Chelsea legend John Terry reveals how he once blocked flight from leaving because he didn’t receive first-class seats like academy players
Chelsea legend John Terry stated that he once prevented a Chelsea flight from departing owing to a heated disagreement with Andre Villas-Boas about first-class tickets. In contrast to Terry, the boss granted academy players first-class seats.
Between 2003 and 2017, Terry led Chelsea to five league titles and the Champions League, making it one of the most successful spells of the Blues ever. It is safe to say that Terry was one of the most successful captains of Chelsea.
Villas-Boas joined Stamford Bridge in 2011 but lasted only eight months due to a strained relationship with key players. And perhaps the writing was on the wall from the start, with Terry now admitting to having a disagreement with the boss during pre-season.
The story about Terry’s anger at Villas-Boas
Terry claims in a previously untold story that Andre Villas-Boas made a controversial decision ahead of a pre-season tour of Asia that began in Malaysia, turning senior players such as himself, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba against him shortly after the Portuguese manager joined the club in 2011.
The former Chelsea skipper said on a podcast with Simon Jordan:
“I’ll give you a little story. We went to Hong Kong, I think when he was first manager. We get on the plane, we get on and I’m sitting in economy on a 13-hour flight and we’ve got Josh McEachran, Nathaniel Chalobah, couple of other young players in first class.”
“And this was part of AVB’s going, ‘No, no. No player’s bigger than me. Everyone’s the same.’ So, I get on the plane and it turns out that Lamps is flying out first class and I’m flying back in first class. If you fly out in first, you come back business or economy, premium economy, whatever it was. But basically it wasn’t good enough.”
“And we’re on the plane and people are up and down, AVB comes up and goes, ‘What’s the problem?’ I’m going, ‘Well, we’re not going anywhere till the young players move.’ And to be fair to the young players they’re going, ‘JT, it’s really uncomfortable we’re going back.’ “
“That’s how it should be, these younger players are striving to be where we’ve got and he tried to make a statement on day one and he failed instantly because I promise you, the plane wasn’t going. And, it would have gone without myself, Frank and Didier.”
Terry was adamant that he and the other senior stars would not have allowed the plane to take off with them on it and admitted Villas-Boas ‘failed instantly’ to make a positive first impression. That incident proved to be a sign of things to come for Villas-Boas at Chelsea, as he lasted just eight months at Stamford Bridge.
Terry’s outrage at the situation is quite fair, since the players who have made Chelsea what they are by working tirelessly for the club’s achievements over the years must receive respect, at least more than the academy players. Terry finally had the last laugh, winning the Champions League two months after Villas-Boas’ sack.
Coming from a successful background, Villas-Boas won just 20 of his 40 matches in charge of Chelsea, losing 10 times. His replacement, former Chelsea player Roberto Di Matteo, had a far better start, leading Chelsea to Champions League and FA Cup victories in his first three months in charge.
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Although he was also sacked after just eight months, he did so on significantly better terms than Villas-Boas, who looked doomed to fail at Chelsea, particularly following his early clash with Terry.
