John Terry names three players he believes took Chelsea to another level
John Terry has revealed the three players that he feels took ‘Chelsea to another level’. The Blues legend claimed that Gianfranco Zola, Ruud Gullit, and Gianluca Vialli were crucial to the club becoming better.
John Terry was talking to former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen on Unacademy when he stated that the aforementioned trio of players was responsible for the establishment of a proper system and brought a greater degree of professionalism to the club.
John Terry details Gianfranco Zola's terrific discipline during his time at Stamford Bridge
John Terry also spoke about how influential the trio's work-rate and commitment to performing better on the pitch were. He said:
“[At the start of my career] we would finish training and go upstairs and have burger and chips or sausage and mash. It was just a couple of ladies who lived by the training ground who would cook the food. ‘There was no nutritional aspect. You would finish training, leave straight away and be home by 1 pm.”
"We were lucky at Chelsea because we signed Zola, Gullit and Vialli and they turned up at the training ground and said, "where’s the food, where’s the protein? We need a bigger gym; we need to stretch more." They took it to another level, and I was really lucky to be around those players at that stage of my career.”
“Gianfranco would get in two hours before anyone else; he would go to the gym for a weight session; he would stretch for two hours after training. He would eat the right food, and those guys just took it to another level, and it’s probably gone on another five or six levels from there to where we are today.”
John Terry stayed at Chelsea for the majority of his career and is regarded as one of the best players in the Blues' history.
John Terry made over 700 appearances for the London side and won all trophies possible with them. He ended his career with five Premier League titles, five FA Cup medals, a Champions League crown, and also one Europa League trophy.
He was released by Chelsea in 2017, after which he moved to Villa and retired a season later, as mentioned above. John Terry was appointed as the assistant manager at Villa Park in 2018 and has also been linked with a managerial role at multiple Championship clubs.