Legendary Chelsea defender John Terry discussed his lack of coaching opportunities.
Former Chelsea defender John Terry has openly expressed his frustration over the lack of coaching offers, with his career in the dugouts having stagnated since 2023.
John Terry the coach
Terry began his formal coaching pathway soon after retiring as a player. In October 2018, he was appointed assistant head coach at Aston Villa alongside head coach Dean Smith, a role he held through Villa’s successful 2018–19 promotion campaign and until his departure from the club in July 2021.
After leaving Villa, Terry accepted a part-time academy coaching/consultancy role with Chelsea, and in April 2023, he briefly rejoined Dean Smith as part of the first-team coaching staff at Leicester City for the remainder of that season.
Less than a month after the end of that spell, he confirmed a return to work with Chelsea’s academy in July 2023 and has been working with Chelsea’s youth set-up since.
Chelsea legend John Terry || Imago
What Terry said
The Englishman has not had an opportunity in first-team coaching since 2023, and in a recent interview relayed by the Daily Mail, he admitted that he is frustrated.
“I’m not sure it ever happens, to be honest. It’s my one last dream I have at the football club,” he said. “I’ve done everything at Chelsea. And for me now, the one thing that is missing is being the manager of the football club.
“That’s why I went into coaching when I finished playing. My idea and dream was to learn my trade a bit. As a player, you retire after 22 years… Listen, 100 per cent, you learn enough to go into management.
“The level I played at and the managers I played under. But it doesn’t give you the right you go into management at a certain level. You still have to learn and understand what it takes.
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John Terry coach of Aston Villa during the Premier League match at Selhurst Park, London. Picture credit: David Klein Sportimag
“There’s a lot more that goes into the coaching side of it. So I went away and learnt my trade, I had some unbelievable times at Villa. I left Villa to be a number one, I thought I was ready. I think I’d be a really good number one. I enjoyed the coaching side of it.
“I want people around me that are better coaches than me. Then I could lead the dressing room and the team like I did [as a player]. That’s what I did for 22 years at the club. I know I’d be good at it. Will I ever get the chance? I’m not sure, without doing the other bits. But when people tell you you’ve not got the experience, it’s difficult to fathom.”
Terry seems to have given up on his Chelsea ambitions, stating that he was open to job offers in the lower rungs of English football.
“When I went into Villa, I got great experience under Dean Smith and we got promotion, which was incredible. As an assistant coach in the Premier League and the experience I’ve had as a player and an individual captain in both Chelsea and England, I thought that would be enough to get me a job.”
“I’m not saying a job in the Premier League or the Championship – but a job at League One level.”
“I didn’t even get a sniff. I had interviews, and it was just ‘you have no experience’. When I see some people managing today, it baffles me, it really does.
“In terms of ‘am I frustrated?’, yes, absolutely, because I have a lot of good attributes to be a really good coach or a really good manager but unfortunately, that’s not happened.”
