John Terry has been gaining coaching experience since retiring in 2017, but the Chelsea legend is yet to manage a first-team and recently opened up on failing to land a number of EFL jobs
Chelsea legend John Terry has seen his managerial credentials brutally questioned by Simon Jordan. Terry, 44, hung up his boots eight years ago and set his sights on coaching.
The ex-England captain is currently coaching in Chelsea’s academy, having previously worked as an assistant to Dean Smith at Aston Villa and Leicester City. Terry revealed earlier this year that he’s had several unsuccessful interviews for managerial jobs, including at Sunderland when they were in the EFL.
“I’ve got something to give. I’m not trying to be a Premier League manager overnight,” the former defender told talkSPORT. “I’d done my groundwork with Dean Smith at Aston Villa. I’d done all my badges. I’ve got everything. I’m ready to go. And to hear that was a little bit disheartening, to be honest.”
Recently, Terry reiterated his long-term ambition of managing Chelsea one day and emulating the success that he had as a player with the Blues in the dugout. “It’s my one last dream I’ve got at the football club to kind of achieve,” the 44-year-old explained in a TikTok video.
“I’ve done everything at Chelsea and for me now, the one thing that’s missing is being manager of the football club.”
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Jordan, however, isn’t so sure that Terry – who he ‘likes’ and tried to sign as Crystal Palace owner – is cut out to be a manager. “As a footballer, as a leader… firstly, he was a Rolls Royce of a player, second of all he was a first-class leader,” Jordan began on talkSPORT show.
“And so if I was a football club owner, would I interview John Terry? Yeah I would. I would interview John Terry. If I was a Premier League football club owner, would I interview John Terry for a job, if it was his first job? Probably not.
“Do I get the sense from John, there’s a burning, burning intensity to be a football manager? I’m not sure, I’m not sure I do. That’s not me trying to be unkind, I think John’s been remarkably successful, I think he’s absolutely right in talking about the fact that he’s been in the dressing room with some of the best managers in the world.
“But there’s a difference between hearing something and replicating what you’re instructed to do as a footballer, and leading players when you’re no longer playing anymore and you can’t lead by example. You’ve got to lead by the fact that people believe in what you’re saying, and you can get people to drink sand rather than water, because that’s what you need them to do.”
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Jordan added: “I think there’s certainly a desire to manage Chelsea, because ultimately of what that football club means to him, what his achievements were there, how long he was there for, and how much he’s invested and involved in it.
“If you talk to John, bang, put 50p in John and talk to him about Chelsea, he lights up like a pinball machine because he’s motivated by Chelsea, he’s enthused by Chelsea. He’ll tell you about the young players at Chelsea, he’ll tell you about the evolution of this new manager’s opportunity.
“But I question the reality of John [being Chelsea manager one day] and would say to him, ‘Well, you can’t manage Chelsea at this moment in time because you’ve not got the credentials to do it’, because they appoint people that have achieved things in management terms.
“So you have to achieve something now, which means you have to go somewhere else and do it and learn your trade.”
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