After last night’s defeat to Liverpool, management may be far away from John Terry’s mind. However, he has recently gone on record as saying that he would want to coach / manage Chelsea at the end of his career, and once a player shows that sort of dedication and passion it’s hard to not respect his loyalty.
But winning in football is not about loyalty, it’s about having the right people for the job. Right now, Chelsea have a tough but flawed manager at the helm who has helped them to two consecutive Premiership titles but also a manager who has been tactically outwitted by his Liverpool counterpart twice in three years, both times in the Champions League semifinals.
Expectations at Chelsea are astronomical, and so is the pressure on any manager. Assuming that Roman Abramovich is here to stay, and will be around by the time John Terry decides to retire, would Chelsea agree to have a rookie manager?
A much more likely option would be to bring John Terry on board in on as a defensive coach, and then ease him into the business. But even then, the idea of Chelsea owners accepting a manager without experience seems unlikely.
Will John Terry make a good manager though? I’m not sure – for every Roy Keane, there’s a Gareth Southgate. If Terry’s managerial career follows Mark Hughes’ career’s pattern, he would have reason to be proud.
I wouldn’t say Gareth Southgate’s been that bad. If anything, it’d be for every Roy Keane, there’s a Gazza (39 days at Kettering anyone?)
You can rarely tell whether a player, however good on the pitch, can equal his playing career success as a manager. As you say, for every Roy Keane, who’s done tremendously well as I expected he would, you’ve a Paul Gascoigne. Terry does strike me as the sort that’d do well in a managerial role mind. I think before bossing Chelsea however, he’s got to serve an apprenticeship of some sort elsewhere, as Keane has done, then after having proved his talent and having gained some experience, he can move elsewhere. I’m sure Chelsea would love to have him on board but to appoint him with no prior experience would be a bit of a risk and it’s a move I don’t see Abramovich making lightly.
Some of the talent you need to be a good manager is being a good leader – and to be able to motivate people.
Certainly John Terry is very good at that – so it appears that he has the main attribute – but you never know until he tries it – which he certainly will – once he’s finished playing.
BTW – I thought Terry was tremendous for Chelsea against Liverpool last night – they just about held out for the 120 minutes – and he was the obvious leader – barking instructions to the other players – but he did look worried with the Liverpool bombardment as it was.
NEVER, NON OF THE CHEALSEA TEAM
CHEALSEA NEED TO GO
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