‘It wouldn’t feel right’ – John Terry struck unique Chelsea agreement with new club after leaving

John Terry has revealed that he had a specific agreement not to play against Chelsea following his move to Aston Villa.

The Blues icon, who played over 700 games for the club, departed Stamford Bridge after 19 years in 2017.

Barring a short loan spell as a youngster at Nottingham Forest, he had spent his entire professional career with Chelsea.

But after his contract expired, Terry opted to make a permanent move away from the club at 36 years old.

He signed for Aston Villa eight years ago and spent a season in the Championship with the West Midlands side.

Villa would go on to lose in the Play-Off Final to Fulham that campaign, with Terry then departing the following summer.

However, if they had won that game and reached the Premier League, the legendary centre-back may have stayed.

And if he did, he had a very unique agreement with his club.

Terry has revealed exclusively to talkSPORT that he had agreed with Aston Villa that he wouldn’t play against Chelsea.

Explaining the situation, he said on Wimbledon Unfiltered: “Chelsea did offer me another contract, but I decided to go to Aston Villa because they were in the Championship.

“And I had an agreement with Villa that if we got promoted that year, we lost in the Play-Off final to Fulham, that I wouldn’t play against Chelsea the following year in the Premier League.

“So the two games I would have missed the next year would have been Chelsea, it just wouldn’t have felt right.”

Terry’s connection with Chelsea ran deep, captaining the club for many years and winning 15 trophies.

During his almost two decades at Stamford Bridge, he became an undoubted Blues legend and one of the world’s best defenders.

He won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups and both the Champions League and Europa League.

The 44-year-old wanted to stay at his beloved club forever, but he knew that it was best for him to leave in 2017.

“I never wanted to leave Chelsea, and when I did, it was when Conte came in,” Terry told talkSPORT.

“He took over and we won the league. I got injured and it was a blessing for the team, I was at the back end of my career.

“I got injured, it took me a bit longer to recover and when I was out of the team, we went on a winning streak of 10 games and I was like **** I’m not getting back in this.

“But for me, it was like I was out of it and I knew at that point that I had nothing more to give to Chelsea.”

He added: “I never just wanted to be there just because I’d earned that as a player, I knew my levels after that were going one way.

“So for me, it was time to go.”

Terry would retire from professional football after just a year at Aston Villa, hanging up his boots in October 2018.

He would instantly re-join the club though, as assistant manager to Dean Smith and achieving promotion to the Premier League.

The ex-centre-back then took up a coaching role back at Chelsea before joining Leicester City with Smith in 2023.

Following relegation in that season with Leicester, he once again returned home to Chelsea as an Academy Coach.

That is a role that Terry still has now and he has spoken about life post-football to talkSPORT too.

He said: “Life after football is great initially, you have six months saying this is perfect.

“But there comes a point where you really miss performing in front of people, walking out at Stamford Bridge.

“That will never be replaced and I still miss it today.”