Terry full of praise for Di Canio

Chelsea captain John Terry has spoken of his admiration for new Sunderland boss Paolo Di Canio.

Di Canio was appointed manager of Sunderland following the dismissal of Martin O’Neill, with the club sitting just one point above the relegation zone with seven games of the season remaining.

The former Swindon manager has been under media scrutiny since his arrival for his extreme political views, but Terry praised the Italian ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

“His movement was fantastic and I found he was just a real nice guy on the pitch,” the Chelsea captain told The Evening Standard.

“He always gave a battle. If there was a little tussle he’d get up and shake your hand after and that kind of thing.

“So very fair, very passionate, as we’ve seen with his character, and his ability was fantastic. He was a credit and I can only speak highly of him.”

Terry played against Di Canio during his spells in the Premier League with West Ham and Charlton, and the defender spoke of the influence the striker had on his career.

“He always spoke to me after games and said: ‘Listen, maybe you should do this and do that,’ which was really nice at the time,” he said.

“What did he say? Just certain things. When he made certain movements I should maybe have been tighter and stuff like that. I was only young at the time when I was playing against him when he was at West Ham and sides like that.

“I had the likes of (Gianfranco) Zola and these guys teaching me every day but from an opposition player it was quite nice to get that literally two-word sentence. A two-word sentence was enough and something I learned from.”