Date: 1st November 2011 at 3:00pm
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John Terry has an uncanny ability to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, on and off the pitch. In the 2004/05 season he won the Premier League in the first season of his long-standing captaincy of Chelsea and the following season, Chelsea won it again thus achieving back-to-back titles. Then on May 21st 2008 John Terry slipped, much like he did on Saturday against Arsenal, and played his part in costing Chelsea their biggest match in their 106 year history.

It was The Champions League final, and as he ran up to take the fifth, and if scored, final penalty his standing leg gave way and Terry went crashing to the ground and the shot was awry and ended up far wide of Van Der Sar’s goal.

He cried that night, in front of millions, the thousands in the ground and the millions at home in front of their brightly lit television screens; there stood a broken man with Chelsea in his veins, described at the time with the compliment of, “they don’t come more popular than Terry.”

At the time they didn’t, John Terry was the face of everything; Pro Evolution Soccer, Umbro, recently named in FIFPro World XI for the fourth consecutive season and the captain of his beloved country. “Five years ago anyone could have played alongside Terry,” said Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen.”

But it did seem to the ultimate breaking rather than making of the man. Although the father of twins with his wife Toni Poole, Terry had a four-month affair with Wayne Bridge’s then girlfriend Vanessa Peroncel. Even more ironically, and saddening, was that Bridge was Terry’s England and Chelsea team mate and less than a year ago, in 2009, Terry had been voted “Dad of the Year.”

It seemed that the once roaring Lion who could lead his pride through the harshest of deserts had become the has-been feline that remained at the top of the hierarchy out of a lack of challenge rather than ultimate prowess.

The happenings had taken a seemingly detrimental effect on Terry and Bridge’s career. Bridge had already been sold to Manchester City in 2009 for £10m but the revelations of the affair that happened when the two Englishmen were Chelsea team-mates took its toll on the left-back. His on-the-pitch performances suffered and after playing 1,897 minutes for Manchester City without delivering a single cross accurately to his team mates he was loaned to West Ham where he was at fault for all three goals in a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal on his debut for The Hammers.

He now lives a non-footballing life whilst earning £4.7m a year at Manchester City, a figure he will continue to earn until his contract runs out in 2013, unless he decides to leave, an option he had and rejected this summer. However, the media attention that didn’t leave his side after the Terry scandal, which had seemingly contributed to his downfall, is now supplementing his meaningless footballer existence. Bridge’s only activity of note is his relationship with Frankie Sandford, the recent benefactor of a £40k engagement ring.
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Terry, whilst winning nothing with Chelsea since the year of the affair (he did win the Premier League and FA Cup the same year), had managed to keep his nose out and his head down. That was until last week.

Apparently he launched a double edged foul mouthed comment at Anton Ferdinand during last week’s temper tantrum that was QPR v Chelsea. Nine yellow cards were issued, a further two reds were handed out, both to Chelsea players and Andre Villas-Boas publicly bemoaned referee Chris Foy, “I think this is too much, it is not to Premiership standards and I’m disappointed with Chris’ performance today.” His comments are yet to be fined but The F.A. has asked him to explain his comments.

It wasn’t the discipline of Chelsea, which led to a £20,000 fine, that stole the show, it wasn’t the score line, it was the alleged comment, “you f**king black c**t” from Terry’s mouth to Anton Ferdinand that has saturated this week’s news, in the month of the football calendar dedicated to “Kick Racism out of Football.”

But nothing has been proven, so why is Terry the feature of a hate campaign in a month that should highlight a Race campaign? Videos show the words did leave his mouth, but he defends his case by stating they were out of context and in rage he turned to the defender and said, “Oi, Anton, you don’t think I called you a f**king black c**t,” following accusations of a racial slur being made.

Let’s be honest until one admits they are lying it is one’s word against the other; Ferdinand says he, “had no idea it happened until (he left the ground,” so how can he fully know for sure what Terry said, whilst the England captain remains defiant that he “never used that term.”

He hasn’t made it easy for himself and yet again it is a case of a dodgy past off-the-pitch including assault, affray and affairs, affecting judgement on recent events. But to put some logic to the actions, Ashley Cole was stood within earshot, Ashley Cole is black. Florent Malouda is black, Drogba’s black, Kalou is black, Romelu Lukaku is black. In fact, John Terry is in a team where he could be fielded in a 4-4-2 as the only white player. If he did make the comment in a slur, he deserves the punishment that will follow, however I for one think it is unlikely he made them. One defence he can’t take is the one in the seemingly forgotten Evra-Suarez clash, “lost in translation.”

Written by Jordan Florit for This Is Futbol and www.may-cause-offence.tumblr.com/

For more articles like this visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit

 

2 responses to “Is everyone jumping the gun when it comes to this man?”

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