Of course, John Terry will return to Chelsea some day as the manager. That’s no revelation, but fans should not expect it any time soon.
John Terry – Captain, Leader, Legend – was asked by some “YouTuber,” whatever the hell that is, if he could perhaps sort out Chelsea’s current defensive issues, you know, by joining the coaching staff. JT’s politically correct reply was “one day.”
Well. Really? No s**t, Sherlock. Mr. Chelsea has suggested that he will one day arrive at Stamford Bridge as the club’s manager? Of course he will. We all know it.
But in the scramble to grab hits and clicks in these football-free times, internet headlines abound with “John Terry just said …………….. which will really excite Chelsea fans.” It’s lazy journalism at its laziest. We’re better than that here. We actually put some thought into what we write about and usually get chastened for our thought-provoking troubles. Copying and pasting quotes is easy, but it’s not about the clicks or the hits.
Terry was Chelsea’s greatest ever player in terms of what he gave the club. The blue blood that still courses through his veins, despite his current allegiance to Aston Villa, will never clot. In all probability it will be John Terry who replaces Frank Lampard when his time with the club is done. There lies a sadness, that double-edged sword of seeing one legend replaced by the other will be a day of sorrow and euphoria.
Unfortunately, it’s a day that will come. Quite what the timescale will be remains to be seen, but for the moment Lampard’s in the hot seat and doing more than enough to retain the spot for the foreseeable future.
Of course, for Chelsea fans, the ideal would be a combination of the two at the helm. However, with Lampard settled on his backroom team, particularly Jody Morris and Joe Edwards, that seems an unlikely scenario.
The likelihood of Mr. Chelsea playing second-fiddle to Mr. Chelsea’s vice-captain is improbable, even if Morris and Edwards decide to reprise their managerial partnership elsewhere at some point in the future. The problem for Terry is that Chelsea is so ingrained in him it’s difficult to ever see him ever going anywhere else. Of course, he already has, but Aston Villa is a means to gain some Premier League experience before stepping up.
Allowing for hindsight, Terry’s path was being laid when Antonio Conte was at the club. Terry, although not playing regularly through Conte’s second season, was gaining vital experience by supporting both him and the players. By not backing Conte with transfers, those plans were shelved by Chelsea’s hierarchy.
Rather than have another season together, giving Terry a greater insight into the world of management through Conte’s eyes, both moved on. Maurizio Sarri was brought in, and there endeth the lesson.
With the promise of two words from John Terry setting the pulses of Chelsea fans racing faster than their fingers could click the link, there can be no doubt that “one day” Terry will sort out Chelsea’s defensive issues. However, whilst Frank Lampard is in charge that is unlikely to happen.
What we know for sure, though is, this thought-out article will get fewer clicks than anything begging for hits with tantalizing headlines that promise everything but ultimately deliver nothing.