Chelsea rejected £29m offer from Manchester City for captain John Terry

Chelsea captain John Terry has confirmed the club rejected a £29m bid from Manchester City in 2009 following talks with owner Roman Abramovich. The Etihad Stadium club were heavily linked with a move for the former England skipper in 2009 but Terry says their advances were rebuffed.

Less than a year after being taken over by Sheikh Mansour, City made an audacious bid to sign Terry from their Premier League rivals as they attempted to buy their way to the summit of English football. Then City boss Mark Hughes was said at the time to be confident the deal could be completed.

Terry reveals it took a meeting with Chelsea owner Abramovich to convince the Russian to reject the offer. The four-time Premier League winner says he took that as a vote of confidence from the west London club who he remains a key figure for.

"There was the thing with Manchester City," he told The Daily Mail. "They offered £29m for me in 2009 and Chelsea turned it down. I had a meeting with Roman (Abramovich) about it. I said to him, if the club accepts the offer then it tells me you don't want me. So then you haven't got a choice, you have got to go. But if they don't accept the offer, it tells me everything that I need to know. Chelsea refused the offer and that was it."

As a one club man, Terry came through the Chelsea youth system to take his place in the first team but his progression is a rare success story regarding the club's academy. Terry was sent out on loan to Nottingham Forest before returning to Stamford Bridge to earn some much-needed experience but the centre-back reveals the club had initially planned to sell him.

"It's a funny story actually," Terry, who is currently out injured, added. "Chelsea wanted to sell me then. They had agreed a deal with Huddersfield. After my loan at Forest, I was supposed to go to Huddersfield. Steve Bruce was their manager. Gianluca Vialli was manager here and he knew David Platt at Forest. But I did well in those games, I started five and came on in the other. Chelsea wanted more money then decided they didn't want to sell as I'd done well. I came back and got on the bench for the FA Cup final."