Terry has worked under a wider range of top managers and coaches than most, has seen what is required to be successful, and has undertaken an apprenticeship of sorts at Villa, where they seem to value his contribution. As a top former player he would command the respect of the squad (at least at first) and he seems very serious about being a successful manager.

On the other hand, he may be asked to explain, once again, the time he used the words 'f***ing black c***' to an opponent. This is not simply because we've always had a lot of black players, supporters and staff. Firstly, being concerned (or not as the case may be) about the episode is not tied to one's own racial category. Secondly, I think it's a reputational issue that any club might want to address before making Terry the public face of the organisation.

For what little it's worth, I've always found his defence (that he was repeating something he thought Ferdinand had accused him of saying) every bit as implausible as the football authorities did when finding him guilty of racial abuse and banning him for four games. At the same time, I recognise (as did the courts) that however implausible his defence might be, it can't be disproved. I'm also not aware of any evidence that, over the course of his life, he's been racist in his attitudes. If anything the opposite seems true, though he has displayed several other character faults. Those other faults may affect his managerial suitability less than the Ferdinand incident though.

I've always presumed (and it is of course a presumption) that he's not racist, but that in the middle of a very heated exchange in a pressure cooker game, after Ferdinand made several direct references to Terry personal life, he instinctively reached for the most hurtful,aggressive or upsetting thing he could find, then regretted what he had said (or the consequences) and cobbled together the only vaguely operable escape route he could. It would have been far better to accept guilt and apologise.

What is far more clear is that Terry doesn't seem to have publicly acknowledged how implausible his defence must seem, or offer much public support to Ferdinand, who later reported receiving significant abuse over the incident. He's not obliged to do either of course, but it might have been the decent thing to do.

Personally I've a number of concerns about the BLM movement, and about the inadequate critique of it in the mainstream press, but even without the current commercial and media climate I'd reckon the Ferdinand incident would be a factor in any potential appointment of John Terry.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (25 Feb 2021 1.42pm)

I will back and support any manager we have in the dugout at Selhurst and JT has a wealth of credentials from his career at Chelsea, but he can get f***ed, personally.

Ps. Don’t knock Nigel Pearson, I think he’s massively under-rated and if he could rein in his big personality and perhaps bully boy image, he could do wonders for us. Defo in my top 3 picks.

I met Terry once in Eastbourne when he was still at Chelsea , a friend of mine was opening a sports memorabilia shop and got Terry to do the opening.
Other than appearing to be a bit on the thick side and an obnoxious sh*t seemed ok to me!