John Terry rejoins Dean Smith as assistant at Leicester City

On the same day that Chelsea sacked Graham Potter, Leicester City fired their manager as well, bringing to an end Brendan Rodgers’ four-year tenure at the King Power. Leicester had sunk to being one of the odds-on favorites for the drop after and 8th place finish last year and back-to-back fifth-place finishes before then, and so The Brodge had to go.

Like Chelsea, Leicester then had one of the remaining coaches take charge for a brief while, before having someone come in and take the reins for the rest of the season. And like at Chelsea, that new interim management staff has some Chelsea flavor to it!

Last night, Leicester confirmed the appointment of Dean Smith, hoping that he would do something he failed to do in his last job, save them from relegation. Smith took Norwich City down last season, and then proceeded to not do so well in the second division either, getting sacked in mid-December. However, unlike at Aston Villa, he didn’t have his trusty assistant, John Terry with him. But now he will!

As confirmed by Leicester’s official announcement, Terry will come out of his “kind of retirement”, put his budding amateur golf career and occasional Chelsea youth consulting gigs on hold, and rejoin Smith and help the Foxes escape the drop.

I guess a Chelsea job is not the only job worth his while!

“I’m done from a managerial point of view. The only job I’d come out of my kind of retirement for would be the Chelsea job — to be involved in some capacity with a first-team role.

“I love my role at the minute, working with the younger players. Because I’ve been through that process as a kid myself I’m passing on my knowledge to them, having loads of conversations with them.”

“[...] I always see myself as a coach in the long-term but there were better coaches than me at Villa, Craig Shakespeare and Richard O’Kelly. I went for a couple of managers’ jobs when I left and didn’t get them, got a bit deflated so I came away and I’ve spent a bit more family time.”

-John Terry, 8 days ago; source: Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips via Yahoo!

Good luck, JT!