John Terry was awarded another year long contract at the end of the 2015-2016 campaign after it became clear that Antonio Conte wanted to keep the former England captain around based on his high level of performances last year. Unfortunately, JT has not made that many appearances so far this season as he suffered a nasty ankle injury which has kept him out of the starting line-up for over a month after he began the season as a starter. While Terry has been sidelined, Conte has moved to 3 at the back and this has coincided with a big upturn in Chelsea’s form with them keeping 4 clean sheets in a row in the League. Hence the captain has found it hard to get back into the starting XI as Conte’s new back 3 of Gary Cahill, the re-signed David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta have been on top of their games.
Interestingly, John Terry is an ambassador for Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande who have been conducting an intensive campaign to lure the former England captain and current Blues skipper to the Far East once he decides to leave West London. As we know Terry wants to be a one club man when it comes to the Premier League and has no intention of signing with one of Chelsea’s rivals. The other interesting factors in this is that Guangzhou are managed by former Chelsea boss Luis Felipe Scolari or “Big Phil” as he is affectionately known who of course JT played under. If he went to China, Terry would sign a mega-deal which would see him rewarded with a massive payday – in the neighbourhood of £8million per season.
As to whether JT will leave Chelsea depends on whether he gets much playing time this season and how much he contributes. Antonio Conte signed David Luiz, has Gary Cahill, the almost fit-again Kurt Zouma and John Terry as his current centre-back options. Conte has been credited with a serious interest in AC Milan’s rising young star centre-back Alessio Romagnoli as reported by ESPNFC and if Conte pulls off a deal for the young Azzurri international it would likely mean that JT would be free to leave. The Blues would not need 5 centre-backs and the odd man out would surely be the oldest man John Terry and therefore he would not be offered another 1 year deal at the end of the season.
Regardless of what happens, JT will likely still manage to make a big contribution to the Blues this campaign and no matter what the club captain does at the end of the season he will be forever thought of a legendary warrior who was always 100% committed to the Chelsea cause.