Continuing John Terry Week on chelseafc.com, celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the captain's debut, he has been sharing memories of his early games and his progress onwards and upwards.

Here's a couple ways in which John Terry in October 2008 differs from John Terry back in October 1998.

The later version is a multi-medal winning captain of club and country and one of the most famous sportsmen in the world.

The earlier model was known to just a handful of hardy Chelsea supporters who lined the pitch at youth and reserves team games, and his most treasured honour then was Chelsea Young Player of the Year.

Now here's one way the JT of today and the JT of then are the same.

'You know I still get my nerves now before games,' John reveals, a follow-up thought a short moment after recounting tales of his first team debut a decade ago.

'It's good,' continues the player with 368 Chelsea games to his name, 'because as long as I am getting that, I know I am in the right frame of mind.

'Obviously the bigger the stages you go on, the more nervous you are going to get. You are out there in the warm-up and you take it in a bit. Then once the game starts, you completely switch off from it. It is only after the game you realise what a big crowd has been around you.

'It is still nice to know that I am 27-years-old, I'm very experienced now, and I am still getting those little butterflies that keep me on my toes.'

While there is absolutely no reason to doubt John over his pre-game state of body and mind, it's hard to imagine he feels today quite how he did that night back in 1998 when told he was heading on to face Aston Villa with 86 minutes on the clock. Those stomach butterflies must have felt like golden eagles.

Needless to say, John remembers every moment vividly.

'I was sitting there and being 4-0 up, I was thinking hey, I could get thrown on here. Warming up, a little bit nervous, and when I got the call, I just remember running as quickly as I could to the dug out, getting changed and on I went.'

Within a minute of his short and not entire smooth debut, captain Dennis Wise, the man commanding the pitch in front of the fresh-faced arrival, was sent off.

'It was a tackle on Darren Byfield, completely two-footed and typical Wisey,' John recalls. 'Everyone remembers it for that tackle.'

Or for another moment before John had even kicked the ball. Dan Petrescu, the man making way for the new boy, was not amused by his substitution and was more concentrated on kicking a stray water container before running down the tunnel than the traditional handshake with his replacement.

'I'd had a couple or run-ins with Dan actually,' John admits, 'where I'd tackled him and he wasn't happy about being tackled by a young pro. But that is the way I trained at the time and I'm still the same now. Luckily I had people like Wisey who stuck up for me and fought my corner.

'Obviously Dan was a little unhappy about being taken off in the Villa game and I can laugh about it with him now, but at the time it wasn't good for a young lad coming on.

'It didn't throw me at all though. I went on and myself and my family enjoyed the night.'

Progress

For those who walk more conventional roads in life, it is hard to comprehend what it must be like to spend your first day at work with tens of thousands of people examining your every move. John felt suitably at home.

'As a young player, I'd been in and around the squad for quite a while. I'd travel to away games and although I wouldn't be on the bench nine times out of ten, I'd help out with the kit, get back to the training ground, clean everyone's boots, getting home at four or five in the morning.

'Those times away with the lads, seeing what they did, what they eat, the way they slept before their games, it was good for my development so when I was called upon, I was ready and prepared.'

It must say something about the teenager's assured nature that manager Gianluca Vialli did not worry about blooding his new player in a variety of roles during that first season.

John had been just as much a midfielder as a centre-back in youth football and although the Villa debut was in central defence, his next action was as holding midfielder on Boxing Day at Southampton after Gustavo Poyet was carried off with a serious, championship challenge-denting injury.

Then his first two starts in the side came at right-back.

'I played everywhere,' he smiles. 'I don't know where right-back came from!

'I thought I did okay at Oldham on my full debut but the next game at Oxford (pictured below), I was a little bit out of place actually and for their goal, Dean Windass beat me to the ball from a set play.'

A late penalty at the Manor Ground saved Chelsea's FA Cup ambitions but it was a night when next to no-one performed up to standard.

'We had just been in Tenerife for seven days and back in those days, we had quite a good time. But as we came in after the game, [coach] Graham Rix said we are never going to bloody Tenerife again!

'I was disappointed in my performance but looking back at it, I wasn't ready if I am honest. But I was delighted to have got those early chances and I managed to sit on my nerves after that and the next chances I got, I played quite well against good teams and good players.'

Here's another way in which the John Terry of today differs from John Terry 10 years ago.

Back then as he sat down to give his first major interview for the Chelsea matchday programme, he apologised bashfully. 'This won't be up to much,' he said. 'My answers are no good.'

Nowadays he sits up there as England captain, commanding press conferences viewed by the nation, confidently giving every question a considered response.

Surprisingly maybe in this media-savvy age, John has never had any formal training in this area. His development has been a natural one.

