Jamie Redknapp has questioned Chelsea's decision to allow John Terry to leave the club at the end of the season.
The long-serving captain will call time on his 18-year stay at Stamford Bridge in the summer having revealed this evening that the club have decided against offering him a new contract.
However, Redknapp believes that the 35-year-old, who he regards as the best centre-back the Premier League has ever seen, still has qualities to bring to the table both on and off the field for the defending champions.
"I'm surprised in one way because of what he can offer the football club, but I suppose in another way I'm not because if you look at how they've treated Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, other players who have left the club, it's something that they don't pay a lot of respect to," Redknapp told Sky Sports News.
"It's unlike what Manchester United do, when they try to keep hold of Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville for as long as possible. [Chelsea] seems to go about it with a different approach, and it's almost the last of the legends now with Petr Cech, [Didier] Drogba, Frank Lampard going, and obviously now John Terry at the end of the season.
"I'd be doing everything I could to keep John Terry at my football club if I was the owner or manager. I think he's got so much to offer, not only the first team - whenever you go to the academy he's the poster boy there. He was the last person they brought through that's become a regular in the first team. Any young players who come through can learn so much for John Terry - I think even Kurt Zouma, players like that, will miss that authority that he brings.
"It seems a little strange that they're not offering him a contract because I still feel that he's got so much to offer that football club. He's the best centre-back I've seen in the Premier League, and he deserves all the credit and the plaudits that he'll get over the next few days."
Terry has already revealed that he will not move to another Premier League club at the end of his contract.
Barney Corkhill
