John Terry has admitted that Manchester City tried to lure him away from Chelsea in his playing days, with Huddersfield the only other side to have put an offer on the table.
The former England captain established his ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’ reputation at Stamford Bridge over the course of a 19-year spell as a senior star in west London.
Terry told an Instagram Q&A with snooker icon Stephen Hendry: “During my time one of only two clubs that approached me were Huddersfield when I first came through.
“Steve Bruce was manager of Huddersfield. Chelsea accepted a bid and [Gianluca] Vialli said no. Which obviously I’m very thankful to Luca for, he gave me my debut. Great man, great manager.”
Several years later, in 2009, Terry registered on the radar of Manchester City as they started to piece together a star-studded squad with the billions of owner Sheikh Mansour.
Terry added: “Then obviously the Man City one, Man City approached Chelsea, made an offer official.
“Simple as this, I sat with the owner, face-to-face and said ‘I never want to leave Chelsea, that’s a fact. If you want to sell me then it’s a different story. But I’m telling you off the bat that I never want to leave this football club’
“Within that, I was due a new contract, we shook hands on a new contract, agreed a deal and I stayed another five, six years after that. ‘
“Them two clubs were the only two that come in for me.”