This is a question I've been meaning to ask Chelsea fans at large for quite a while, and now that I've joined WAGNH I have the proper forum to ask it. This fanpost will be simple -- no formatting, no poll. Just a pointed question: What in God's name is so good about John Terry?

For years, I've felt like a living contradiction, struggling with an internal conflict too shameful to share with most Blues. I am quite possibly one of the only Chelsea fans around who does not like John Terry. Since I began to follow the club (which was shortly after the watershed purchase by Abramovich), it has seemed to me as though Terry's talent was largely a creation of the racist English media. Chelsea needed a "homegrown" captain to parade in front of the camera and "England's Brave John Terry" was a natural fit. But did his talent ever really match his face time? I've never really seen it.

During those early successes under Mourinho, I couldn't shake the feeling that Carvahlo was very much the superior half of their midfield partership. Now, with the CL final approaching and Terry's absence a certainty, can someone please explain to me why this loss actually matters? If Cahill and Luiz are both healthy, are we really that much worse off?

And what exactly is it that John Terry does better than Vincent Kompany/Thiago Silva/Nemanja Vidic/Carles Puyol/Lucio/Ricardo Carvalho/Jerome Boateng/any of the other CBs considered to be elite?