The Manchester City Project

Following Terry’s appearance before media cameras to promote the new Chelsea kit and Michael Ballack’s comments during an interview with Sky Sports it would appear that City’s final pleas to the England defender have failed.

Peter Kenyon, Chelsea’s chief executive repeated today that the club would not accept any bid for John Terry, no matter how much the bid:

"We're very confident that John will be remaining here as captain of Chelsea. We're not going to sell John so from that point of view it's really irrelevant what another club will offer. He's too important to us."

Michael Ballack commented that he did not believe that Terry would be leaving Chelsea for Manchester City after a conversation between the two players. Although he did not want to expand on the conversation he had with the club Captain Ballack seemed confident that Terry would be playing for Chelsea next season: “I am really confident that he will stay. I don't want to talk too much about our conversation, but I have the feeling he will play for Chelsea next year."

Michael Ballack was speaking at a launch of the new Chelsea kit, in which John Terry also featured. These are not the actions of a player who was “considering” his future and who wanted to leave with dignity.

Chelsea’s forceful rejections of City’s offers for their player make it quite clear that Terry would have to hand in a transfer request and go public with his desire to leave the club. With the team ready to fly to the US tomorrow for pre-season friendly’s it seems time is running out. If Terry were to go with the team to the US then surely this would signal the end of City’s interest in the defender. City will not be shy in moving on to other targets soon, as shown in the prolonged Eto’o saga.

City is clearly creating a powerful squad that will be able to stand up to the rigors of a long season and be able to churn out results away from home, which proved difficult last season. The men behind the transfers at City clearly have a strategy that they are successfully implementing. Once Terry is no longer the focus of transfer speculation do not be surprised to see one or two top quality defenders added to the squad. I would be more than happy to see Lescott join the club and then prepare the squad for the season ahead. Benjani & Evans would be the only players I would sell during this transfer window.