MARK HUGHES broke his silence on the John Terry affair last night to speak of his confidence that the England captain wanted to join Manchester City and publicly question whether the man who has portrayed himself as Mr Chelsea needed “a change of scenery” for the good of his own career.
Hughes described Terry as an “outstanding player and an outstanding person” and made it clear City had targeted him because they had received information that he was agitating to leave Stamford Bridge. The City manager accepted there were some players in the world, such as Steven Gerrard and Lionel Messi, who could never be persuaded to leave their clubs but argued that Terry did not fall into that category and painted a picture of the 28-year-old beginning to feel stale at the club where he has spent his entire career.
“We would like to think we could offer John a different challenge,” Hughes said. “He’s been at Chelsea a long time and I know from my own experience as a player that when you have been with a club for a long time you get to a point when you think you need a new challenge and that a change of scenery would reignite certain things within you.
“It is not a question of finance, or money, it is about a different challenge, and John being at a different stage in his life and his career, and maybe that is why there hasn’t been a response (to commit himself to Chelsea) because John is seriously thinking in those terms.”
Those remarks will inevitably go down badly at Stamford Bridge at a time when Chelsea are aggressively trying to repel City’s advances and have not wavered from their public stance that Terry is not available at any price.
The last message Hughes received was on Monday morning, however, when he was reliably informed that Terry wanted, if possible, to leave Chelsea in as dignified a way as possible but that, were it necessary, he was also willing to force through a move.
City’s information is that he has become disillusioned about Chelsea’s perceived lack of ambition in the transfer market and the frequency with which the club have changed managers. The huge sums of money on offer cannot be overlooked, with City willing to make him the highest-paid player in the Premier League on around €290,000 a week.
Hughes’s summer spending will go through the €230 million mark if, as expected, the club complete the €29 million signing of Emmanuel Adebayor today.
City’s next move will be to inform Chelsea they are willing to pay in excess of €35 million for Terry.
GuardianService
