Four years after Terry's retirement, England still haven't found a better center back

Apparently this is a question that still gets asked, though perhaps more and more in a tongue in a cheek way as the days and months and years go by.  At least I hope it's nothing more than a tongue in cheek tease of Roy Hodgson, perhaps to lighten the mood after he destroyed the nation's hopes and dreams by losing to the Netherlands just a few days after Victory in Berlin.  Oh wait, still just friendlies.

As the England coach lamented his lack of "left-sided center backs", someone remembered that at one point, England had one of the best, if not the best, in the world playing in their colors.  Whatever did happen to that guy?

"There are, in my opinion, no left-sided centre-backs who are English playing in the league who are at least at the level of the ones we are choosing and that's a fact of life and there's not much we can do about it. The point that we haven't got the left-sided one is quite right, but there is nothing I can do about that unless suddenly in the next five weeks some brilliant English left-sided centre-back appears on the scene and I don't anticipate that."

"[...] because [Terry] retired so long ago, he doesn't feature in my thinking too often. But I can't deny that is a valid point. He is a left-sided centre-half, although not a left-sided player. He's right-footed."

Hodgson, who responded "laughingly" at first but then got "more serious", also blew everyone's minds even further when he claimed that Mr. Worst Person in Football is actually a nice guy.  Or did Terry relinquish that title to Diego Costa or some other massive media target in the interim?

"I had a long chat with John the other day, he's a very nice guy."

-Roy Hodgson; source: FourFourTwo

Good to know.  Of course there's no way in seven hells that Terry would consider going back to the national team (right?), and neither should England consider such silliness.  Even if, apparently, they still haven't found a proper replacement for the man four years after he retired.  (Hey, that's a bit like Chelsea in a way!)