Speaking recently on the Football Writers Podcast, Seb Stafford-Bloor and Adrian Clarke have criticised Aston Villa’s assistant manager, John Terry.
Following his retirement from his playing career, Terry became Aston Villa’s assistant manager back in 2018, helping Dean Smith to guide the Villans back to the top flight of English football, and subsequently helping to ensure they remained in the division last term.
According to Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol, ‘it seems to be written in the stars’ that Terry will end up in a coaching role back at Chelsea, where he spent almost the entirety of his playing career, alongside fellow former Chelsea player, and now Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard.
However, Stafford-Bloor and Clarke do not share Solhekol’s opinion on Terry, as both criticised the Villa coach on a recent episode of the Football Writers Podcast, suggesting that the job he has done at the Birmingham-based club is not good enough to warrant him moving on to a better position and that he could even be on his way out of Villa Park against his wishes.
Clarke said: “He won’t work under Frank [Lampard], will he? I don’t see it. The reason that there were whispers that he’s leaving Aston Villa is because he feels he’s outgrown that role and he’s the green-eyed monster at the moment, JT. He’s looking at Frank Lampard, he’s looking at Mikel Arteta, he’s looking at Steven Gerrard and he’s saying ‘I want a piece of this. I [don’t] want to be a number two.’ So no, that won’t happen.”
Stafford-Bloor then said: “I do love the hubris of John Terry thinking he’s outgrown that role already. Villa, with their almost worst defensive record in the whole division and all of a sudden it’s ‘time for me to get a Premier League manager’s job.’ That’s ridiculous.”
Podcast host Mike Calvin then added the fact that Dean Smith has brought in Craig Shakespeare to Aston Villa recently, which led Stafford-Bloor to continue:
“Yeah, which I would have thought would hasten the exit of someone like John Terry; I’d have thought that’d be a bruise to the ego.”
TIF Thoughts…
As such, it would certainly appear as if both Clarke and Stafford-Bloor do not hold the opinion that Terry would be willing to work under his former teammate, Lampard, at Chelsea, or indeed that he has done enough at Villa to deserve becoming a Premier League manager.
Do you feel that John Terry has done a good job at Villa?
Yes
No
