Jose Mourinho hails John Terry's form for Chelsea last season

Mourinho and Terry pose with the Capital One Cup after defeating Tottenham Hotspur in the final

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has hailed skipper John Terry’s performances last season as ‘phenomenal’. He also believes the former England international had his best season ever for the Blues, ESPN FC reports.

The 34-year-old played every single minute of Chelsea’s triumphant 2014/15 Premier League winning campaign and featured in the PFA Team of the Season for the first time since the 2005/06 season. He had last week spoken of his respect for Mourinho and the manager has now had his say praising Terry’s outstanding form last season.

“Last season was phenomenal. Phenomenal. I think the best season,” Mourinho said.

The Portuguese though conceded that he had doubts over Terry's abilities when he decided to return to Stamford Bridge ahead of the 2013/14 season for a second spell in charge. Injuries and concerns over form meant he played only 14 games in the league during the 2012/13 season, starting only 24 of the 69 games that Chelsea played in all competitions.

Thought Terry was finished the season before I came back: Mourinho

“When I came, I came with that question mark: 'Which John am I going to find?' What can he do? Can he improve? Can he become close to the John I know? A couple of years ago, he disappeared. A couple of injuries, one or two managers that stopped believing in him at the club, bringing in other defenders that they thought would be John's replacement,” Mourinho said.

He continued, “Especially in the season before I came, which was Rafael Benitez's season, I thought 'this guy's finished' because he's not playing finals, he's not playing in big matches. I thought he was in trouble."

John Terry was handed the captain's armband at Chelsea by Jose Mourinho after arriving from Porto in the 2004/05 season following the retirement of Marcel Desaiily. They went on to win the Premier League title that season and was named as the PFA Player of the Year by his fellow professionals.

Mourinho opened up on the reasons for his decision of handing over the skipper's role to Terry at a relatively young age.

"John was 23, 24-years-old," recalled Mourinho. "I thought he had fantastic potential and just needed the next step in terms of quality and qualities around him, the way we organised the team, not only as an individual but as a team. We built a fantastic team in 2004, defensively we were very strong. So John reached the top. He won everything with Chelsea, he was the captain of England.”