Chelsea legend John Terry, paid tribute to Ray Wilkins who passed away yesterday.
In particular, Terry remembered the time he was a young player and Wilkins spoke very often with him.
“Ray was such a great man,” the former Blues centre-back told TalkSport. “I was 16 or 17, standing there cleaning my boots and cleaning my pro’s boots, and he’d come and say to me, ‘JT, come on fella, get your boots on’. He would say to me that I need to work on my left foot, I need to work on this…You look at the world class players he played with, I was always asking him questions about them, all us young players used to sit there picking his brains and he always had so much time. I was a young player, I was nothing, but he had so much time for myself and the other young players to pass on his education of the game and his experiences in football. I will always remember him saying to me: ‘JT, why have two touches when one will do? Get it and give it to the midfielder. They’re the proper players, son, you’re a defender for a reason’! He would pick players up after defeat. As individuals, if you were going through a difficult time on and off the field, he’d be the first one to pull you into the office or put an arm around your shoulder or call you and make sure everything was ok. It wasn’t just the first-team players, it was the staff as well, he treated everybody exactly the same. He made everyone feel special.”