Chelsea icon Terry joins Villa
– Former Chelsea and England captain John Terry (left) has joined Championship side Aston Villa, the club’s owner said yesterday.
“Welcome JT to Birmingham city...Aston Villa!@ AVFCOfficial Announcement shortly!,” Tony Xia posted on Twitter in a sideways dig at the club’s crosscity rivals, Birmingham City, who had also sought to sign the centre-half.
The 36-year-old Terry became a free agent at the weekend after 22 years at Stamford Bridge where he played his entire career in
Manchester United’s packed pre-season schedule with seven matches to be played in a little over two weeks will boost players’ fitness and prepare them for the start of the 2017/18 Premier League campaign, defender Phil Jones has said.
United, who finished sixth in the league last season, start their pre-season fixtures with a fivematch tour of the United States where they face Los Angeles Galaxy, the Premier League.
The Birmingham Mail and other papers reported he signed a one-year deal and was flown to Villa’s pre-season camp in the Algarve to meet his new team-mates.
He made his final appearance for the champions in May, leaving to a guard of honour 26 minutes into the game to correspond with his shirt number.
But, despite interest from West Brom, Stoke City and Bournemouth, he has been persuaded to drop down to England’s second tier by Villa manager Steve Bruce. Real Salt Lake, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The Europa League winners round out their tour with a trip to Norwegian side Valerenga in Oslo before a trip to Ireland where they face Italy’s Sampdoria.
“The more matches you play, the more match-fit you are and seven games will give everyone a chance to get minutes under their belts. You need everyone at a good level for the start of the season,” Jones said on the club’s website.
The tour will be the second under manager Jose Mourinho, who joined the club last May, and Jones says that the Portuguese will have every detail of the tour planned out.
“We know exactly what the manager expects from us and he knows the players inside and out. He’ll have organised this pre-season period exactly how he wants it – when we’ll train, when we’ll rest and when we’ll have commercial work to do,” Jones said.
After their pre-season run, United take on Champions League winners Real Madrid in the Uefa Super Cup in Macedonia on August 8, four days before the start of the league campaign.