John Terry picks his Chelsea Team of 120

There are few players in the history of Chelsea Football Club better placed to choose an all-star Team of 120 than John Terry. So we asked him to do just that!

JT spent more than two decades at Chelsea having joined our Academy as a 14-year-old. He left in 2017 as the Blues’ most successful player ever in terms of trophies won, and having captained us more than anybody else in our history.

Terry’s time at Stamford Bridge spanned several great Chelsea teams. He first broke into the side in the late 1990s as silverware started to be regularly won.

The defender was then a mainstay of the record-breaking, Premier League-winning teams of 2005, 2006, and 2010, and which eventually triumphed in the Champions League in 2012.

And Terry was still there in the middle of that decade, as won the title twice more in three years, including a campaign, 2014/15, in which he didn’t miss a minute of Premier League football.

He played with Zola and Hazard, Kante and Di Matteo, Desailly and Cahill. Narrowing his selections down to just 11 players in a 4-3-3 formation was clearly going to be no easy task, and so it proved! Here is JT’s Team of 120, with the reasoning behind each choice…

VOTE FOR YOUR TEAM OF 120!

Goalkeeper

Straightaway I go to Big Pete because of the success we had together, the relationship, and also because he was absolutely world class.

Honestly, when we first signed him, the first couple of training sessions, I'm not sure a goal went past him. I'm not sure anyone scored a goal.

It was ridiculous, his levels, and he was just great around the place as well. He had absolutely everything. I love Carlo (Cudicini), there are some great names on there, but Big Pete definitely gets my vote.

Decision: Petr Cech

Right-back

God, this is tough! It really is. I'm going to get in trouble here. Wow. I mean, some great names on there before my time. I was around the youth team when Clarkey was there. Chapi Ferrer. Paulo (Ferreira). Wow.

Paulo, Branna and Azpi are the three. Reece (James) is obviously after me, so it's definitely between the three of them. This is actually really tough...this is really tough!

Longevity is a big thing for me. In terms of that, I had some great success with Paulo, but it was a shorter spell. Branna was slightly longer. Azpi, for his time at Chelsea, to then captain the club and win the Champions League and all of that, I think I would go that way.

That's no disrespect to the others. It’s a tight one. Branna is a very close second, absolutely.

Decision: Cesar Azpilicueta

Left-back

Some fantastic players there. This is going to be really tough isn't it?! Graeme Le Saux was before me. Bridgey I played with. But Ashley Cole is my left-back, for sure. Marcos was excellent as well. But Ashley was arguably the best left-back in the world at that time.

Decision: Ashley Cole

Central defender 1

Oh, this is really tough. I'm going to go…oh my God, this is really tough. Wow. So, Marcel has to go in for me. I idolised him and I got a snippet of what it was like to be the very best. He was also so good to me as a young player; he had a lot of time for me as a young 17-year-old. So, Marcel is in.

Decision: Marcel Desailly

Central defender 2

I don't know whether to go back and put Ricky (Carvalho) and Gaz (Cahill) in. Oh my God, that's really tough. You know what? I'm going to avoid all of them and go with Thiago Silva next to Marcel. I don't want to upset the others either and I’m sure they will get a lot of votes as well!

Decision: Thiago Silva

Midfielder 1

Lamps goes in instantly. I think Frank's our best-ever player. And again for longevity, goals, repetition year after year. Lamps falls in that category.

(Eden) Hazard's our most talented-ever player, but in terms of what he achieved, Lamps goes right at the very top for me. He's in.

Decision: Frank Lampard

Midfielder 2

Oh my god. I didn't think this could be this hard! Makelele was the best in the world in his position. It’s going to have to be Maka.

Maka was a dream to play behind. He swept up all your rubbish. He was like Pac-Man in front of you; gobbled everything up. Ridiculous levels. And also, I think his generation didn't really get the credit he deserved in that role.

Decision: Claude Makelele

Midfielder 3

Midfielders have a great view of the game, and Lampard and (Cesc) Fabregas were world-class midfielders.

I had a short spell with Cesc, but in terms of his vision [there were few better]. Lamps was the same and obviously, I played behind those two. You would see things on the pitch and a big thing for me was communication with those boys; I’d often give the ball to Lamps and without Lamps even looking I'd say Ivanovic is on.

Frank could automatically turn out and play that pass. But with those two, Cesc and Lamps, even though I told them, they'd already seen it – or seen a better pass! They way their brains thought about football was excellent, so I'm not surprised to see them both doing really well in management.

It’s a nicely balanced midfield. Goals, consistency, creativity, defensive nous!

Decision: Cesc Fabregas

Forward 1

Hazard goes straight in as, for me, being Chelsea's most talented player. There are obviously some great names like (Damien) Duff and (Arjen) Robben, those types of players come into that category, and Cole Palmer will hopefully come into that in the future. Eidur (Gudjohnsen) was also incredible.

But like with Cesc, who fell into the category of being the very best, Hazard is that so he has to go in for me.

Decision: Eden Hazard

Forward 2

Gianfranco goes in for me. We were playing a legends game with Franco recently, his feet were still as quick, just incredible. Being a youngster as well, like Marcel, he had so much time for me.

Franco was a player who kind of took me under his wing, it same with Wisey (Dennis Wise). He had a lot of time for me, gave me a lot of really good advice, and certainly made me a better player and a better professional growing up.

So in terms of the ultimate pro, and nicest man you could ever meet, Franco falls into that category. Also, we got him at Chelse at the back end of his career – imagine how good he was five years before that! It was absolutely ridiculous.

Decision: Gianfranco Zola

Centre-forward

Automatically it’s Didier, but again so much respect for Diego and the other players that I played with. Gianluca who we all love, was my manager, my teammate, and gave me my debut. He was just an incredible man.

But again, it just comes down to the players I played with and Didier was world class, an absolute animal.

I said this recently actually, playing against Didier in training Monday to Friday meant going into games on a Saturday felt quite easy because I had been playing against such a high level. And every day he was at it, he was always at 100 per cent.

Him doing that made me a better player – and me being at that level hopefully made him better as well. He was just an absolute dream to have in the team because he could do absolutely everything.

Decision: Didier Drogba

John Terry's Chelsea Team of 120

Cech; Azpilicueta, Desailly, Thiago Silva, A.Cole, Lampard, Makelele, Fabregas, Hazard, Zola, Drogba

JT’s final thoughts

It’s not a bad team, eh?!

Gaz [Cahill] and Ricky [Carvalho] could quite easily be my defensive partnership because I played with them and because Willy [Gallas] is in that as well, I would have had to leave one out, so I’ve put the two players I didn't really play loads with, if that makes sense.

I’m delighted with my team, though!

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