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TERRY HAS TO STOP STIRRING THINGS UP

Terry could not resist making another public statement of his pride in being skipper of Chelsea

Monday March 8,2010

By John Dillon

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AT HALF-time yesterday, a Chelsea official was overheard saying: “At least it’s only about the football now.”

Well it was until the 67th minute, when John Terry launched his latest display of defiance and ensured that the story all football wants to go away will get another few days in the headlines.

Discretion is said to be the better part of valour but that has never been Terry’s way.

His whole career has been based upon combativeness, toughness and a capacity for delivering stridently powerful acts of symbolism – whether they are the kind which have marked him out as a born leader, or have landed him in big trouble.

Nothing is going to change now. After he scored Chelsea’s second goal against Stoke, Terry could not resist making another public statement of his unflinching pride in being skipper of Chelsea.

He was also determined to make a show of the idea that Chelsea had made a stirring recovery from their home defeat by Manchester City the previous weekend and were once again on the march to Wembley.

Unfortunately, it could not help but convey another point – what seems like his persisting anger and sense of persecution over the fact that he has been stripped of the England captaincy by Fabio Capello.

To celebrate the goal, Terry raced headlong towards his adoring fans in the Stamford Bridge East Stand, rolled up his shirt sleeve and made some very exaggerated theatrics of placing his skipper’s armband on to his bare biceps.

The message was quite obvious: ‘I’m still the guv’nor, here’. And that may be all he intended to tell the world.

But things are never quite as simple as that in modern football. Every action is under scrutiny and, to be fair, players know the value of this as well its pitfalls.

So whether Terry meant it or not, there could not help but be a sub-text. And the nation watching on TV would have picked up on it immediately.

He said afterwards that he wished to give his thanks to his club and to the supporters who have backed him ferociously during his time of trouble.

However, at a time when England coach Capello still hopes to persuade Wayne Bridge to return to his World Cup squad, it only kept the whole poisonous drama bubbling on. Already we have had the Mohican haircut by which Terry has made it plain that he is not going to be taking a backward step in this drama. At the end of the game, he kissed the badge on his shirt before handing it to a fan in the crowd. These were heavily-loaded acts as well.

Yet just last Wednesday at Wembley, Terry learnt the value of giving a calm and unfussy performance for England without any theatricals thrown in. And he was rewarded with his first set of positive headlines in weeks.

It is time he applied that lesson to playing for Chelsea, too. It is time to stop stirring up the poison over and over again.

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TERRY HAS TO STOP STIRRING THINGS UP

08.03.10, 4:44pm

I read with dismay your article about John Terry. I can only say that it is columnists like yourself and other sports writers who appear to be carrying the story any which way you can. Let the story die once and for all for the good of football. I do not try to condone what JT did but it takes two. According to Wayne's ex she did not at any time have an affair with JT and if she did not have an affair there would have been no reason to have an abortion. Is this woman a liar? If there was an affair it happened after she was separated from Wayne Bridge and therefore the only ones disrespected are JT's wife and family.
I think that anyone who watched the Chelsea game against Stoke would know the reason for showing the armband, Ancelotti trusts JT to have the responsibility, he still commands the respect of the Chelsea team and to Chelsea that is all that matters. I do not need to pick up the paper and see your report highlighting incidents and drawing your own conclusions as to the reasons behind his actions. I come from N. Ireland so the effect it has on the English national team is of no consequence to me but as a Chelsea supporter for 45 years it has a consequence. Capello chose to strip Terry of the captaincy and that is his call, to consider giving it to a "drug addict" who does not turn up for compulsory tests or a "thug", whether convicted or not, is no way to set any examples to the children who idolise these players. If the players behaved with the utmost courtesy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week the gutter press would still find something to write about. I have been an express reader for more years than I care to mention and your rants at JT will not stop me buying my favourite daily read.

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