Terry says no

Finally, we can draw the whole pursuit (saga) around John Terry to a close.

The morning brought reports which suggested that a deal for Terry (plus moves for KoloToure and Joleon Lescott) would be concluded by the end of August, but this afternoon finally brought clarification from Terry that he would remain at Chelsea:

"I am totally committed to Chelsea and always have been," said Terry. "Chelsea have also made it clear to me consistently that there was never any intention to accept any kind of offer. When you are linked with any club, or with a manager [Mark Hughes] who I have huge respect for, it will always make headlines, but me leaving Chelsea was never a possibility.

"I know there has been comment that I should have made a statement earlier. However, throughout this period there have been numerous discussions between myself, the owner and the Chelsea board and we all agreed that the timing of any statement would suit everyone involved in those talks, not any outside influences or agendas. What is clear to me following those discussions is that Chelsea's ambition remains as high as ever."

Terry would clearly have strengthened an area of the side that does not reinforcing, and the drive and determination he possesses is an asset Hughes dearly craves in players, yet there was always something uncomfortable about the idea of Terry arriving at the club.

As big an asset as he could have been, he strikes as a fairly unpalatable character, and arguably, his best (or better at least) days are beginning to be behind him.

A move for either Toure or Lescott now seems likely, and both players would strengthen the defence, and would come in to the club with something to prove - an asset always worth having in a player.

The downside to Terry remaining at Chelsea of course is it still leaves us waiting to land the real big name the club hierachy sorely wants. Having been rebuffed by Kaka, Eto'o and now Terry - all world renowned players, it does mean that whilst being tempted, the upper echelon of players in the game will still be reticent about joining until we can break through and persuade that first real profile player of world stature to take the plunge.

Terry set to stay at Chelsea

This mornings papers all appear to be following the same lead; that John Terry is set to 'reject' a move to us in favour of remaining at Chelsea. From Dominic Fifield in The Guardian (who is in the US covering the side):

John Terry has reached an agreement in principle to remain at Chelsea despite persistent interest from Manchester City, with the England captain expected to reaffirm his commitment to the club publicly before the weekend.

Terry maintained his silence on City's interest in the wake of today's comfortable 2–0 victory over Jose Mourinho's Internazionale at the Rose Bowl, in which he was one of two players to feature for the full 90 minutes. But he departed the stadium saying he would speak "very soon" on the matter. Both Peter Kenyon, Chelsea's chief executive, and Roman Abramovich, the club's owner, are in the United States as the club's four-match tour progresses, with Terry having spoken to both over the last few days.

I did have a suspicion that Chelsea's continued public insistence that Terry was 'going nowhere' was an indication that they were concerned that the players was giving some serious thought to the possibility of moving. It does however seem all but certain Terry will remain.

As to whether Terry gave serious consideration to the possibility of opening talks is anybodys guess, and should he sign a new (and improved) deal at Chelsea, I don't think he is likely to admit as such anyway.

Whilst Terry would unquestionably have been a huge addition to the club, and perhaps the high profile, 'name' signing we have been looking for, by and large the feeling was largely ambivalent to his potential arrival. The sums of money were reportedly vast, and here was a guy who seemed the epitomy of the modern Chelsea, to the extent that to even consider him playing elsewhere was largely unthinkable.

I would expect us now to step up the pursuit of Joleon Lescott, as it is clear that we do need to reinforce the central part of the defence. It has been interesting to note however the performances of Ben Mee on the tour to South Africa have been extremely encouraging.

Tapping up

If Chelsea are contemplating reporting us to the Premier League for tapping-up John Terry, then Mark Hughes's latest comments would hardly have helped smooth relations between the two camps:

'We made a bid for John but we tried to keep it under the radar.

'Chelsea allowed the bid to enter the public domain and ever since I have been answering questions on the matter.

'There was no issue that needed to be raised.'

What is interesting though, is exactly what constitutes 'tapping up' in the eyes of the Premier League. Section K of the Premier League handbook specifically concerns approaches to players:

SECTION K

PLAYERS’ CONTRACTS

Approaches to Players

1. A Club shall be at liberty at any time to make an approach to a Player with a view to
negotiating a contract with such a Player:
1.1 if he is an Out of Contract Player, or,
1.2 in the case of a Contract Player, with the prior written consent of the Club (or club) to
which he is contracted.

2. A Club shall be at liberty after the third Saturday in May in any year and before the 1st July
next following to make such an approach to a Contract Player:
2.1 who will become an Out of Contract Player on that 1st July; and
2.2 who has received no offer from his Club under Rule M.17.2 or
2.3 who has received but has declined such offer.

