John Terry is Mr. Chelsea – but he has revealed how he twice came closing to leaving Stamford Bridge.
The 35-year-old has spent his entire career with the Blues – aside from six games on loan at Nottingham Forest in 2000 – but explained to the Daily Mail how different his career path could have been.
“It’s a funny story actually.” he told interviewer Jamie Carragher. “Chelsea wanted to sell me then. They had agreed a deal with Huddersfield. After my loan at Forest, I was supposed to go to Huddersfield. Steve Bruce was their manager. Gianluca Vialli was manager here and he knew David Platt at Forest.
“But I did well in those games, I started five and came on in the other. Chelsea wanted more money then decided they didn’t want to sell as I’d done well. I came back and got on the bench for the FA Cup final.”
A move to Huddersfield for a then relatively unknown Terry would have gone largely unnoticed, but a potential switch to Manchester City in 2009 would have garnered much more attention and controversy.
The Citizens attempted a £29m swoop for the ex-England captain, who spoke to Roman Abramovich to see if Chelsea were considering the offer and would have reluctantly left had the bid not been rejected.
“There was the thing with Manchester City,” he told the Daily Mail. “They offered £29million for me in 2009 and Chelsea turned it down. I had a meeting with Roman. I said to him, if the club accepts the offer then it tells me you don’t want me. So then you haven’t got a choice, you have got to go. But if they don’t accept the offer, it tells me everything that I need to know. Chelsea refused the offer and that was it.”
Terry’s long-time Blues teammate Frank Lampard spent a season on loan at City after leaving Chelsea in 2014, but the hard-as-nails defender has insisted that he could never play for another English club.
“No. No chance. No chance,” he added in the Daily Mail. “America, maybe. But physically I feel like I can still play. Do I want to play? Of course I do. But then decisions come in to it with your family. What if you go somewhere and it doesn’t work out? Everything else comes into play, doesn’t it?”
Terry may have to make that decision when his contract expires next summer. He has played 654 times for Chelsea, winning 14 major trophies including four Premier League titles and the Champions League.
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