By Rob Kelly
Terry Burton admits that the lure of a return to Arsenal this summer proved impossible to resist.
The 59-year-old was appointed as the Club’s new reserves and head development coach two weeks ago following a highly-successful spell as assistant manager at Sheffield Wednesday.
Burton won promotion to the Championship with the Owls, but admits the chance to return to the club where he had previously been a youth-team player, youth-team coach and first-team coach was too tempting.
“It was difficult to leave Sheffield Wednesday because we had a very successful end to last season,” he told Arsenal Player. “We got promotion, winning 10 and drawing two of the 12 games we were involved in and it is a big club in terms of where it could go.
“We loved Sheffield as well, it is a really nice part of the world to live in and my family was quite settled in the short space of time we were there.
“So it was a very difficult decision and had it not been Arsenal, I would not even have considered [leaving]. But the fact it was Arsenal was the pull.”
Burton joined the Club as a schoolboy and was part of the FA Youth Cup-winning side of 1971. He later joined the Gunners as a youth coach in 1979, and moved up to work with the first team with Don Howe in the mid-1980s, and he admits he feels his career has come full circle.
“My wife gets a bit upset when I call Arsenal my ‘first love’!” he said. “I supported Arsenal as an 11-year-old, and stood on the North Bank and occasionally went to the Clock End. I came to the Club as a 12-year-old, when Billy Wright was manager, so there is an association there that goes back a long way.
“Obviously things like the stadium and the training ground are different, but it remains a fantastic club and I have always felt that. It is great to be back.”
Watch the full interview with Terry on Arsenal Player now.
