John Terry almost refused to board flight after 'uncomfortable' row with Chelsea manager

John Terry has revealed he almost refused to board a flight for a Chelsea game following a disagreement over seats.

Terry spent 19 years at Stamford Bridge, winning five Premier League titles as captain and the Champions League.

His no-nonsense attitude made him a commanding figure in the dressing room. It also saw him at loggerheads with several of the managers Roman Abramovich brought in during his time as owner.

Back in 2011, Chelsea hired a young Andre Villas-Boas in an attempt to install a long-term plan and vision for the club.

His methods managed to rub several senior players the wrong way. Among those were Terry, who claims he and two other teammates nearly pulled out of flying to Hong Kong during pre-season.

Villas-Boas wanted academy graduates in first class - relegating Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba to economy on the 13-hour flight.

Speaking to the Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast, the former England international recalled: "When Andre Villas-Boas came in, we went to Hong Kong and I'm sitting in economy on a 13-hour flight.

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"We've got Josh McEachran, Nathaniel Chalobah and a couple of other young players all in first class.

"This was part of AVB (Villas-Boas) going, 'No, no, no player's bigger than me, everyone's the same.

"So I'm on the plane going, 'No, I'm not going anywhere until these young players go back in economy and the first-team players, that have built this club to where we are today, go back in first.

"AVB comes up and says 'What's the problem?' I'm going 'Well, I'm not going anywhere until the young players move'."

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Terry claims the youngsters were more than happy to move at Terry's request.

He added: "To be fair to the young players they were going, 'Listen JT, it's really uncomfortable we'll go back'."

"I'm then going, 'No it's not your decision it has to come from him (Villas-Boas), he has to own it'."

"In the end, it all spins to first-team players flying first class, younger players back to economy. He tried to make a statement on day one and he failed instantly. I promise you, the plane wasn't going. If it was going, it would've gone without me, Frank and Didier."

Villas-Boas was sacked in March 2012 after a poor run of results.

Topics: Chelsea, John Terry, Premier League

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a social editor for SPORTbible after moving from the writing team. Nearly scored past Stormzy at Old Trafford once.

@DanMarland_