John Terry will leave Chelsea at the end of the season.
Advertisement
The Blues skipper, who has been at the club for more than 20 years, made the shock announcement on Sunday that he had been informed Chelsea would not be renewing his contract next season.
The center back has won 14 trophies with the Blues: including four Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups and the 2013 Europa League.
“Ideally, I would’ve loved to stay, but the club’s moving in a different direction”, he said. “I’m not going to retire at Chelsea, which it took me a couple of days to get over”.
“It seems the end of Terry’s Chelsea career is nigh, unless some major fix works can be done”.
Cahill told chelseafc.com: “I signed a four-year contract a couple of months ago so that shows I want to be here”.
Guus Hiddink has not ruled out the possibility that John Terry could still be playing for Chelsea next season.
But a Chelsea spokesman said late on Sunday: “John requested a meeting with the club the week before last”.
“100 per cent is hard to say, but 99 per cent sure, yes”, he said of any deadline day recruitment.
“John is very fit and is not what you normally see in the 35 to 36-year-old player”.
The centre-back was apparently frustrated by the fact that Chelsea’s hierarchy meant to consult the manager they were going to appoint permanently before deciding on whether or not to hand Terry a new contract.
Asked about Terry’s recent performances, with Chelsea now having gone nine matches unbeaten in all competitions since José Mourinho was sacked in December, Hiddink added: “He’s very fit”.
And, speaking ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Watford on Wednesday, Hiddink said it was still not out of the question that the Blues would offer their captain a new deal, perhaps in the wake of the appointment of a new permanent manager. They still want to have a dialogue to have an open door. He has been playing very well since I arrived at Chelsea [in 2014]. Since I’ve been at the club, I haven’t seen him play badly.
He also played 78 times for England, scoring six goals.
“It was a bit surprising, but he’s entitled to do so”, said Hiddink of Terry’s decision to go public.
The defender played every minute of all 38 Premier League games.
Advertisement
MLS have already attracted players such as Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Villa, Kaka and many others while Qatar have recently got Xavi so convincing John Terry would be great triumph.
