John Terry has revealed that Tosin Adarabioyo was left ‘gutted’ after he was told he was not in Xabi Alonso’s plans at Chelsea.
Tosin arrived at Stamford Bridge two years ago on a free transfer from Fulham and went on to make 70 appearances in all competitions for the Blues.
However, the 28-year-old was a peripheral figure in Chelsea’s pre-season under Alonso and was not named in the matchday squad for any of the Spaniard’s first three competitive matches.
The signing of Maxence Lacroix and the development of Josh Acheampong saw Tosin fall down the pecking order and become available for offers in the final days of the window.
Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free.
And Tosin has now made the short trip across London on deadline day, joining rivals Tottenham on a permanent deal for around £7million.
Tosin will be joined in north London by Mykhailo Mudryk, who joined Spurs on a season-long loan, but former Blues captain Terry said the defender was ‘disappointed’ by the abrupt end to his time at Chelsea.
‘I was speaking to Tosin the other day and I was like, “What did the manager say?” And he was like, “I’m just not in his plans”,’ Terry said in an interview with GBFC.
‘He said, “Listen, fully respect it. I’d love to kind of prove him wrong here, but I’ve been told I’d need to find another club and he’s going, I’m gutted because I’ve only been here a couple of years”.
‘So he’s obviously disappointed with that, Tosin, but the manager makes it really clear, so honest with the players, there’s no kind of grey area in there at all.
Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications.
‘He’s made it clear that he really likes Josh Acheampong at the moment, and that he’s played a couple of games as well and seems like he’s the future.
‘He’d rather have him around than Tosin, so allowing these players to go is right, because what people don’t see as well, when you’ve got a first team dressing room of 24, 26 players in that room, up the corridor, there’s a dressing room for the maybe eight or 10 players that don’t want to be there, that want to be out playing elsewhere, that have to train with a different coach, completely separate away from the [under] 21s and completely separate away from the first team.’
Terry continued: ‘You have to eat at different times. You’re treated so differently; it’s horrible. I’ve seen it, I’ve tried to change this even when I played. I really didn’t like it in the building.
‘I tried to integrate the group, but then kind of post-retirement, you fully understand they’re my 24, 26 players; I need to work with these; they have to be my full focus.