3. Any Club which by itself, by any of its Officials, by any of its Players, by its Agent, by any other Person on its behalf or by any other means whatsoever makes an approach either directly or indirectly to a Contract Player except as permitted by either Rule K.1.2 or Rule K.2 shall be in
breach of these Rules and may be dealt with under the provisions of Section R.

4. For the purposes of Rules K.2 and K.3, “Contract Player” shall include a player who has entered into a written contract of employment with a Football League club.

The difficulty here is distinguishing precisely what is covered under Rule K 1.2 and Rule K.3. From what we know, we have made two legitimate bids for Terry, which Chelsea (quite within their rights) have turned down.

The key phrase appears to be '...makes an approach either directly or indirectly to a Contract Player'.

As it stands, it does not appear that we have made a direct approach to Terry, but what does determine an indirect approach?

Both the club and Mark Hughes have been very vocal and public in their courtship of Terry, and this in itself could be argued as an indirect approach. However, and as Mark Hughes stated, he interprets this as merely answering questions that have been posed to him.

Again, as far as we know, there has been no agent or third party contact between ourselves and Terry to 'register' our interest. You would have to be naive though to think that in the course of negotiating and completing transfers that such action on occasion does not occur.

But whilst a direct approach is easy to prove (as with the case with Chelsea's meeting with Ashley Cole whilst he was an Arsenal player), an indirect approach? Short of having documentary evidence to link a club with a third party in which they confirm their intentions, there is very little the Premier League can do to pursue the matter.

For this reason, unless we have been totally underhand (and stupid), I don't see the Premier League pursuing any investigation.

Lescott bid reported

Manchester City have responded to David Moyes' public insistence that he will not sell Joleon Lescott by trying to call the Everton manager's bluff with a first official offer for the player. The Eastlands club made a bid of £15m this afternoon.

The offer is likely to be rejected but Everton are aware that City have the financial muscle to follow up with an improved financial package. The biggest spenders in the English game have been encouraged to think that Lescott is keen to join a club who seem determined to buy their way into the Champions League.

>>guardian.co.uk

Reports of the bid were also carried on telegraph.co.uk, whilst David Moyes has again stated via liverpooldailypost.co.uk that Lescott was not for sale.

When news of interest in Lescott was first reported, it was quickly dismissed then by Everton but at the time I wrote that if Lescott marches into David Moyes' office and demands a move, there is little that Moyes realistically can do to prevent him going. Such is the way with football in these times.

Whilst money will be a factor for Lescott, like Gareth Barry before him he will have to decide if perhaps his present club have reached a limit on what they can achieve in the league (and this is not to diminish what Everton have achieved in recent seasons) and that the possibility of Champions League will be more likely attained with ourselves.

I'm not sure where this leaves any interest with John Terry, but I would suspect Mark Hughes would dearly love Terry and Lescott as his partnership next season. It does seem Terry is on Chelsea's pre-season trip to the USA, and although Peter Kenyon re-iterated that he is not for sale I don't get the feeling the door has been entirely closed on this.

Terry story gaining momentum

After the no-news being reported as news, the past twenty-four hours or so have seen a few articles surfacing that suggest a deal that would see John Terry actually sign for us may not be too wide of the mark.

There was a report in The Telegraph that suggest Terry may be disenchanted with Chelsea having not landing a marquee name in the transfer market so far, and that he was seeking 'clear the air' talks with Roman Abramovich.

Latterly, there were two reports that popped up late Saturday evening that indicated that despite earlier protestations, Chelsea may actually be considering an increased bid on the premise that (and Brian Reade summarises amusingly) that their record without Terry is no way different to with him in the side, at aged twenty-nine with a 'dodgy back' his best may be behind him and crucially, a transfee fee in excess of £30 million and not having to pay Terry an increase on his wages would be welcome.

Patrick Collins in The Mail backs this up:

The onus, it seems, is now on Chelsea to recognise their skipper's 'loyalty' if he should decide to stay. So they either pass up the chance of collecting £30m or risk distorting the stratospheric salary scale at Stamford Bridge. Naturally, Terry is saying nothing, as befits a man who holds all the cards.

Duncan Castles in The Times goes even further, suggesting moves could already be afoot in terms of negotiations:

For his part, Terry has asked football dealmaker Chris Nathaniel to help negotiate with City. Nathaniel already represents Robinho, the club’s current best-paid player, and Micah Richards. He has previously secured Terry a lucrative book deal, works extensively with his England teammate Rio Ferdinand, and last season fronted a Nigerian takeover bid for Newcastle United.

City remain confident that Terry will be their player before the new Premier League season begins. The England captain spent part of a recent holiday in Dubai with City manager Mark Hughes, and Hughes believes that Terry is unhappy with Chelsea’s failure to add top-class players to their squad and a lack of consultation over Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment.

