Can John Terry be a good manager?

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.

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