John Terry did not allow the club's spin doctors to massage the message of Chelsea's decision not to offer their club captain a new contract. He seized the agenda for himself on Sunday, in typical John Terry fashion.
"It's not going to be a fairytale ending, I'm not going to retire at Chelsea," Terry told reporters after Chelsea's 5-1 FA Cup win at MK Dons, explaining that attempts to get a new deal struck had fallen on the deaf ears of the club's negotiators, sporting director Michael Emenalo and director Marina Granovskaia.
This was a case of Chelsea, a club in dire need of rebuilding, letting go of a 35-year-old player of fading powers and big wages.