Things might have changed a lot over the past decade or so, but at one point of time, Manchester United and Chelsea were the two teams regularly competing for the Premier League title and even played a classic UEFA Champions League final with each other. Those two sides had some legendary players to say the least and one debate that was always raised was about who was better between John Terry and Nemanja Matic.
Terry had come through the Chelsea academy and become one of the best defenders in Premier League history. On the other hand, Manchester United had signed Vidic from Spartak Moscow for a transfer fee around £7 million, and he proved to be the backbone of the team for years to come.
The big question has always been – who was better between Terry and Vidic? Like all great debates, there is no definite answer and you can make a case for both of them.
Terry has given his take on the situation though and had some great things to say about the Manchester United legend. As reported by Daily Star, when asked the question on an Instagram Q&A session, the former Chelsea captain wrote:
"“Everyone will have different opinions, but Vidic was an unbelievable defender.“I get asked this a lot and the big thing that allows you to be spoken of as one of the very best is longevity. Vidic done this year, after year, after year. Top guy as well.”"
Terry comments on Manchester United legend
It is safe to say that on their day, both Terry and Vidic were the best defenders in the world and they were huge parts of two very successful Premier League teams of the first decade of this century.
It is very hard to pick between the two for sure, but one advantage that Terry does have over Vidic is his longevity. He was the starting centre-back of a Premier League winning team at Chelsea both before and after the Serbian’s time at Manchester United.
But then, one could argue that Vidic’s Manchester United did come out on top against Terry’s Chelsea more often than not. Ultimately, it comes to down to preference.