Would Recalling John Terry to the England Squad Really Be Such a Bad Idea?

While his frumpy, simplistic style might not make him terribly progressive, Sam Allardyce was appointed as England manager to take the team forward.

After all, they couldn't fall any further following their dismal Euro 2016 showing. Yet the new national team boss is seemingly set on looking backward before plotting the course ahead.

English football desperately needs a new crop of talent to freshen up what has become a distinctly stale team, yet Allardyce recently revealed he is considering handing John Terry a recall. That's the same Terry who last played for England four years ago. The same Terry who looked set for the Chelsea exit door just a matter of months ago. The same Terry who is deemed well past his best and most likely in his final Premier League season.

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"Maybe so," Allardyce admitted when asked whether a return to the national team could be on the cards for the 35-year-old, per Jamie Jackson of the Guardian. "I think it depends on what John said. Maybe if I get the opportunity I might have to give him a ring but until I come to that selection or that process, we’ll wait and see."

The England manager's confession promoted a vociferous response from fans and the media alike given Terry’s chequered past and history with the Football Association. But would his return to the national team be such a bad thing? Pushing aside the knee-jerk indignation, is there merit in the notion of bringing him back into the England fold? 

It’s not as if England are stocked with world-class central defenders. Allardyce has raw potential to mould, with the 22-year-old John Stones considered one of the brightest young centre-back prospects in the European game but nobody to turn to as a ready-made back-line bedrock.

It might be something of an indictment on the state of English football, but Terry is arguably still among the best players the country has.

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But what Allardyce surely wants from Terry is experience. With the quickfire international retirements of David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and, of course, Terry himself in recent years, England have been robbed of a great deal of top-tier experience. Wayne Rooney is the only player they have who can claim to have scaled the highest heights of the sport. 

So it’s perhaps understandable that Allardyce could seek to address that by bringing Terry into his squad. He didn’t specify that he saw the veteran as a starter. It could be he simply wants a dressing-room figurehead to act as something of a mentor to his largely young, inexperienced squad.

England went into Euro 2016 with the youngest squad at the tournament, and while that gives Allardyce a somewhat exuberant and impressionable team to work with, it also means his players have a lot to learn quickly ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. Terry could help him get his ideas across on the training ground and in the dressing room.

Even as an on-field figure, Terry could prove valuable. Against Iceland at the summer’s European Championship—the scene of the Three Lions’ greatest indignity—England lacked leaders. When things went wrong against the minnows, nobody had the presence of mind to take a grip of the match and change its course. Rooney had the armband wrapped around his bicep, but a figurehead he was most certainly not.

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Whether Terry is a likeable character or not, he is a strong on-field leader. With the Chelsea captain on that pitch in Nice, France, the Three Lions would have surely had more about them as they tried to claw back a shock deficit. The Stamford Bridge defender would have done a better job of shaking Roy Hodgson’s side out of a daze than anyone else. Things might have turned out differently.

When it comes to Terry, though, it is impossible to ignore the off-field controversies that have tainted his career. The situation that forced the defender to end his international career in the first place hasn’t abated.

In September 2012, Terry admitted his position as an England player had become "untenable" following an FA charge that the former England captain had racially abused Anton Ferdinand during a match against Queens Park Rangers the previous year. So what makes that any different now? Time has passed, but concerns over Terry’s personality and character remain.

"I don't know what the political side of that might mean, if there is a political side," Allardyce explained. "I’ll have to have that conversation if I feel that John Terry may be a possibility."

It’s possible that the change in personnel at the FA since Terry’s hearing would ease the defender’s stance, but it is not yet known whether he would be open to a return. It would, after all, be his decision.

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By the time the 2018 World Cup comes around, Terry will be 37. The decision to recall him to the England team certainly wouldn’t be one made with a nod to the future, but it could help those who will form the national side’s future. Allardyce is charged with ensuring England’s next generation is brighter and more successful than the last, but experience still has its worth in that process.

Look at how the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Bastian Schweinsteiger, respectively, mentored the next generation of Italy and Germany's talents. England could draw the same sort of experience from Terry, especially with the national team at a crucial juncture. 

Regardless of whether Terry does turn out for England again, Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte won’t have a say.

"I'm a former international team coach so I know this situation and prefer it to be solved between Sam Allardyce and John Terry. That's the right way," the Italian said, highlighting what his captain would bring to the England side, per Rory O'Callaghan of Sky Sports.

Conte continued: "John Terry has a great attitude during training and is working very hard. I'm very happy with his commitment. But for the international team, it is very important for it to be solved between Sam Allardyce and John Terry."

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It’s questionable whether Terry, a fading imitation of the force he once was, warrants a place with an international side ranked among the 15 best in the game.

If Allardyce has his sights set on turning England into the team they have aimed to be for decades, he must find players capable of carrying out that development. Does the Chelsea captain fit the bill?