And Blues captain Terry said he would remain in contact with the 34-year-old, who lost his job two weeks ago after barely eight months in charge.

Villas-Boas fractious relationship with some of his players was one of the factors behind his downfall.

But Terry was reportedly not among the detractors, possibly due to Villas-Boas' unwavering backing of the defender after allegations emerged he racially abused QPR's Anton Ferdinand.

Terry, whose legal team last month entered a not guilty plea ahead of a July trial over the matter, insisted Villas-Boas would not be forgotten.

"I'm still in contact with him - like a lot of players here - and probably will remain that way," Terry said.

"He won't be forgotten. It's disappointing, really, because we would have loved things to go on and he had a vision and a plan and, unfortunately, that gets cut short with disappointing performances from us.

"At the end of the day, we're the ones out there performing and we weren't performing as well as we could do."

On Tuesday night, Terry branded claims Chelsea's senior players ran the dressing room as "complete nonsense" after Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny suggested their influence on owner Roman Abramovich led to Villas-Boas' demise.

Terry admitted Abramovich did seek his advice when the Russian first bought the club almost nine years ago but insisted that was no longer the case.

He said: "The perception from outside is that there are problems in the football club, senior players run the club, it's controlled by us, we make decisions.

"It's really not the case and hasn't been since I've been at the football club.

"Initially, when Roman came in, he spoke to the players and wanted advice as he was new to football, he took that on board.

"Now he's got the right people involved and people he can rely on without the players, which he does, and they make the decisions."

Those decisions included installing Roberto Di Matteo as caretaker manager, which has paid off in spectacular fashion with a hat-trick of wins.

Terry said: "I'm delighted for Robbie because he's been excellent and he's brought Eddie (Newton) in as well, who the players know and knows what Chelsea Football Club is about.

"It's been an incredible start for them and for us as well.

"But as Robbie said, for two months, everyone needs to give everything, sacrifice everything.

"If you're not playing, you need to be there for the team and the team-mates which is what we've got."

Terry could be rested for tomorrow's FA Cup quarter-final against Leicester after failing to finish Wednesday night's Champions league extra-time triumph against Napoli.

The 31-year-old, who completed a remarkable comeback from knee surgery to start last Saturday's Barclays Premier League win over Stoke, said: "Just got a tweak in the calf at he weekend.

"It just seemed to tighten up and I had cramp in the other calf so I was like Douglas Bader at the end."