John Terry: I could handle being dropped by Chelsea

• Posted on July 27, 2015July 27, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The veteran Blues centre-back vows to stay a “model professional” if supplanted in Jose Mourinho’s first-choice XI this season but might leave the Premier League next summer if so

Chelsea captain John Terry is prepared for the possibility of losing his place at Stamford Bridge this season.

The former England international turns 35 in December and, with the Blues set to vie for a second consecutive Premier League title this season, will face competition for a starting berth from Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma, while the club are also chasing John Stones of Everton.

Taking the example of Petr Cech, who sat obligingly on the bench as Jose Mourinho’s No.2 last season before being granted a move to Arsenal this summer, Terry is willing to work hard as a reserve if he is overtaken.

But after Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard left for Major League Soccer rather than sign for a team in direct opposition to the Reds, the Chelsea skipper says that he would not join another Premier League team if he were to move on next summer to finish his career with regular first-team football.

“Every summer I work more or less every day to give myself the best chance. If it comes to that point where I am left out of the side, I know it’s not through any fault of not trying,” Terry told reporters. “To look at myself in the mirror and my family, that is all I do in my career.

“I could handle being out of the team. No doubt, people like me and Steven want to play, of course. That is our natural instinct. When you play your whole career, it’s hard [not to do so]. Petr Cech was a model professional last year and that is why he got the move he wanted, because of how well he reacted around the place.

“I have seen other players go the other way. I certainly would go down the Petr route and continue giving everything to the squad. If I then felt Chelsea were going to release me or thought I had nothing else to give, but I thought I could, then of course I would still want to continue to play but that would not be in the Premier League.

“I am not taking anything for granted. The manager has said that, if I can keep my form, I am in the side but, if I don’t keep my form, he will have no qualms about taking me out and putting someone else in.

“We have an honest relationship. I don’t doubt that he trusts me. I hopefully can repay that because he has been superb to me. I will give him everything and he has been a father figure in my career so I owe him an awful lot. I realise one day that my career will come to an end so I want to give everything these next few years.”

-goal