The 44-year-old led Chelsea to five Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and a Champions League, among others, during his prestigious career at the West London club.
It’s now been nine years since Chelsea won the Premier League, and Terry believes it may still be a while before they lift it again.
“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," Terry acknowledged in an interview with the Mirror.
"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.”