John Terry has emerged as a contender to become Oxford United's next manager. The Chelsea legend is one of several names being linked with the role following the departure of Des Buckingham on Sunday.

Should he land the job, he'll be managing former Chelsea team-mate Josh McEachran, who joined the U's in 2023. It might be something of an awkward reunion, however, given the comments Terry made about McEachran on the Up Front With Simon Jordan podcast earlier this year.

During the episode, Terry told a story about ex-Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas (AVB) supposedly attempting a power play during the club's pre-season tour of Asia ahead of the 2011/12 campaign. He said he felt affronted after being handed an economy ticket on a flight to Hong Kong, when McEachran and several other young stars were sitting in first class.

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"When AVB came in, I'll give you a little story, we were going to Hong Kong. We get on the plane and I'm sitting in economy, on a 13-hour flight. And we've got Josh McEachran, Nathaniel Chalobah [and] a couple of other young players all in first class," Terry recalled.

"This was part of AVB going, 'No player is bigger than me - everyone is the same'. He made it so that if you flew out first class you had to fly economy, or premium economy, going the other way... so I'm going, 'We're not going anywhere until these young players go back in economy and the first team players that have built this club to where it is go back in first [class].

"AVB comes up [and asks me] what's the problem. And I say, 'We're not going anywhere until the players move'. And to be fair to the young players they were going, 'JT, this is really uncomfortable. We'll go back'. And I go, 'No, no. This isn't your decision. He [AVB] has to own it. This was one of his first things [Villas-Boas did] in front of everyone."

At the time, McEachran was a relative newcomer in Chelsea's squad, having broken into the senior side a few months prior. Back then, very few academy stars managed to force their way into the first team, but after sparkling under Carlo Ancelotti during the 2010/11 season, hopes were high that McEachran could follow in fellow academy graduate Terry's footsteps by establishing himself as a Chelsea regular.

But, as Terry's story suggests, life under Villas-Boas was anything but easy. McEachran was barely used by the Portuguese coach, and managed just two Premier League appearances before being shipped out on loan to Swansea in 2012.

Later, the midfielder was loaned to Middlesbrough, Watford, Wigan and Vitesse before officially ending his 14-year association with Chelsea by joining Brentford on a permanent basis in 2015. In 2019, he joined Birmingham City, but injury problems reduced him to just 10 appearances in two seasons at St Andrews.

In 2020 McEachran joined MK Dons before moving on again, this time to Oxford in 2023. He helped the club achieve promotion to the Championship in his first season, but a poor start to the current campaign is threatening to send the U's back to the third tier.

They're 20th in the table and only above the relegation zone on goal difference after winning just four of their opening 20 matches. Defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend - their fifth in six games - served as the final nail in the coffin for head coach Buckingham, who had been in charge since November last year.

Terry isn't the only name linked to the Oxford job. Former Stoke and Birmingham boss Gary Rowett is in the running, as is Mark Robins, who was recently replaced by Frank Lampard at Coventry.

Should Terry get the job, it will be the first managerial role of his career. The 44-year-old has experience as an assistant manager—having worked as Dean Smith's No. 2 at both Aston Villa and Leicester—and as an academy coach at Chelsea.