John Terry is close to sealing a £3million tax-free move to Spartak Moscow hours after hailing “incredible” Aston Villa and speaking of “unfinished business” at the club, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper claim Terry, 37, is on the verge of accepting a one-year contract with the Russian club that includes a further 12-months option.
It comes after the former England captain left Villa at the end of last season and just hours after he spoke in an interview with the Daily Mail yesterday of having “unfinished business” at the Midlands giants.
“I loved my time at Aston Villa. I am still devastated that we didn’t go up. The manager, players and supporters were incredible with me but I hate losing and I feel there is unfinished business there,” Terry told the Mail.
OPINION
What an extraordinary move by Terry. The emblem of English fighting spirit and no-holds-barred commitment is seemingly on the verge of ending his career in Russia in a transfer that no-one saw coming, but would typify the veteran defender’s headline-hogging style. Terry’s comments to the Mail yesterday had strongly suggested he would return to Villa and have one last go at leading their bid for instant promotion. He has instead gone for a totally left-field move that will furnish his bank account and provide an eyebrow-raising final chapter to his career. If he had not remained in England, the centre-back would have been expected to navigate the well-trodden path of his former England teammates to the United States, as Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and David Beckham did. But Terry is not so predictable after all. Amid politically delicate relations between Russian and England, the man who bleeds the cross of St George heads east.