John Terry believes that Chelsea are "a few years away" from challenging for the Premier League crown.
The Chelsea icon also warned that his old side must win significant silverware to gain experience and lure top talent. The Blues concluded their campaign on a positive note, securing the UEFA Conference League title, a spot in the Champions League, and a trip to the Club World Cup in the USA.
During Roman Abramovich's era, Terry, alongside stars like Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard, helped transform Chelsea into champions, amassing numerous trophies. Now, the ex-England skipper has expressed frustration over the current young Chelsea squad's inability to mount a serious challenge against rivals Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City for the top honours, reports the Mirror.
Terry said: “I get frustrated because I want Chelsea to be winning the biggest trophies. Are we close? I think we are still a few years away from competing for the Premier League again.
"We need to catch Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool to even have a chance of doing that. I think we need experience. I think it’s through winning. If we’re competing for a top striker, a top keeper, I know where I’d be going.
“Fans need to understand that to sign top players and improve your group then you have to attract the best players then you have to win and compete for the biggest trophies. That’s the Champions League, the Premier League and we’re not doing that at the minute. We probably have to say: ‘we’ll take the second best striker, the third best striker, whatever that looks like.’ That’s where we are.
“That’s probably why we’ve gone down the younger route at the minute and we haven’t got players of the calibre of Didier, Hazard and these guys wanting to come to Chelsea because we are the best and we are guaranteed to win a trophy.”
Reflecting on his illustrious time at Stamford Bridge, Terry regards his initial title triumph as the pinnacle of his achievements. Captaining Chelsea to their first league title in half a century back in 2005 under Jose Mourinho remains an unparalleled memory for him.
Terry said: "I think the first one, the title in 04/05, the first Premier League, the first one at Stamford Bridge but also the first title in a very long time and we took that back to the Bridge."