Chelsea legend John Terry came very close to joining Liverpool in 2003, according to former assistant manager Phil Thompson.
Terry spent 19 years at Chelsea, leading them to five Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, as well as a Champions League and Europa League title, as captain.
The 40-year-old, who is now assistant manager to Dean Smith at Aston Villa, is fondly remembered by Blues fans as one of their greatest ever players, but things could have turned out very differently.
Thompson, who was assistant to Gerard Houllier from 1998 to 2004, says that just five years into his Chelsea career Liverpool had a verbal agreement with Terry for him to join the club.
“In the final game of the 2002/03 season, it was a shoot-out between Liverpool and Chelsea for the last Champions League place,” he explained to Paddy Power podcast From The Horse’s Mouth .
“This was just before Roman Abramovich came in. We’d heard Chelsea were in dire straits, and they weren’t going to offer Frank Lampard or John Terry a contract.
“After the game, as Chelsea were doing a lap of honour, Gerard Houllier said to me that Terry was a bit of a player. I agreed, adding I didn’t think they’d offered him a contract.
“So Houllier went and shook John Terry’s hand and asked ‘how would you like to play for Liverpool?’ and John said: ‘I’d love to, Mr Houllier.’
“After, we sent one of our coaches into the players’ lounge and asked John for his agent’s phone number. John said: ‘I’ll do more than that, here’s my personal telephone number, ask him to give us a call’.
“And a couple of weeks later, Abramovich took over, and his first dealings were signing Terry and Lampard to big contracts – so we were that far away from getting him.”
Abramovich’s takeover at Chelsea in 2003 transformed the west London club’s fortunes, allowing the Blues to keep hold of the likes of Terry and Lampard, as well as recruit some of Europe’s best players.
Chelsea won the Premier League in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons as Terry established himself as one of the league’s best defenders and became England captain in 2006.
He left Chelsea in 2017, spending one season with Aston Villa, before moving into coaching, being appointed assistant to Smith in October 2018.
