Chelsea's Northern Irish youngster Sam McClelland admits he grew up idolising John Terry.

McClelland is a centre-half like the former Blues great, now assistant manager at Aston Villa.

"Everything here and in London is bigger – biggest distances to travel, my town back home was small and everyone knew each other in the area," he told chelseafc.com.

"Here is just a massive place, obviously I came here for the football and it's been another change, the intensity of training is so much more then what I was used to back home.

"I started off at Limavardy youths, the town I was raised in. Then I played for Coleraine and that's where I was for a number of years before moving over to Chelsea. We had a decent team back home and a few of us moved over to clubs in England – there are six of us who are still pretty close.

"In football, I looked up to John Terry here at Chelsea. Him being a leader, reading the game and the way he played inspired me. In life I'd say my dad, he's always there for me and does everything I need."