Football nowadays is more of a business, as icons and idols don’t seem to get the respect they’ve earned through their entire careers, being demoted to the bottom of the bench or just sold to the highest bidder when they get old instead of having the opportunity to retire with their clubs.
This has become a major trend in England, where iconic players such as Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard had to hang the cleats elsewhere instead of doing so in the clubs they gave everything to, due to their age and lack of impact on the pitch.
And now, it seems like yet another English veteran is set to join his teammates on that list, as Chelsea’s skipper John Terry is quite unhappy at Stamford Bridge right now due to the lack of minutes his new boss, Antonio Conte, is providing him.
Terry wasn’t in Conte’s plans to start the year and he knew it, yet he rejected a very lucrative move to a lesser tournament, a move that would granted him a huge paycheck and steady playing time, but would take the opportunity of retiring with Chelsea away from him, and he stated that he was keen to earn a spot on Conte’s starting XI.
However, after struggling to remain healthy at the start of the year and now watching David Luiz return to Stamford Bridge while Conte was looking for other defenders as Leonardo Bonucci, things got even worse for the 36-year-old.
Finally, Conte decided to cut Nathan Ake’s loan spell short and brought him back home, and with Kurt Zouma finally back from his injury, it seems like there’s less and less room for a John terry who was shown a red card on his first appearance in months on Chelsea’s last FA Cup match.
And now that Ake has left, the Cherries are keen to bring John Terry to replace him on a loan spell until the end of the season, and Chelsea should actually let him leave so he enjoys what might as well be the last year of his successful career.
Of course, seeing Terry in another team’s jersey would be extremely awkward, as John has only played for the Blues (barring a 6 game spell on Nottingham Forest) through his entire careers, making more than 650 appearances for the West London institution, but this is a move that needs to be done out of mere respect for the skipper.
Eddie Howe’s team has shown a decent run of form and is away from a relegation scramble, so it would be nice for both parties to complete this move, as Terry seems extremely angry and frustrated at the bottom of the bench or even at the bleachers.
It’s very sad that Terry’s career has come to this at the final stage of his football life, and we should always remember him as he was for both Chelsea and the Three Lions, one of the most talented and die-hard defenders that Europe has ever seen.