There was a time before Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea when finances were not good and there were suggestions you would be one of the players sold just as you had become established but before winning anything. That must have been difficult.

‘I never in my wildest dreams saw myself leaving Chelsea in that era. Okay, if you were not being offered a contract at the club you have to go but if you have a couple of years left, the club can’t get rid of you so even if they approached me and said we have been offered this, I would not have gone.

'Honestly, it is as simple as that and I promise I never even contemplated it once to leave at that time. It was my club and that was it, as simple as that. It was not about money, I just wanted to play football for the club that I loved.’

Is there any advice the 36-year-old John Terry would give the 18 or 19-year-old version to speed up your development as a player?

‘You know what, probably not really. I pretty well have no regrets and looking back I enjoyed my time at that age. And we had the likes of Gianfranco Zola at the club with the way he was looking after himself, whether that be food or not drinking or going out after games. I had grown up with the mentality that you train all week, play the game and then go out drinking and then go again next week, but when the likes of Franco came it was all about eating the right food after training and that helped me as a player back then.

‘I was quite close to Franco, I played golf with him quite a bit and spent some time at his house so I saw the way he lived, what he ate, what he drank and he got me into coffees rather than shandies after a game of golf.

'I was very fortunate to be around someone like him as a person, the way he gave time to fans, got off the bus and signed a hundred autographs in the pouring rain. It was a good education for me.’