'It is something you have to get used to. At an early age now they get training but when I was that age, you sort of got thrown in and you'd talk openly about things you may be shouldn't have.

'It is only when you get older, you learn to keep your mouth shut a little. You have to make mistakes and learn from them but it's just part and parcel of the game now and I have to do a lot more of it now I am captain of club and country. I am used to doing it and I quite enjoy giving my opinions.'

First choice

It didn't take long before it became clear the young John was to be a big part of Chelsea's future, especially when Claudio Ranieri began playing him regularly in preference to Frank Leboeuf. That was two years after the full debut.

Asked when he himself felt properly established, John jumps forward an unexpectedly long time for the date.

'When I got given the armband under Claudio Ranieri when Marcel [Desailly] was out and people like Franco [Zola] and Graeme Le Saux advised the manager to give it to me for the future, I felt a big part of the squad then - but being honest I will say later than that.

'Probably when José took over and I was playing really well. I am a player who doesn't like to get too comfortable, not get complacent and let someone catch up and try to nick the shirt off my back.

'That is why I work hard in training and it was probably only under Mourinho that I thought this is my place, even then knowing that if I wasn't playing well, I was going to be dropped. I don't ever want to be dropped. I am desperate to play every game and that keeps me on my toes enough.

'Even now, a new manager comes in and you have to prove yourself to him and we are such a big club, we could sign any player in the world which keeps everyone on their toes.'

John is in a similar position to Frank Lampard in that third place in the all-time Chelsea appearances list (currently held by John Hollins with 592 games) looks well within reach. Peter Bonetti on 729 and Ron Harris on 795 games are distant, but not entirely unobtainable targets.

'Hopefully I can play another 10 years and beat all sorts of records,' he suggests with a glint of big ambition in his eye. 'Me and Jon Harley used to sit in the dressing room aged 17 and say imagine getting to 100, 200 games. Now I am up at 300-odd and I set myself targets.

'I want to reach 500, 600, 700 and really get up there. To do that I need to keep fit and spend my whole career here, which is something I desperately want to do.

'I think Lamps has got a lot of time left in him. The Cat and Chopper are a long way ahead and they keep reminding us of it every time we see them!

'But Chopper was playing until he was 40 and that is something I want to do, I want to keep playing until I can't play possibly play any more, and then maybe look into management at Chelsea Football Club.

'It seems longer than 10 years actually,' John decides, 'because I have been at the club since I was 14 and I look back to then rather than my debut.'

Important

He cites Bob Orsborn, his coach at Under 14s, 15s and 16s level and his one-time landlord as an unsung hero in his rise, as well as youth coach Ted Dale and later influences Ray Wilkins and Graham Rix.

'Unfortunately Graham is not in the game at the moment and he has an awful lot to give coaching-wise. It would be good to see him back in the game.'

Rix also features in John's choice of a defining moment in the last 10 years.

'There was one day when we were playing a pre-season game and it was a mixture of first team and reserves - Chelsea against Kingstonian (pictured below).

'I was playing the first half and people like Luca, Ray and Graham always say it was the defining moment. Franco gave the ball away really cheaply and I came out screaming at him to keep it.

'They looked at each other on the bench and they tell me now they said that will do for us, he's not afraid to tell the older players.

'I had so much respect for those players off the pitch, I'd clean their boots, make cups of tea for them on the bus, do anything for them, but on the pitch, we were all the same and wanted one thing - to win - and I gave it everything to do that.

'Back then being England captain seemed a million miles away. To break into the England squad was my target at the time and my ambition was to be Chelsea captain one day.

'I didn't think it was going to come as early as it did but I looked up to people like Wisey on the pitch. I loved the way he played and trained every day. It used to excite me when I came over as a youth player and see him giving it everything, screaming and shouting and that is what I aspire to be.

'Setting an example to the players around you is part of being a captain and I think I naturally do that.

'My family have been massively important as well, and the fans. The time when I first came in the team, there were a lot of foreigners here and they were eager to see young players coming through.

'Myself and Jon Harley were fortunate enough to be pushing on and the fans had songs for us and at the time it was really special.

'Those are the things I never forget. At a young age when I wasn't really ready to come into the first team, they put up with me for that first season especially.

'After that I found my feet and hopefully I have done the fans and myself justice ever since.

'Chelsea gave me such an unbelievable opportunity at such a young age. That's why I want to give my whole career to Chelsea and the fans because without them, I would be nothing, simple as that.'

There's an interview John gave club newspaper Onside back in 2001 in which he was asked to picture who he'd like to be many years ahead.

'I'd love to be captain of Chelsea with a few Championship trophies next to me and some England caps,' he decided.

Ten years after his debut, it's safe to say everything is going to plan.