John Terry explains how close he was to joining Manchester City

John Terry may be seen as 'Mr Chelsea' now, but there a point in time when a move to Manchester looked a real possibility.

In 2009, it was widely reported that Man City were desperate to sign the former England captain, and that the player was very tempted with prospect of wearing a paler shade of blue. Now, speaking to Jamie Carragher for The Daily Mail, Terry has opened up about the proposed move to the Eastlands and just how close he was to leaving Stamford Bridge.

"There was the thing with Manchester City. They offered £29million for me in 2009 and Chelsea turned it down. "I had a meeting with Roman (Abramovich) about it. I said to him, if the club accepts the offer then it tells me you don’t want me. "So then you haven’t got a choice, you have got to go. But if they don’t accept the offer, it tells me everything that I need to know. Chelsea refused the offer and that was it."

As for leaving Stamford Bridge for another English club now - as Frank Lampard did at the end of his Chelsea career - Terry claims it's a non-starter.

"No. No chance. No chance. America, maybe. But physically I feel like I can still play. Do I want to play? Of course I do. But then decisions come in to it with your family. "What if you go somewhere and it doesn’t work out? Everything else comes into play."