Chelsea: John Terry managerial reunions could become commonplace

John Terry meets Chelsea yet again as an assistant. While his desire will always be the Blues’ managerial job, he’s going to have to wait for that.

Pre-COVID-19, Dean Smith was coming under increasing pressure at Aston Villa. As Chelsea look to cement a top four spot, Villa is still staring down the barrel of relegation. Were Smith to depart the Villans though, they have a budding young manager-in-waiting already in the dug-out.

John Terry must be itching to get himself in any kind of managerial hot-seat as he looks to get himself on the fast-track to Stamford Bridge. If results don’t go Smith’s way, Terry’s chance may come before this convoluted season is over.

Many Chelsea fans would love to see JT in the home dug-out, but at the moment, that would be over his former vice-captain’s body. Frank Lampard has made a decent effort in his first outing as a top-flight manager, and he’ll be looking to augment that over the next few weeks.

Whilst the clever money is on Terry being a successful manager moving forward, it’s by no means a given. You could argue that Villa’s defensive frailties this season have not been helped by the input of one of Chelsea’s greatest—if not the greatest—defenders. So far this season, Villa has conceded the most goals of any Premier League team.

We don’t know how much input JT has in his current secondary role—maybe he is taking more of a watching brief rather than having much of a direct input into proceedings. We do know that if ‘Mr. Chelsea’ sets out to achieve something, there’s a high degree of probability that the goal will be reached at one point or another.

Should Villa stick with Smith after this season is finally done, the Blues former Captain, Leader, Legend may well look to move on. Some club will inevitably give JT his managerial break. It won’t be Chelsea though. However, given Terry’s ties to southwest London, you’d imagine that would be the area that he’d be looking at logistically. It’s difficult to see him taking the reins of a club lower than the Championship though, limiting his choices further.

Looking at clubs close to London and teetering down the bottom half of the Premier League table are Watford and—dare I say it—West Ham. Could JT end up at either of those? Terry has admitted in a recent interview that the bulk of his family are Hammers fans and with their fan base perpetually miffed by goings-on at their club, controversy is never far away. David Moyes in his second spell is hardly pulling up trees. Could they take back the boy from Barking, who left their youth set-up at the age of 14? You’d have to think so. There are plenty of inconceivable managerial appointments out there.

Watford, on the other hand, has only recently appointed Nigel Pearson as head coach at the back end of last year. He was a solid choice for the Hornets. The deal was only until the season’s end, but there’s every likelihood that it will be extended. Pearson is much more likely to hold onto his job than Moyes at West Ham.

Dropping down to the Championship, clubs on the brink of promotion are unlikely to change their gaffers, should the big-time beckon. Terry may well look to follow Frank Lampard and spend a year in the Championship settling into his managerial rhythm. Sticking with teams around the capital, contenders include Millwall and ever-so controversial QPR and Reading.

Millwall, like Watford made a recent appointment in Gary Rowett and has had a decent season so far, making that switch unlikely. Also, a former Hammer going into the Lion’s Den, not so sure that’ll work. QPR, near neighbour of Chelsea in west London, is also unlikely to be clamouring for Terry’s services. Accusations of racist abuse from 2012 in connection with an incident concerning Anton Ferdinand would make that move difficult. Also, manager Mark Warburton has one-year left on his contract and has done okay ,so there’s no reason to suspect there’ll be any kind of change.

That leaves Reading FC. Currently managed by the club’s former Technical Director Mark Bowen. He was initially tasked with finding a replacement when José Gomes left the club in October last year. He extended that contract by a year back in January, however, should Terry become available, they may choose to reverse his role and allow him to mentor a budding young manager.

Wherever our former captain goes, the club will be lucky to have someone in charge who lives and breathes football. Although his heart will always pump blue blood, they can be no doubt he’ll give 110 percent of himself wherever that may be.