Chelsea captain John Terry has revealed the club’s decision to allow their new manager to decide whether to hand him a one year contract forced him to announce his decision to leave the Premier League champions in the summer.
The Blues registered a crushing 5-1 victory over MK Dons in the fourth round of the FA Cup and just after the win, the 35-year-old confirmed he will be leaving Chelsea at the end of the season.
A disappointing start to the 2015-16 campaign forced the Blues to sack Jose Mourinho in December and replace him with Guus Hiddink. The Dutchman has been appointed as a first-team interim manager until the end of this season and Chelsea will bring in a new manager for the next campaign.
Terry, who was not willing to wait for the incoming manager decide his future, went on to reveal that he made his decison regarding his future before Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal at the Emirates and has set his sights on finishing his time at Stamford Bridge on a high.
“It’s not going to be a fairytale ending, I’m not going to retire at Chelsea. I was in last week before the Arsenal game and it’s not going to be extended,” Terry explained, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
“I knew before the Arsenal game, so mentally I’ve kind of accepted it. We just have to move on and climb the league.”
“They said that when the new manager comes in, things might change. It’s a no at the minute.
“I needed to know now like I have done every January and sometimes it takes a couple of months to get done. Unfortunately it was a no. It’s going to be elsewhere which it took me a couple of days to get over.”
“But like I say, I knew before the Arsenal game and my performance isn’t going to change – the way I train, what I give for the club. I want to give everything and finish on a high, on 100 per cent good terms,” the former England international explained.
“It’s my last run in the FA Cup so I want to make it a good one. It’s a big season for me and I want to push on – not just in this competition but in the Premier League as well.”
Chelsea face Manchester City in the fifth round of the FA Cup and they take on Paris Saint-Germain in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
It will be difficult for Chelsea to finish the season on the top, mainly because things have not gone as per the plan for the Blues this season. They sit in the second half of the table in the league and face two tough opponents in the other two competitions.