There’s been no love lost between West Ham United fans and Chelsea legends Frank Lampard and John Terry over the years.
Chelsea’s John Terry
Hammers fans love to hate their two former players for different and often misunderstood reasons.
From a family of West Ham fans, John Terry started his career on the books of the Hammers but left to join London rivals Chelsea as a teenager.
Terry was then involved in a career-long feud with Hammers supporters every time they played one another as each took it in turns to antagonise the other.
It was well publicised that Terry’s family were West Ham but that did not stop him goading their supporters by kissing his shirt and celebrating in front of them on numerous occasions. Hammers fans gave him just as much back, though, as the Blues legend would testify.
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Loathed by the vast majority of fans, Lampard’s situation is a huge bone of contention for supporters who feel their reasons for disliking him have been misconstrued by the media and rival fans over the years.
While suggestions of nepotism when Lampard was an emerging talent were regrettable, Lampard was no saint in the bitter relationship.
Lampard was a massive West Ham fan as a kid, watching his dad, Frank Senior, carve out legend status at the club.
But the relationship between Lampard and the Upton Park faithful turned sour when he was sold to London rivals Chelsea and claimed he was not liked by supporters.
Frank Lampard in his West Ham days
Lampard went on to criticise the club and its fans on numerous occasions and received abuse from the terraces whenever the two clubs met.
The fact he would invariably kiss the Chelsea badge to antagonise them further when he inevitably scored against his old side did not help matters, nor did the proclamation that he is Chelsea’s biggest fan.
But a new video showing Terry and Lampard talking openly, honestly and from the heart about West Ham’s greatest ever player just might soften some of the bad feeling.
The pair were joined by another former Hammer Rio Ferdinand talking about England’s World Cup winning captain to raise awareness for the Bobby Moor Foundation on the 24th anniversary of the great defender’s death.
The late, great Bobby Moore with a replica of the World Cup he won with England
Lampard said: “I grew up on stories of Bobby. My dad roomed with him as a young professional, whenever I probably stepped the wrong side of the line as a youngster he would remind me how Bobby was as a person and how he would have behaved.
“He was a complete gentleman. Stories of him training the day after a game, coming in on a Sunday morning and training extra, stories of him dealing with people, whether it was in a restaurant or outside of football I mean because obviously he was a huge star at the time.
“For me I’m very aware of the person he was and it really made an imprint on my mind and mentality growing up, that’s how you should behave and that’s how you should go about your job.
“You try to stick to the right values and I think Bobby was the epitome of that.”
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