John Terry has joined Aston Villa from Chelsea but can he still have the same sort of influence?
John Terry has completed his free transfer to Aston Villa from Chelsea and signed a one-year contract with the Championship club.
Having won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups, the Champions League and being capped 78 times by England, to many landing the defender is quite the coup for Villa.
Chelsea’s John Terry lines up before the match
Yet in reality, have the Midlands outfit actually just secured Terry’s name and reputation, something which his actual performances on the pitch no longer live up to?
The centre-back is now 36-years-old, although with arguably his greatest asset throughout his career having been his leadership qualities, this may not prove such a big problem.
What could be concerning for the Villans, though, is how he played during his final season with the Blues, which included just ten starts – many of which the former Three Lions captain looked badly off the pace.
This was admittedly in a title-winning team where the demands are likely to be greater than in the second tier, but even so, Terry is far from the dominant figure at the back he once was.
Rio Ferdinand was another considered one of the greatest defenders of the Premier League era, but after joining QPR from Manchester United the step down did not help and he was badly exposed.
Terry and Ferdinand have very different playing styles, but Villa should be wary of getting too over-excited about landing an extremely well paid player who has struggled to assert himself on the pitch for some time.
QPR’s Rio Ferdinand with manager Harry Redknapp during the press conference
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