Todays Belfast Telegraph article for those who haven't read it...
Abramovich blocks Terry's move to Manchester City
Monday, 13 July 2009
Roman Abramovich told John Terry that he will not be allowed to leave Chelsea and that the club will not match the extraordinary £280,000-a-week offer from Manchester City in a tense meeting between the pair on Saturday.
Chelsea now have their captain and most famous player at loggerheads with the billionaire who has bankrolled the club's success for the last six years. The meeting was understood to be frosty, with Terry telling Abramovich that he wanted the club's permission to talk to City — essentially signalling his desire to leave. Abramovich refused to yield.
The England captain will be in training today for a double session at Cobham with manager Carlo Ancelotti but he is considering his next move. He recognises that refusing to play for Chelsea is not an option and he has no intention of going on strike. He does not want to go with the squad to America on their pre-season tour, for which they depart on Thursday. However, he has been told he is going whether he is fit or not.
While Terry realises it is a difficult situation for Chelsea — they have rejected one offer of £30m from City — he now wants the chance to join a club who have set their stall out as Premier League contenders.
He feels that the 17 years he has given Chelsea as schoolboy and professional is sufficient service and that he should be allowed to leave, as many famous players have been over the last six years.
He now has one major option left which would be to go public with his dissatisfaction in a newspaper and try to force Chelsea into selling him. This tactic is regarded as a last resort and has been used to varying degrees of success by players in the past. Gareth Barry tried it to force his move to Liverpool from Aston Villa last summer and failed.
Terry told Abramovich he wanted to speak to City because it was a financial opportunity he could not pass up, either for himself or for his family. On offer from City is a staggering deal worth £280,000 a week that will last four years at least. He currently has a deal that will pay him £21m (£135,000 a week) over the next three years — not bad, but after it expires there is no guarantee that he will earn the same.
Terry also told Abramovich that he was unsure of the future for Chelsea and whether the owner would continue to fund the kind of transfers that would allow the club to keep pace with the likes of City, Manchester United and Liverpool as well as Real Madrid.
Terry is unhappy at how long it has taken for him to get an audience with Abramovich and he feels the club's very robust public stance — adopted at the press conference to present Ancelotti — has not helped matters. He does not feel the same rules have been applied to the likes of Deco and Ricardo Carvalho. Both have been agitating for a move this summer.
Chelsea now find themselves in an acutely difficult position where Ancelotti's new regime faces chaos before the season has even begun. The reaction from supporters to selling the captain would be hostile to say the least, even if the club made it clear that the responsibility for it fell squarely upon the shoulders of Terry.
The discussion is now being conducted directly between Terry and Abramovich who met in Wentworth, after the 28-year-old had attended a charity event with Right to Play, Chelsea's international charity partner. Terry recognises that whatever the likes of chief executive Peter Kenyon, director Eugene Tenenbaum or Ancelotti say, only Abramovich makes the big decisions.
City have been quiet over Terry this week, preferring to allow the player himself to try to negotiate a way out of the club. They have been told that there is no price that will get the player although that was before the conversation between Abramovich and Terry on Saturday. If the Russian decides to cut his losses and sell Terry then he will want more than the initial £30m bid, an extraordinary price for a 28-year-old centre-half.
While City expect to present Carlos Tevez as their latest signing this week, they also hope to put together a new, improved offer for Terry that will focus Chelsea's minds on selling the player. Regardless of whether they land the player or not, they have caused chaos at a club that will be one of those they hope to overtake for a Champions League place next season.
Manager Mark Hughes is with the squad in Germany on pre-season training but is prepared to return to speak to Terry. The City executive chairman Garry Cook is expected to offer Terry the kind of deal that was prepared for Kaka in January with a signing-on fee and even a charitable institution in the player's name.
In the meantime, Chelsea have further muddied the waters in their hierarchy of command by promoting Frank Arnesen to sporting director. Formerly operating under the title of director of youth development and chief scout, the Dane now seems to be treading on Kenyon's toes. Chelsea said yesterday that Arnesen would report to Kenyon but “help assist the overall long-term football and business strategy of the clubâ€.
As head of the club's academy Arnesen has been spectacularly unsuccessful, squandering large transfer fees on unproven teenagers whose talent has failed to materialise. However, despite planning an exit strategy last season, he seems to have kept his job.
