John Terry faces another challenge as career end draws nearer

There have been times when the consensus was that John Terry’s time at Chelsea was coming to a close. On each of those occasions, Terry has proved the consensus wrong. Like a cockroach and chicken in a tin, Terry would probably be one of the few things to survive a nuclear winter on earth. Yesterday, though, the substitution against Manchester City at half-time is another sign his Chelsea career may soon come to an end.

There are plenty of people who would gladly see the back of him. After his ban for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, he and his brother Rio would presumably not have too much sadness about seeing him phased out of the club he claims to love. Whereas most people would lose their job in similar circumstances, Terry simply signed yet another contract and remained club captain. That is not the only time that he has escaped from a situation that might have doomed others.

When Andre Villas-Boas took over Chelsea, he instigated playing with a high line. Looking from his crouched position, he liked to press teams across the pitch and reduce the space where the game took place. That left Chelsea’s defence, and the already past-30 Terry, vulnerable to through balls or long balls in behind the defence. Just after the allegations from Ferdinand broke, we saw Terry collapse on his knees as Robin van Persie scored as part of a 5-3 victory for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. It seemed that if Chelsea were to succeed, Terry would have to be replaced by a younger model.

And yet the rumours are that Terry was one of the senior players who made Villas-Boas’s position untenable, and along with Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole kept their Chelsea careers as the Portuguese manager was forced to start elsewhere. In hindsight, looking at the Champions League and Premier League triumphs, and Villas-Boas’s ensuing career, it seems like Chelsea were right to get rid, but it still points towards Terry’s ability to survive.

It was the same when Rafael Benitez was Chelsea’s interim manager, given the job when Roberto Di Matteo was let go despite winning the Champions League. Benitez was far less convinced of Terry’s worth than any other manager of recent times, and often left him on the bench. Benitez was of the opinion that Terry’s body needed careful management throughout the season to make sure he was fit. Something that, again, Terry proved to be incorrect as he played every minute in the Premier League success of 2014/15. Terry was, once again, the rock for Mourinho’s Chelsea, probably the best central defender in the league.

Against City, it wasn’t Terry who appeared to be struggling the most in central defence, but his partner, Gary Cahill. Cahill has improved greatly under Mourinho since his move from Bolton Wanderers, but he has not come close to reaching the heights of Terry’s form for any sustained period. That is one of the reasons why Kurt Zouma was bought from St Etienne, and the French defender impressed last year when, despite his youth, he performed admirably at centre back and as a holding midfielder. He clearly is expected to take over one of the central defensive berths at Stamford Bridge, but the outside observer wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that it was Cahill who would be displaced first.

In talking up the possibility of John Stones joining Chelsea from Everton, few expect that Terry is the man at risk from his arrival, at least immediately. Though one would imagine that Branislav Ivanovic’s presence high up the pitch, a tactical risk to be exploited by an opposition with pace as City and Swansea did, is probably an instruction from Mourinho. But that hasn’t stopped fans becoming increasingly exasperated with him, and at 31 he probably has his finest displays as a full-back behind him.

The thinking is that Stones would be able to gain first team experience at Chelsea on the right of defence, rather than in the middle, before eventually becoming the first-choice central defender for Chelsea. As he showed against Watford, he is still prone to a mistake borne of inexperience, and compared to Terry’s strength, he is relatively slight. Mourinho wants his defenders to be physically imposing, just as he requires the whole of his squad to be. And yet, it seems like this might be the time that Terry is unable to maintain his Chelsea career for much longer.

That’s not down to Terry’s lack of application or because there is some great failure on his part, it is simply a matter of age. Terry has been bashed about for almost two decades on the football pitch, apparently carrying on when other players might have skipped the next game or gone off injured. However determined Terry is, and however many painkilling injections are administered, he will finish the season aged 35. Very few players, even the best, manage to maintain their fitness and form to that age, let alone beyond it.

Mourinho did not take off Terry because he was playing especially badly, but because of something he simply cannot change - his lack of pace. If Mourinho decides that Terry’s experience is no longer enough to offset his physical decline when it comes to the most demanding matches, then there is no longer a compelling reason to keep him in the other matches either. If Stones arrives from Everton, then Terry will not have to just fight him off, but the increasingly robust and settled Zouma. Even he will not be able to do that more than one or two more seasons, if he can do it at all. With Cahill no certainty to take over the senior role in defence, it might not be too long before Stones and Zouma are Chelsea’s new defensive partnership for a generation.