John Terry names the ‘incredible’ talent that slipped through Chelsea’s fingers


Few players will go down in Chelsea folklore like John Terry will do.

The former Blues skipper, who spent 22 years at Stamford Bridge, is one of the club’s most coveted stars of all-time.

The former centre-back, who is now a coach at Chelsea’s Premier League rivals Aston Villa, will go down in history as one of the club’s most loved and cherished players of all times.

Terry won 17 major honours during his Chelsea career, including five Premier League titles and one UEFA Champions League crown.

In truth, it is hard to see another Blues academy graduate achieving such things in the future, even though you can never say never.


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But whilst Terry will, undoubtedly, go down as one of the most decorated Blues academy graduates of all-time, others have no doubt shared the same ambitions as Terry whilst rising through the youth ranks but were not so lucky.

And one name you can put on that list is Rob Woollaston. He was coming through the youth ranks at Stamford Bridge whilst Terry was and the former Blues captain has named him as the player who had the most potential but failed to make the grade, insisting he had “so much ability.”

“Probably a boy called Rob Woollaston at Chelsea,” Terry said, as quoted by the Daily Star. “He was like a midfielder/winger, he had so much ability.

“I still know Rob now, but mentally didn’t have that to go and push himself.

”He got chosen to train with the first team at a really young age, 17 or 18, did really well and [Ruud] Gullit told him he was going to play in the first team in a cup game.

“He then phoned up on the day of the game and said he was sick.

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“All of us, if we were sick or felt like we were at the end of the world, we would have still gone and played the game, we wouldn’t have given up that opportunity.

“He actually did it two or three times and he was just not mentally ready for the game, but ability-wise, incredible.”

Nowadays, Chelsea have promising talent emerging off of the Cobham production line in bulk. The likes of Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham are all making names for themselves in their own right and they will be looking to become the faces of the football club in years to come.

Mount is a player, especially, that you can name within that bracket, with the attacking-midfield continuing to go from strength-to-strength under Thomas Tuchel in his attempts of becoming a permanent fixture in the German’s starting line-up for years to come.





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