John Terry was '100% certain' to move to the Chinese Super League before rule change, says Gus Poyet

Terry and Diego Costa are both unlikely to move to China because of a change to the laws

Terry and Costa have both been linked with moves to China (Getty)

Gus Poyet has claimed he was “100 per cent” sure that Chelsea captain John Terry was going to move to China at the end of the current season, before the Chinese Super League introduced a new rule cutting back on the number of foreign players.

Terry will leave Chelsea at the end of the current campaign, after spending 22 years at the club.

The former England captain has played for Chelsea over 700 times and has won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and one Champions League during his time in south west London.

It had been widely rumoured that Terry was considering a lucrative move to China at the end of his time with Chelsea, but Poyet – who now manages Shanghai Shenhua – thinks that a rule-change means the transfer is unlikely.

“If you asked me in December before they changed the rules, I would have said straight away he was coming. I was 100 per cent sure. No doubt,” the former Chelsea midfielder told talkSPORT.

“But with the new system, it is special to buy a defender. The mentality has changed a lot because they [Chinese teams] are looking for players to make the difference up front - the ones that are going to bring people to the stadium.”

New Chinese Super League rules mean that teams can only field three non-Chinese players at any one time.

That means Chinese teams are tending to focus on signing strikers and attacking midfielders, not wanting to use up one of their valuable slots on a defensive player.

Poyet moved to China after losing his job at Real Betis (Getty)

Poyet has the likes of Obafemi Martins, Fredy Guarin and Carlos Tevez on his books at Shanghai, who currently sit seventh in the Chinese Super League table.

The rule-change means it is also looking increasingly unlikely that Diego Costa will head to China. And Poyet has admitted his chances of signing the Spanish international are looking very slim.

“I would love to [sign Costa] but it will be very difficult for us because of the quantity [of non-Chinese players] we have got. There are three who are playing,” he added.

“There would have to be a massive change to the structure of the club to be able to bring Diego here.

“I don’t know if it’s going to happen, I would never say ‘no, never’, but I would say it would be very difficult for him to come here.”