John Terry has revealed he came close to backing out of a promise that he would never play against Chelsea.
The former Blues captain left Stamford Bridge over the summer, bringing a curtain down on his incredible time at the club.
He vowed that he would never sign for another Premier League side because it would mean facing the team at which he spent his entire career.
‘If I 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,’ he said in 2015.
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He kept his word in the summer by choosing to join Aston Villa, which meant dropping into the Championship.
But he very nearly ended up at Premier League side Swansea after Paul Clement, who he worked with during the Swansea manager’s time as a coach at Chelsea, nearly persuaded him.
‘I didn’t want to play in the Prem, that was a big thing for me, I didn’t want to play against Chelsea,’ Terry told Monday Night Football on Sky Sports. ‘But obviously I gave Clement the service because I felt I owed that to him with what he done for me, how he helped me growing up.
‘But we met and having not wanted to play against Chelsea he pushed me really close as the way he dealt with me. But in the end I couldn’t do it.’
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Terry could have a dilemma in the summer if Aston Villa gain promotion back to the Premier League. The Midlands club are currently fifth in the table, 10 points from automatic promotion.
Asked if he will have to quit if they do, Terry jokingly replied: ‘Maybe, maybe, we’ll see.’
He added: ‘First things first, I want to get us up, that was my big thing. We’re going okay at the minute, obviously a setback at the weekend losing to Derby [which they lost 2-0]. But listen, so many games and they come thick and fast in the Championship as well.’
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