With John Terry’s long period of indecision over his Chelsea future continuing, Mark Hughes, manager of Manchester City, has made the most clear indication to date that he believes he has a chance of lightening the shade of Terry’s blue shirt before Barclays Premier League 2009/10 kicks off – despite Chelsea’s protestations that the player is not for sale for any price.
Hughes said of Terry:
“He’s been at Chelsea a long time and I know from my own experience as a player that when you have been with a club for a long time you get to a point when you think you need a new challenge and that a change of scenery would re-ignite certain things within you.
It is not a question of finance, or money, it is about a different challenge, and John being at a different stage in his life and his career, and maybe that is why there hasn’t been a response [to Chelsea regarding a new contract] because John is seriously thinking in those terms. I went through that process myself as a player and I can understand if that is the way he is thinking.”
With his transfer spending for the summer set to rise over £79 million with today’s anticipated signing of Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal – City have already signed Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn) and Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) – Hughes is well able to offer what is believed to be in excess of £30million to secure the services of England Captain, Terry, at the heart of his defence.
Chelsea, for their part, have stated their categorical repulsion of Man City’s advances, however, Hughes believes himself to be “on the cusp of something” and, the longer Terry goes without announcing one way or another, the more confident the Welshman must feel. Chelsea can not hang onto a player who hasn’t signed a new contract, and risk missing out on a £30million+ windfall.
28-year-old Terry, however, has never been anywhere but Stamford Bridge in his career – something which Hughes is also trying to spin in his favour, using his own career as an example. Whether this ploy will work to push Terry towards Manchester, only time will tell.
All in blue await word from John Terry.
