Terry: players to blame for Big Phil’s exit

JOHN TERRY accused his Chelsea team-mates of underachieving under Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Terry was informed by a member of the Chelsea hierarchy yesterday afternoon that Scolari had been sacked. The news brought genuine sadness for the Blues skipper, who enjoyed working with Scolari.

And Terry feels some of Chelsea’s senior players need to analyse themselves before pushing all the blame for a season of disappointment at the Brazilian’s door.

“I have sympathy for Scolari,” said Terry.

“He had my support, that’s for sure and two or three other players will say exactly the same thing, I’m sure. He’s a great man. Unfortunately we weren’t playing well and it falls on his head. Maybe they should look at some of us because we did underachieve.”

It is now becoming apparent Scolari’s fate was sealed last week at a meeting that involved Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech.

Once Chelsea failed to overcome Hull on Saturday, there was no way back for a man who has won a World Cup and reached the European Championship Final with Portugal in 2004.

Guus Hiddink is already in line to replace Scolari, at least on a part-time basis, although Terry does not feel the events of the last few days can be allowed to pass without some kind of self-analysis from the Chelsea camp.

“The overall picture needs to be looked at,” he said.

“The powers at the club need to look at that.”

Terry blames himself for part of the problem. The 28-year-old accepts there has been an edge missing to his game over the last few weeks.

“I was playing well for the first five or 10 games but since then I could have been better,” he said.

“I know I need to improve. I could have done better and I hold my hands up.”

Terry refused to confirm owner Roman Abramovich had made the call but admitted it was a relief to get away from Stamford Bridge, which seems to have been in turmoil since the summer.

“A lot has been going on at Chelsea all season so to come away with England and get away from the rumours is quite good,” he said.

And Terry is determined not to let any distractions get in the way of helping England overcome the Euro 2008 winners.

“What’s happening back home is at the back of my mind but I am focusing on the game ahead,” said Terry. “The manager (Capello) has stressed he wants everyone focused on the game ahead. I want to put in a good performance personally and hopefully the squad can do the same.”

Fabio Capello finds it difficult to believe he could combine England with a top club job, as Hiddink would have to do at Chelsea and Russia: “I know he did it before with Australia and PSV. I prefer to think about one job, not two.”

Scolari meanwhile could collect as much as £15 million (€16.8m) in compensation and it could take the total spent on getting rid of the last three managers to around £40m (€45m), following the departures of Jose Mourinho in September, 2007 and Avram Grant last summer.

Chelsea recorded a loss of £75.8m (€85m) to the end of June 2007 and although that was significantly better than the £140m (€157m) loss recorded two years earlier, their continual handouts to unwanted managers threatens to undermine their plan to run a cost-effective ship.