Sky Sports pundit Darren Bent reckons that Newcastle United have made contact with John Terry to see with the Aston Villa assistant manager would be interested in the vacancy at St James’ Park.
Rafa Benitez left the Magpies at the end of last month and the Tyneside club is yet to appear to have made any concrete efforts to replace the Spaniard, who is now in charge of Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang.
However ex-Sunderland and Aston Villa striker Bent claims that Newcastle might have sounded out 38-year-old Terry for the job, even though he doesn’t think the Chelsea legend will believe he’s ready for the job just yet.
“It’s a tough one because all the young managers are in jobs at the moment. You’re going to find number twos out there, like the John Terry’s or people like that, who are itching at the bit,” Bent told Football Insider.
“Now John Terry might be looking at this Newcastle job, and I’m pretty much convinced they will have contacted him to say what do you think about this job, but for him I think he’s thinking ‘I’ve never been a coach in the Premier League environment, yeah I’ve played in the Premier League for years and years and years but to be a coach is a different kettle of fish.’
“So he might want to assess it under Dean Smith for a while, and I’m pretty much sure that if Villa have another successful season and they stay in the division and everything goes to plan, then the end of next season someone comes to John Terry, I’m sure Dean Smith will go: ‘You know what? You’ve been a brilliant servant for me, on you go.’
“I think he’ll take a step back and go: ‘Not quite now but maybe next season.’ I’m sure there are going to be other young up-and-coming managers who were looking at it going, ‘okay, that’s an opportunity there’ and give them the chance.”
OPINION
Newcastle should not appoint Terry. It’s understandable why teams in the Championship would want to roll the dice and take a chance on a legendary former player to be their manager, but it’s a too big of a gamble in the Premier League. Look at the way Thierry Henry flopped at Monaco last season and Henry had more money to play with at Monaco than Terry would at Newcastle and had slightly more experience due to his previous role as Belgium’s assistant manager. Bent is right to say that Terry might find the chance to manage a Premier League club daunting because he may know himself that he’s not quite ready for that yet. Dean Smith is an experienced manager but even he is going to taste top-flight football for the first time next season in charge of Aston Villa. It’s hard to see how Terry could be a good appointment for Newcastle if they did go down that route. They need someone who is a lot more experienced.
