John Terry is concerned that the essential honesty of England’s players could count against them at the World Cup finals next summer.
The England captain claimed yesterday that there is not one player in Fabio Capello’s squad who would deliberately go to ground to win a penalty, which he believes is not the case among many of the teams they could meet in South Africa.
Terry was anxious to avoid labelling all overseas players divers, but said that the influx of foreigners in the past decade has changed the culture of the Premier League. The likes of Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen would appear to have adapted well to the new reality, but Terry is adamant that none of his international team-mates would deliberately attempt to deceive a referee.
“Diving is something the England lads don’t do and sometimes we’re too honest,” Terry said on the eve of the friendly against Slovenia at Wembley today. “Even in the Premier League we see the English lads get a bit of contact and try to stay on their feet to score from the chance. The foreign mentality coming in is any little clip and you go tumbling over.
“It’s not all the foreigners, but you know who they are. It’s unfair to single them out, but from our mentality and the way we’ve grown up it’s not something we’ve ever been into.
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“It’s not the way we play. If you stay on your feet and don’t get full contact on your shot afterwards it’s for the referee to decide. Sometimes we stay up and that goes against us.
“Nowadays with the speed of the game it’s any little touch. You see so many sendings-off where a guy clips your leg from behind and you go tumbling over and it looks a lot worse than it is. I think everyone would have a better chance if they cut out diving. Worldwide everyone would know where they stand.”
Although reluctant to name the worst offenders, Terry was happy to condemn Eduardo da Silva’s actions in Arsenal’s Champions League play-off tie against Celtic as a dive and has urged Didier Drogba to cut out the theatrics at Chelsea, with some success.
“I think the Eduardo one was a dive, we can all see that,” the Chelsea player said. “It’s disappointing to see because Arsenal are a quality side and I don’t think they want to be portrayed like that.
“We’ve all had a word with Didier. He’s a big, strong lad, but at times he can get a knock and go down like anybody. Sometimes he stays down a little bit too long, but sometimes slight knocks can keep players down.
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“He’s a brilliant player and it’s something we’ve addressed and now Didier has definitely changed for the better for him and Chelsea. He gets the respect he deserves now.
“Sometimes it went against him and people forgot just how good he was. He’s a player who wants to win and does anything for that.”
Terry’s views were echoed by Fabio Capello, the England manager, who claimed that he urges his team to be sporting at all times and that during his playing career he used to lambast team-mates for diving.
“I prefer sporting players, not divers,” the Italian said. “But I have seen a lot of games in England and I have not seen too many divers.
“When I was playing sometimes players dived, and of course I minded. I don’t like divers and I told the players that. That’s my opinion, but I’m not on the pitch and it is the players who decide whether they dive.”
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England (probable; 4-4-2): R Green — G Johnson, M Upson, J Terry, A Cole — A Lennon, F Lampard, G Barry, S Gerrard — E Heskey, W Rooney.
Slovenia (possible; 4-4-2): S Handanovic — M Brecko, M Suler, B Cesar, B Jokic — A Radosavljevic, V Birsa, R Koren, N Pecnik — Z Ljubijankic, M Novakovic.
Referee: J Eriksson (Sweden).