It does seem unfathomable to think that Chelsea would consider selling Terry, their captain, England's captain, talismanic figure and club lynchpin. Yet perhaps there is a growing sense that along with Terry's silence, such a move may not be the unbelievable thought it may have been.

It would be some coup to pull this off, and the marquee and 'statement' signing (with apologies to Robinho) that ownership (not to mention Garry Cook have craved). Yet if Chelsea are prepared to let Terry go, should this ring any alarm bells given that the very top sides do not let their very top players leave at their peak and would possibly be a case of Caveat Emptor.

Interesting given the public announcement that we had shut the door on a possible deal for Samuel Eto'o, the club have left the suggestion of a further bid for Terry well and truly open. As I've said all along, one short statement from Terry would kill this stone dead. The longer the silence continues, the more the story gathers momentum.

UPDATE:

The News of The World are suggesting that the 'crisis talks' between Terry and Abramovich resulted in Terry requesting the opportunity to speak to us.

Terry 'not for sale'

"I think that Terry is a symbol of the team," he said. "Naturally he will be the captain next time; he says he wants to be at Chelsea next season and we want to keep him forever. There is no price – he will be captain of Chelsea forever.

"There is no problem. For him, for us, the story continues for Chelsea. For captain I would like to have Terry. He is very close to [Paolo] Maldini in professionalism and I would like to keep him as captain."

>>Carlo Ancelotti.

It was of course Carlo Ancelotti's first press conference as Chelsea manager this morning, and inevitably the focus would be on the subject of John Terry's future.

The press this morning (on the back of the Sunday's) was full of the suggestion that Terry could indeed be tempted by a move. A key point was that it was reported that Chelsea themselves could not be keen on a deal, possibly due to being less than enamoured with Terry himself and the belief he could be using our interest as leverage for a new (and much improved) deal.

Whilst there has still been on official word from Terry himself, Ancelotti's comments appear to be unequivocal in their tone and that (as thought) Chelsea are not willing to entertain the possibility of letting Terry leave.

We could of course go back in with a further bid for him, but clearly an improved offer to Chelsea is not likely to see them waver. Any deal does now seem to be dead in the water and it really would take a huge announcement from Terry to resurrect anything - something that is extrememely unlikely.

A further bid for Terry?

The Independent this morning suggests we could well try again for John Terry, raising our offer to £40 million pounds and making him the first £300,000 a week footballer:

Manchester City's pursuit of John Terry is not over and they are now considering increasing the pressure on Chelsea with a second bid for the England captain in excess of the £30m deal that was rejected on Thursday night. Chelsea are opposed to losing their captain but it is understood that Terry could yet opt to leave.

The article also states that there may be some indication that Terry at the very least would be open to discussions:

There is no doubt that City's executive chairman, Garry Cook, would not have made the offer to Chelsea had he not been receiving some encouragement that Terry would be amenable to a move. As a former Chelsea player, the City manager Mark Hughes has close contacts with his ex-club, including those individuals close to the players.

If a firm offer hadn't been made for Terry, this would strike you as a classic summer transfer non-story. The press could now well be dragging this out for all the column inches it's worth, but maybe, just maybe there may actually be a degree of truth to it.

I still maintain that I would be amazed if this offer ever amounted to anything, yet perhaps there has been encouragement of some sort from Terry in which case expect a follow up bid to materialise.

Of course, on the other hand it could all be a retaliatory gesture designed to hack Chelsea off over the Daniel Sturridge affair.

Terry bid rejected

It was confirmed on chelseafc.com that we have had a bid for John Terry turned down. Whilst there were reports in January that we had tentatively enquired as to his potential availability, a concerete offer has clearly now been made (with some suggestion that we used the ruse of Sturridge negotitations to the spring the formal offer on a 'stunned' Peter Kenyon).

Despite being rebuffed, it is reported that we are set to go back in with a further bid. It does surprise me however as whilst we can flex some muscle to bring Barry and Santa Cruz to the club it is a different scenario entirely with Terry. Notwithstanding that there is a school of thought that actually suggests Terry benefits from having played alongside the likes of Carvalho, if we are talking £18 million for Joleon Lescott, is the region of £30 million way too low.

For me, whilst every player has his price, it has to be at the right time. Terry is a lynchpin and appears wedded to Chelsea and is the embodiment of the modern day Chelsea (both good and bad). I just don't see them even contemplating a deal regardless of what offer we put on the table. Having been rebuffed in January when the position at Chelsea was less stable (with Terry reportedly butting heads with Scolari), I fail to see the logic in going after him once again and surely we are better pursuing targets elsewhere.