Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho suspected John Terry’s days at the top were over before returning for a second spell as Blues boss, but now he says his side may not have become Premier League champions this season without their talismanic captain.
During Rafael Benitez’s spell in charge of Chelsea two years ago, he suggested Terry was no longer able to perform at the highest level on a regular basis, saying the Blues skipper “could not play two games in a week.”
That theory has been banished over the course of this season as Terry has played in every minute of Chelsea’s successful title charge, with Mourinho full of praise for his captain.
“I think he knows that, without me, he probably wouldn’t be at Chelsea in this moment,” Mourinho said of Terry. “I also know that, probably without him, I wouldn’t be manager of the Premier League champions.
“With another manager he wouldn’t play and without playing he wouldn’t have another contract. This is not about the club, but the managers. If the managers don’t want the players, and the player doesn’t play, the club has to open the door.
“If a player is not important, sooner or later he leaves. Under me, he has had already two new contracts and look at the performances he is putting in. He has been incredible this season, playing every minute of every game. That is so hard to do.
“Am I surprised by him this season? Yes, but only because I thought he was over. He hadn’t played for the previous two years, two or three consecutive matches. He was not an option for the managers. He was injured and then the managers preferred other payers in front of him.
“I thought there was something wrong and that he couldn’t get back to his normal level, but when I signed for Chelsea he had one more year of contract and I wanted to respect that year and see what was going on.
“We spoke and he knew my nature: that I owed him a lot, but I’d give him nothing he didn’t deserve. He knew that was my way of being a manager, and he was prepared already.
“He said he’d prove he deserves a place in the team, a very simple process. Obviously, he was fantastic and we can see now what he is once again.”
An embattled Terry walked away from international football after a series of bitter run-ins with the English FA, yet Mourinho thinks his 34-year-old skipper could still do a job for his country if they came calling once again.