beckenbauer is the only one that is nominated as an all-time great for a defender's position. The only one that came close was Karl-Heinz Forster (which even Maradona admitted was the best he had even seen) yet not included in the all time fame! How is this JT even close?

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  17. Terry is given a lot less credit than he's due. Mind you that Terry Carvalho partnership in 05 is the best this league has ever seen. And stats back that up too. Not in the league of the German, but Terry was once the best in this league.

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  18. Nah, she's too old for him.

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  19. Wasn't even the best at Chelsea. Very limited player made to look good by a superb Carvalho. Like Carragher, plays with very little intelligence and is lauded because of his 'heart on his sleeve attitude' and gut busting challenges that, if he had any intelligence, he wouldn't need to make anyway.
    I don't think I've ever seen a more over-rated defender than 'JT'

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  20. Another example of why we fail at tournaments. We have too high an opinion of ourselves. Terry like Ferdinand have been made to look better than they are with excellent foreign counterparts next to them. Pretty much goes for every team and position in the league. This 'golden generation' has been made to look better than they are with more intelligent players beside them. Im a Liverpool fan, and that goes for Gerrard too. Its no coincidence we consistently fail at major tournaments. 

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  21. John Terry is the best footballer I've ever seen. There, I said it
    Granted, I HAVE been drinking quite heavily for the guts of 15 hours.

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  22. When John Terry retires, hopefully he'll take up a pastime that actually allows you to handle the ball, and kick your opponent. They are by far his greatest strengths as a footballer. Even Tony Adams is more like Beckenbaur than Terry. In fact the only player I've seen even close to him as a sweeper/defensive midfielder is another German, our own Kaiser - Didi Hamann.

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  23. ha ha ha this is a joke artice right jk?..........what? these things were actually said? ..........oh dear

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  24. They certainly are absurd comparisons. Here's another one - Jordan Henderson and a footballer.

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  25. Does Beckenbauer's ma also like the scouse penis?

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  26. Terry and Beckenbauer? Really?

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  27. It is hard to split them, so perhaps we
    should look at the evidence.

    They both have/had good spacial awareness
    - even when older and slower, Becks had a gift for anticipating the nuances of
    the opposition's intent, and therefore placed himself in the right place at the
    right time.

    Similarly, I'm unaware of any occasion
    that Terry has actually missed the team bus. Becks was two footed, and Terry
    has two feet too.

    I've noted that both Terry and
    Beckenbuaer struggle when expressing terms in the past subjunctive, although I
    concede that its harder to spot in Terry's spoken German. They could both
    be accuse of being ham actors, Beckenbauer's performance in the Famous Monty Python
    sketch 'The Philosophers'
    Football Match'  (where he played
    Plotinus)  was rather stilted.......likewise Terry's constant appeals for
    the likes of hand balls, corner kicks and any number of opposition
    'infringements' can seem almost comedic.

    They both posses good diplomatic skills
    - Beckenbauer’s speech at the UN in New York could be compared with Terry's silence
    over the drunken Heathrow 9/11 incident. And finally they both posses an
    arsehole as far as I’m aware - although Beckenbauer resists the temptation to
    talk out of his.

    So on balance I think Beckenbauer might
    just shade it.

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  28. It is hard to split them, so perhaps we
    should look at the evidence.


    They both have/had good spacial awareness
    - even when older and slower, Becks had a gift for anticipating the nuances of
    the opposition's intent, and therefore placed himself in the right place at the
    right time.


    Similarly, I'm unaware of any occasion
    that Terry has actually missed the team bus. Becks was two footed, and Terry
    has two feet too.


    I've noted that both Terry and
    Beckenbuaer struggle when expressing terms in the past subjunctive, although I
    concede that its harder to spot in Terry's spoken German. They could both
    be accuse of being ham actors, Beckenbauer's performance in the Famous Monty Python
    sketch 'The Philosophers'
    Football Match'  (where he played
    Plotinus)  was rather stilted.......likewise Terry's constant appeals for
    the likes of hand balls, corner kicks and any number of opposition
    'infringements' can seem almost comedic.


    They both posses good diplomatic skills
    - Beckenbauer’s speech at the UN in New York could be compared with Terry's silence
    over the drunken Heathrow 9/11 incident. And finally they both posses an
    arsehole as far as I’m aware - although Beckenbauer resists the temptation to
    talk out of his.


    So on balance I think Beckenbauer might
    just shade it.

    ReplyDelete