Nouveau riche football club AS Monaco have been splashing the cash already this summer with the backing of billionaire owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, who has already addeed Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez to Claudio Ranieri’s squad.
Branislav Ivanovic was linked with a move to the Ligue 1 outfit towards the end of last month as they were reportedly willing to pay £25 million for the Serbian’s services, but recent reports claim that they are now targeting Chelsea captain John Terry, according to the Telegraph.
Jose Mourinho will be keen to keep hold of a number of the club’s veterans including Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech, yet rumours persist around Terry as many media sources claim that the Portuguese manager will decide his fate and a £7 million bid may be enough to convince the Blues to sell.
On the other side of it, Monaco believe that the promise of a tax-free salary could be enough to entice the 32-year-old to reunited with his old boss Ranieri and former central defensive partner Ricardo Carvalho at the Stade Louis II stadium, and that’s without going into the sort of lifestyle that’s on offer in the principality.
Terry obviously doesn’t have any plans on leaving the club where he has played for 15 years, would prefer to stay and has a fantastic relationship with the club’s support. But there has been some concern over his future as he was marginalised often during the last campaign and it’s looking increasingly likely that the days of playing through injury is starting to catch up to him – we knew it would eventually, it was the risk he made for the team.
It would not be a decision the club would take lightly, assuming the interest from Monaco is genuine and there really are doubts over whether or not Terry is to remain in West London, but he is coming into the last 12 months of his contract and commands a wages of around £150,000-a-week.
I guess it would all depend on Terry as we know that he wouldn’t play for another Premier League club but no fan would blame him if he did opt for a final pay-day at the Ligue 1 club and get away from the constant scrutiny of the English press, some of my followers on Twitter have even suggested that it may be good for him to get away from the aggravation. He dreams of becoming a manager one day and perhaps time away will help prevent the grief he gets from transcending into his coaching career once he decides to hang up his boots.
In my opinion, I reckon Terry hasn’t played his last game for Chelsea and will see out his remaining year at least. He’ll probably want to see how it goes in terms of fitness and injuries, he’ll be the first one to know when it is time to call it a day and he hasn’t done so yet. I don’t think all four of our current centre backs will be retained though, as we’ll likely sign a new defender during the summer months.
Source: Telegraph
