John Terry has admitted there were times when he feared he had celebrated his last Premier League title before Chelsea claimed a first championship in five years on Sunday, with the captain now confident this team can generate another trophy-laden era at the club.
The former England captain will hoist the trophy for the fourth time after the club’s final league game of the season, with their 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace securing José Mourinho’s side their title. Terry has been an ever-present, his contribution outstanding in a team who have lost only twice in the league all season, with the 34-year-old having recently signed a new one-year deal to extend his stay into an 18th campaign.
“It’s been five years since the last title, too long,” said Terry. “When you’re seeing other teams win it when you’re pushing them right to the end, like we did last year … well, at times I did wonder whether that one in 2010 would be my last one. It’s felt like a long time watching other teams do it. Manchester City came in and dominated for a couple of years, as well, and that’s hard to take when you’ve won it before and don’t for a while.
“It’s special, particularly when it’s the first one you’ve won together. For Cesc [Fàbregas] it’s the first one. For Gary Cahill, too. You can feel that hunger, like when we won our first one [in 2005]. We all said then: ‘Let’s do it again.’ It’s going to be even tougher next year because four or five sides around us will maybe buy some big players in the summer and put real challenges in. So we’ve got to be back stronger and hungrier next year.
“But this current squad can go on and achieve a lot. It’s a new group, so let’s keep building on what we’ve achieved so far. Collectively, we learned a lot last season, but we made big signings last summer. Diego Costa’s scored a lot of goals, Cesc made a lot of assists. This group of players can go on to win a lot of things for the club.”
Terry suggested Mourinho had been key to this year’s title race, the Portuguese adapting the team’s style shrewdly when injuries and suspensions threatened progress over the second half of the season. Chelsea have trailed in the league for only 171 minutes all season and will have been top of the table for 274 days by the end of the current campaign, with the centre-half praising the manager’s meticulous preparation and offering a defence of the champions’ style.
“The way we started the season was really exciting,” he said. “After the West Bromwich Albion game [in November], Cesc came away saying it was the best football he’s played and for him to say that, having been at Barça and in some of the biggest teams in the world, made everyone listen. We did play some really exciting football but teams learn. They don’t come to Stamford Bridge and open up. They sit back and make it difficult. It’s down to the manager to find a way, and he always finds a way.
“We spend two days before every game working at ways to break teams down and get behind teams. For the big games, he’s got ideas and he’s got methods, and we spend just the right amount of time on it. If you look at the big games in the last two years, we’ve not lost one. We’ve had all that ‘boring Chelsea’ stuff, but the manager’s been the difference. He goes into so much detail and gives you the best opportunity as a player. If it then doesn’t go well, it’s the players’ responsibility because he’s done everything he can in terms of tactics or team talks. He leaves no stone unturned.”
Terry was critical of Rafael Benítez after the match on Sunday, making it clear he had proved the former Chelsea interim manager wrong after the Spaniard had suggested, in 2013, that the defender was not fit enough to play twice in a week. He has featured in every league minute of this season to date and will expect to play a significant role again next term, even if he remains realistic about his long-term future at the club.
“There will come a point when enough’s enough, but I’ll know when that is and I’ll be the first to say: ‘Listen, I can’t do this no more,’” said Terry. “The last thing I want to do is go out there and get embarrassed every week. It will be for me to say and I’ll make sure I’m ahead of everyone else. I know there will be a point when that’s it. The players are getting quicker and stronger. The ability out there is phenomenal.”
