Terry: How I sacrificed my Chelsea place for Ake

Aston Villa number two coach, John Terry, has revealed how he gave up his place at Chelsea so Nathan Ake for him to get a first-team shot.

Terry was itching to see the Dutch youngster, 21 at the start of the 2016-17 campaign, given a chance at Stamford Bridge, even if it meant sacrificing his own minutes.

He told snooker great Stephen Hendry in a social media conversation: “I went to see [Antonio Conte] around Christmas time.

“I was like ‘gaffer, listen you’re putting me on the bench and we’ve got Nathan Ake’, who for me was an unbelievably talented young player.

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“I said ‘put him on the bench because the chances of him coming on are really slim, it’s going to be a great experience for him’.

“‘He was on the bench for about seven, eight, or ten games, and he ended up playing against Spurs in the [FA Cup] semi-final that year.

“And it was just a little stuff like that. I’m not sure players would have done what I did.”

Ake has now since moved onto Manchester City via Bournemouth.