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West Ham Fan View: Why we should not sign John Terry
West Ham United should not sign John Terry. Now this may be controversial given that Terry has announced that he will be leaving Chelsea at the end of the season. Despite keeping a clean sheet against an in-form Everton, it is clear that we are struggling defensively. Too many times this season we have looked disorganised and we have made many errors which have ultimately led to goals.
When it was announced that Terry would be leaving Chelsea after more than 20 years at the club, it did not come as a shock. He has barely featured in Antonio Conte’s three-man defence this season and leaving is the only way that he will get games. But we should not be the ones that sign him this summer.
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There is no doubt that Terry has been one of the Premier League’s greatest ever centre-backs. He has won more than fifteen trophies at Chelsea and he has been the leader at the club. He is comfortable distributing the ball from defence, comfortable on both feet, and he makes those around him play better. At his peak he would have made it into any team in the world. But that is the Terry of old, not the Terry that we would be signing.
He has declined, as is expected, and this means that signing him would certainly be a risk. Signing him would not significantly improve our squad both in the short-term and in the long-term. Terry is currently 36 years old and let’s not forget that we did sign Jose Fonte, who is 33, in January. Yes, he has not lived up to expectations but his situation is similar to that of Terry. Do we really need two of these players?
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Terry did play for West Ham from 1991 to 1995 before moving on to Chelsea and a return to his former club may appeal to him. Slaven Bilic even said that “every manager and club would think about John Terry if he is available” (Sky Sports). But we do not want to see a repeat of our previous transfer windows. We cannot start the season slow once again after making bad decisions in the transfer market.
As it stands, we have Winston Reid, James Collins, Angelo Ogbonna and Fonte to choose from. Let’s not forget that we also have Reece Oxford who is currently out on loan. There is no denying that we do need to improve our defence in the summer window but like the links to Wayne Rooney, we do not need to be going for players who are past their peak. Otherwise, we may face having another underwhelming season.
