“It did feel good. It has felt good to be back,” he told the Daily Mail.
“It’s certainly a benefit to know the building so well and a lot of faces in the building made it not so much of a first-day-of-school feeling. I spoke about Jose a lot, about when he first came, and the lift he gave me, the self-confidence, more mentally than actually tactically or physically. Guus Hiddink sent me a message this week which was very nice.
“These are all managers I respect. I respect all the managers I had, even ones I maybe didn’t have a close connection to.”
“I wouldn’t have gone there much,” the 106-capped England International said.
“Only if I was called in or went in for any reason as vice-captain. I always respected the manager. I tried to be low maintenance and that corridor towards the manager’s office was somewhere you didn’t venture much. But now it’s where I’ll be, I suppose.”
Will he succeed at Chelsea?
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