John Terry is “frustrated” he’s never been given the opportunity to manage what he and many others of a Blues bent consider to be His Football Club as much as it is anyone else’s. Chelsea are ‘bewildered’ by that frustration for one particular clear-cut reason among many other equally valid ones.
He’s the captain, leader, legend; still the player many think of as the figurehead of Chelsea’s greatest successes, along with Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Jose Mourinho, though also the man inextricably linked with one of the all-time lows – the image of him hugging his knees in the rain after the Moscow slip is a hard one to shift.
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One of the all-time great Premier League careers has led to nothing in coaching save for two spells as Dean Smith’s assistant, at Aston Villa and then Leicester, and a level of employment with the Chelsea academy that a 14-year-old might expect from a part-time babysitting gig. And yet he “doesn’t know why” he wasn’t offered the interim gig when Enzo Maresca was sacked.
Asked by the Golf Life YouTube channel if he was annoyed by the snub, Terry said: “Not annoyed, probably more frustrated, because I was certainly part of that under‑21s group that went over.
“So even if I didn’t take the team … Calum took the team, did really well, got a result out of the [Manchester City] game. I feel like I should have been part of that.
“Now listen, people have got to make decisions. I love it when people make decisions and they go ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Clearly the ownership, or whoever made those decisions – the sporting directors – have gone ‘no’ not to include me, for whatever reason. I don’t know why.”
Imagine the hubris of a man believing he deserves a crack at one of the biggest managerial jobs in world football after coaching kids for two days a month.
By his own admission when speaking to The Sun in August – in what was the chief cause of Chelsea’s ‘bewilderment’ at his “frustration” – Terry is “done with coaching”, instead enjoying the “balance” of golf, family time and the finer things in life, y’know like promoting and investing in NFTs and campaigning for the release of Charles Bronson from prison.
Calum McFarlane led Chelsea to a draw with Manchester City and has now been promoted onto Liam Rosenior’s staff despite holding only a UEFA B coaching license while Terry has a Pro License. We can understand why that would grate, but the former Blues captain must understand the negative impact him being put in charge or indeed anywhere near Chelsea’s first team could have.
In a press conference in which Rosenior praised Terry’s influence at the club the Chelsea manager also insisted – coincidentally, pointedly, who knows? – that anybody found guilty of racist behaviour in football “shouldn’t be in the game”.
Terry was cleared by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in 2012 of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand and has always denied the allegations but was found guilty by the FA and handed a four-match ban.
Rightly or wrongly, fairly or unfairly, he’s a man carrying significant baggage, with pastimes typically reserved for teenage YouTubers or 40-year-old tubes.
A golfing owner of cartoon ape NFTs who takes time off from coaching a team in the Baller League to petition for the release of one of the UK’s longest-serving and most violent inmates and make TikToks standing in a trophy room does not a top football manager make.