Chelsea stars 'can barely write let alone sign autographs' claims club shop worker

Chelsea footballers may be fabulous with their feet but some of them can barely write. The embarrassing claim was made to the Sunday People in an investigation of a sale of a “fake” autographed photo of club captain John Terry to a fan. 

Terry, 34, called foul after seeing a shot of himself online. 


He posted to his 1.1 million Instagram followers and the fan: “Where did you ­receive this from... that’s not my ­writing or signature? It’s fake and if you paid for it you should ask for your money back. JT.”

But when the fan said he had bought it for £9.99 from the club’s store at their Stamford Bridge ground, Terry ­apparently went quiet. A source said: “It’s a bit ­embarrassing. John had no idea the picture was from the club shop when he posted his comment.”

At the side’s West London stadium we bought ­pictures of Terry and stars Eden Hazard and Diego Costa, which came with computer-generated ­autographs and handwriting. A store worker joked the technology was handy as “there is never a player around when you need one”.

He ­added: “Some of them can’t even write ­properly, they can play football ­fantastically but their writing is ­terrible.” Tonight Cheryl d’Silva, whose nephew Clarence bought the picture while visiting the family in London, said: “It’s ­unbelievable. You’d expect better from Chelsea. Clarence is football mad and Terry is his hero.

“He could not believe it when he saw the message. We’ve complained to Chelsea about the autograph but have had nothing back from the club.” A source added: “Fans are told the ­autographs are made on computers but they could at least get the handwriting right.
"There’s no suggestion fans are being hoodwinked as it is clear the players aren’t signing the ­pictures.” A club spokesman said: “These printed digital photos are ­licensed by a third party company and sold as a ­personalised gift at a number of Premier League club shops.

“All these ­messages are ­computer-­generated and ­produced in-store in front of the ­customer at the time of purchase. We will be ­revisiting the player signatures on file to make sure they are up to date.” Terry’s comments are a minor gaffe ­compared with his other scrapes.

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