JOHN TERRY - The State of Football, Coaching, Early Career & What it Takes To Be Chelsea Captain

Neil Barnett (0:00)

The Joy of Football Podcast. With me, Neil Barnett.

Martin Tyler (0:11)

And with me, Martin Tyler.

Neil Barnett (0:13)

Looks like Charmin!

The Joy of Football. Hello, hello, The Joy of Football Podcast has come back to the Munch and Wiggles, the coffee shop in Oxford. Is it High Street, Martin?

Martin Tyler (0:35)

I think there's only one street, yes.

Neil Barnett (0:37)

Is it called the High Street?

Martin Tyler (0:38)

I believe it is, yeah.

Neil Barnett (0:40)

The Joy of Football with Martin Tyler, the greatest commentator in the world, and me, Neil Barnett. And today, John Terry is our guest. How are you?

John Terry (0:51)

I'm really well.

Neil Barnett (0:52)

You look it. Yeah, I'm good. Let's start. We call this the Joy of Football because we're addicted as you know.

John Terry (0:58)

Yeah.

Neil Barnett (0:59)

And so are you. As I know, when did you become addicted? When did you, when did football kick off for you?

John Terry (1:09)

Oh, great question.

I would say like seriously was probably when I signed as a YTS at Chelsea for me. Like my love for football was there from like two or three hours. I've said to you many years ago, my dad played, I was around football from a really early age, like two and three, my dad was captain of the team. He played at, he had trials at West Ham and stuff, rejected it, wanted to play with his mates and kind of go down that route, which he did, but he played at kind of non league level. And I was around the dressing rooms and stuff, you know, the old smelling sauces, the white oil. I remember all those kinds of smells and stuff and the arguments and the fights at half time amongst themselves. So being around the dressing room. He'd have enjoyed them. Yeah, he did. Yeah, so did I. Being really young around it, but seriously, like at 16, it really hit me going, no, it's time now. And I was very lucky in terms of this because my brother was two years older than me. He'd spent two years at Charlton Athletic, done two years YTS, didn't get his professional contract and it absolutely broke him. And for me seeing that, going into that, I was like, I need to make this happen. I've got two years to impress and I signed a pro contract at Chelsea within kind of seven, eight months. And that was it really for me.

Martin Tyler (2:19)

At what point John, did you realise in that period before you actually signed, that you were going to be a professional footballer and that you were that good? And that must have dawned on you at some point.

John Terry (2:31)

I remember from a really early age, from like seven or eight, people were talking and you know, you kind of hear things and scouts on the phone and mum and dad are meeting scouts after games.

And then probably from the age of like 13, 14, Manganati come in for me. Sir Alex was on the phone to my dad on a weekly basis, checking up on me whether I was doing my schoolwork and all of that. Chelsea are in for me. I'd spent a year at Arsenal the year before. So there's a lot of big clubs around me. So I knew there was kind of big demand. And then all of a sudden, I think we probably all gone through that same process. I hit that puppy fat stage and I didn't grow. Everyone was developing around me and I found it really difficult for two years. And Chelsea were on the cusp of, do I get a YTS or not? And boys have been off of contracts and we played, you probably remember this, we played Luton away. The reserves played Luton away and I got called up into that. And the reason I got called up into it was to see if I could handle it. And I was 15, 15 and a half at the time. We were losing 5-0 and I'm on the bench, so I'm warming up. There's like 15, 20 minutes ago, Mick McGiven calls me going on. I go on, I score two goals of in... As a midfielder? As a midfielder, score two goals of in the space of 10 minutes. And now I know that I'm kind of not as probably good as I used to be because I'm going through this stage and physically I was struggling. And then I've got Dave Lee, Dave Rocard, all the older pros going, go up front, you're on that trick. And I'm going, I can't, I'm a young kid, I need to stay in midfield. And Dave Lee looked at me and said, get yourself up front now. So I've got sent up front, I'm up front for the last five minutes of the game, trying to get my hat trick, I didn't get it. But I think that was the real, the definition of me becoming a player and really cementing my place at Chelsea. And then from then it just kind of spiralled really.