LONDON - Chelsea coach Avram Grant has slammed British Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe for labelling captain John Terry's wages as "obscene" and told the Government to concentrate on helping England's poverty-stricken citizens instead.
He added that Terry deserved "every penny" of his wages and was angry that Sutcliffe had picked on football players instead of other sportsmen and women or even singers like Madonna.
Grant, who replaced Jose Mourinho as manager in September, has been full of praise for Terry and Sutcliffe's attack on player's wages clearly upset the Chelsea coach.
"I have my opinion about this. John is the captain and you need to learn how he led the team with full commitment in a very difficult time," said Grant.
"This is leadership, this is captaincy. He deserves every penny. His leadership, I can guarantee you, is one of top in the history of this position.
"Everybody likes to speak about the money of the footballers. Why does nobody speak about singers who get more money in one year than any player?
"Why don't they speak about talented tennis players like Maria Sharapova for example, who, I think, at 20 years old, has more money than any other player.
"Even if you think life is very easy for footballers, they have a short time to be a professional and if they succeed they deserve the money.
"I am not a politician but I need the government to care about not how much John Terry earns because they don't pay even one penny.
"They need to take care of the people who don't have money and to help them as we try to help them. This is more important for the Government.
"There are many, many people who need the help of the Government instead of an opinion about how much John Terry or Madonna have in their pockets."
Sutcliffe had angered the Premier League club ahead of their trip to Wigan on Saturday by refusing to retract his controversial remarks about John Terry's salary.
The minister said on BBC Radio Five Live: "John's salary is not £150,000 a week it's closer to £130,000.
"To the ordinary man and woman in the street that would be seen as obscene because they cannot relate to that.
"Link that to ticket prices and people are being priced out of the game. It's not an attack on individuals - John Terry is a great football player and a great England captain."
Despite all the fuss over Terry Grant was equally concerned with the loss of full-back Paulo Ferreira to ankle ligament damage sustained in the Carling Cup win over Leicester.
But he has been boosted by the prospect of a fit-again Ashley Cole in the next week. Cole has been sidelined with an ankle problem and is recovering quicker than Terry, who has been out of action after undergoing knee surgery.
"Ashley and John Terry are improving quicker than we thought. Ashley may be available next week, JT will take longer but we need to wait and see how they will cope," said Grant.
"Paulo Ferreira is not available and will be out for five or six weeks. We are short but we have a big squad and we have good players to replace him, as we have had with John and Ashley."
However, Grant added Terry would have to be happy with his own fitness before thinking about playing for Chelsea or captaining England in their Euro 2008 qualifier later this month.
"I was a national coach also so I can see it from both sides," he added.
"If John Terry is fit and 100%, I will be happy for him to play for Chelsea and England. First he needs to feel he can play and then we can talk about it."
