JOHN TERRY. A BRIDGE TOO FAR.

John Terry says that he will fight to retain the England captaincy following his sacking. I was never in any doubt that Fabio Capello would sack Terry as England captain. The England manager set out his stall when he took the job. He has a hard centre and Terry’s behaviour left a sour taste in the mouth of the Italian. He told the players when he was appointed team boss that he expected them to behave on and off the pitch.

Had Terry been playing away with the wife of his milkman, it would not have mattered to the world of football. The problem is that he had an affair with the partner of a friend and colleague. That Terry has allegedly paid the woman concerned more for her silence than the News of the World were offering her to tell all; should come as no surprise. Whether it has been taking money from people to have a personal guided tour of the Chelsea training ground (how daft or rich do you have to be to want to pay £10.000 to see where players have a shower?); whether it is having ‘his people’ send out an e-mail to the business world offering Terry’s endorsement of their product in exchange for cash; or whether it is simply that he comes from a family who belong on the Jeremy Kyle show – the fact is that John Terry is every bit as weak a character off the pitch as he is a strong leader on it.

To say that he has been badly advised would be the footballing understatement of the year. He sacked his long time agent. The man who had taken his career from obscurity to high profile status. He has surrounded himself instead with characters who might be considered too rough to be bailiffs. He has lost touch with reality. A great pity. I first saw him playing as a eager youngster for Chelsea. He has stuck with that club through thick and thin. And they have stuck by him. And are still doing so.

But the England situation is a different matter. While others hesitated, the team manager Fabio Capello took a few minutes to remove the armband from Terry. Capello was never in any doubt that change had to come. Now the manager has the unenviable job of talking to Wayne Bridge. The one time Chelsea colleague of  Terry, and father of a child conceived with the woman Terry had as his mistress. True, he would only be reserve full back to a fit Ashley Cole come the World Cup in South Africa this summer. But what if Cole gets injured before or during the World Cup? Could Terry and Bridge line up together in the back four? Were you walking in the boots of Wayne Bridge, would you want to play with the man who pretended to be your friend? When, in fact, he was having his sex with your partner. 

On the face of it, Capello will have little option but to drop Wayne Bridge from the squad. But i am not sure he will do that. Capello will see that Bridge is the wronged man in this situation. The innocent party. True Terry has to play at the heart of the England defence. He’s too good a player not to. But why should Wayne Bridge be left at home because of a situation that was not of his doing? Why should he miss out on a World Cup?

I expect presssure is being put on Bridge to either fall on his sword and withdraw from the England squad, or to kiss and make up with John Terry. I don’t think he should do either. So far Bridge is the only character in this sad, sordid affair to act correctly. We must await to see if the put upon wife of John Terry kicks him out and goes for divorce after what is, by Terry’s own admittance, not the first such affair he has had during his marriage. Likely as not she will do what most footballers wives do. Stand by his man and his pay cheque until such time as his career fades – and then sue for divorce. Good luck to her whatever she decides. She is going to need if it she stays with him, and she is going to need it in court if she files for divorce. That is their business and a private matter. At least it should be.

I don’t agree with two widely held opinions during this media driven story.

1. The importance of who is captain has been vastly overplayed. Mike Atherton wrote a good article about this in his newspaper column in the week. Rarely in this day and age can one man make that much difference to the performance of a team from his being captain. Historically such men are few and far between. Which brings me to point two.

 2. I enjoyed watching England win the World Cup as much as the next boy. I admired Bobby Moore as both an England captain and a man. Too briefly before his untimely death i had the honour of working with him. In the great debate over John Terry and his morals, Moore has been held up as the ideal example of what an England captain should be. People seem to have forgotten that the great Bobby did leave his wife for another woman. That he led a team some of whom were a long way from innocents. I have to be careful here and stick to what is known fact. Stories that have been admitted or written about by former players in years gone by. Did not the dazzling Jimmy Greaves confess to playing games drunk? Was not one of my favourite goalkeepers of all time, Peter Shilton, caught ‘at it’ with a woman other than his wife in the back of a mini? I could go on… and on.

My point is this. Footballers, be they captains or not, have been cheating on their wives for decades. As have film stars, plumbers, electricians and – shock, horror - even sports journalists. Going back to the 1970’s i witnessed first hand in nightclubs girls of easy virtue throwing themselves at footballers for a “quickie outside.” And players were paid peanuts in those days compared to what they are paid today.

It seems to me that the main ambitions of most young women in the UK today are, in no particluar order, 1) to get, as they were call it, “bladerred”, “hammered” and ”shit faced” on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. 2) to appear on TV and 3) to shag someone famous. Preferably a sports star, because they will be fit. A sad but true indictment on the state of UK society today.

Girls throw themselves at footballers week in, week out. Of course the most difficult challenge facing any man in that situation is to say “no.” We are expecting today’s ego inflated, overrated, prima donna like, overpaid young footballers (in many cases no more than boys) to walk away from such temptation. I ask you. In their place, would you?

Who do we want as England captain? A paragon of virtue. Look around. Find one for me. The importance of sports stars in the world today is blown out of all proportion. We have players in the England team who we either know to have skeletons in their respective closets, or players who have so far hidden those skeletons from the prying media. Capello chooses Rio Ferdinand as replacement for Terry. A man whose mobile telephone always used to be switched on when my then Sky Sports colleague Kirsty Gallagher would ring him ten years ago. But whose mobile was always switched off, it seems, when he was being called to take a drug test. He did his time for avoiding such tests and seems now to be a settled married man. Let’s hope so. For the sake of Fabio Capello and all of us. Let’s hope Capello does not have a sordid secret himself, otherwise we are all in trouble!

Steven Gerrard would have been my choice as captain. But then he was in a nightclub when a fight broke out. An incident for which he was found not guilty by a jury. And, i understand, Stevie G is not popular with some of his England colleagues. As in any office or workplace, there will be people who like each other, and those who do not get on. I filmed in the Chelsea dressing room circa 1992-93 and, take my word for it, a dressing room that contained characters as diverse as Vinnie Jones, Graeme Le Saux and Dennis Wise had its factions. But when the players went out on the pitch, they acted like a team.

I doubt any player in the England team is admired and liked by all his colleagues. I doubt any are in a position to ‘cast the first stone.’ Certainly not Wayne Rooney who, at an age when the thoughts of most boys turn to cars, was paying hookers for their services; is hardly a great example (i HATE the phrase role model). Who in the England team IS whiter than white? Answers on a postcard please.

Capello has done what he had to do. He has done what the men in suits  at the FA wanted him to do and what they would have been afraid to do. Capello has also acted much faster than the ‘old farts’ would have. I dare say Terry will continue to shout and urge his England colleagues on, and i for one hope he does so. For England to have any chance of winning the World Cup, the team will need to be united. At least where it counts. On the pitch.

Finally, the country has the right manager – albeit one who favours a brand of football of which I am not a fan. He is though, unlike Svengali Sven, the genuine article. The real deal.

Something he proved this week when he acted professionally and promptly.