If there’s a player who admits no reasoning, as age is ruthless and doesn’t wait for anybody, then that is John Terry. Getting old is kind of the worst thing that can happen to any player, and it doesn’t matter how successful their career has been or how much he’s given to his beloved club, this sport is a business and teams often move on rather than appealing to the emotional side.
This is precisely the case of one of the most prolific, secure, trustworthy and talented defenders (and players for that matter) that has ever stepped foot at Stamford Bridge, the captain John Terry, a player who has spent his entire career (except for a brief 6 game tenure with Nottingham Forrest) dressed in blue.
Terry has been at the Stamford Bridge institution since 1998, arriving at the tender age of 18 to the first team and since his return from a loan in 2000, he’s been one of the most consistent names for the blues, making more than 650 appearances for the club that made him the amazing player he is nowadays.
Nevertheless, despite 17 years in the club and more than 60 goals scored for his side, the 35-year-old is losing his speed and his legs aren’t responding quite as well as they used to, being stung by the injury bug a little more often than not in the past few seasons.
So it’s only time to speculate and start wondering what should be the next move for the English player, who’s not getting any younger and his playing time could take a huge dip in the next months, as even if there are several young guys that can step up in the centre back position, you never want to send John Terry to the bench.
Terry’s been linked with a move to the Chinese Super league most recently, and given the lack of playing time (mostly because of injury) under Antonio Conte’s command, speculation seems to grow by the day regarding the future of the legendary centre back.
So the question that we all need to ask is: Should Chelsea actually sell John Terry? And that’s a question we never thought we might have to ask and we’ll go ahead and say that they shouldn’t let this mythical guy go anywhere and we’ll tell you why.
Antonio Conte likes to play with 3 full backs in his scheme, so you need several guys that can suit up whenever one of them gets hurt, so you wouldn’t want to let one of the veterans go. On top of that, Kurt Zouma is called to be the centre back of the future for the blues, so you need another guy there until the French youngster’s able to contribute, and he could use more mentoring from a player like Terry.
On top of that, even if Chelsea winds up signing Alessio Romagnoli during the next transfer period (which seems highly unlikely), you don’t want to mess with the locker room’s chemistry and John Terry owns the credibility of most of the roster, so letting him go right now could be a huge mistake.
Last but not least, c’mon man, this guy has given you his entire career and you just can’t overlook that. Nowadays clubs treat their legends as disposable average Joes, and that’s just wrong, even if this is a business.
Comments are closed.