The demonisation of John Terry has reached the stage where people are heckling him without knowing quite why.
Something to do with that woman and the reserve left-back. England's sacked captain was being booed by Premier League crowds long before Wayne Bridge said not-on-your-nelly to the World Cup.
What we have here is disapproval as a kind of new Mexican wave. Captain Sensible is a role Fabio Capello identified this week as one he urgently wants to see filled by the injured Rio Ferdinand and the third man down the line of illusory power, Steven Gerrard, who must have been overjoyed to be given the chance to repeat stock phrases in press conferences about responsibilities and role models.
Gerrard will hand the armband back to Ferdinand with all the reluctance of a childminder hearing a parent's ring on the bell when an upset toddler is screaming the walls down. For Terry, on the other hand, it is mortification in ribbon form, flashing around the pitch on another man's biceps.
Life would be much simpler if he could get it back and resume his East End guv'nor role. After a consoling word from Sir Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League, Terry lined up for the ceremonials four from the end rather than in the old meet-and-greet position.
Lord Triesman, the Football Association chairman, moved to clasp his hand in upright, arm-wrestling mode, but then thought better of it, tapping Chelsea's skipper on the arm, as if His Lordship felt His Pariah's pain.
This solicitous gesture prompted the thought that Terry is close to entering the next phase of his trial by fire, when the mob stop taunting him and admire him for his resilience, his "quiet courage", as they did, in another context, with David Beckham, many months after he had been hung in effigy outside a London pub.
Beckham is easily the England centre-back's best bet for advice on cultivating an appearance of dignity and making it work in one's favour. Terry needs it, too, because the booing of his name before the kick-off was followed by persistent jeering that was dark and disdainful and took 20 minutes to subside.
A core of (Chelsea?) supporters tried to drown this hostility in cheers, which created the dissonant soundtrack of a previously admired bulldog leader being at once encouraged and condemned less than a hundred days before a World Cup.
The disconnect in Terry's brain that allows him to treat emotional turmoil as nothing more serious than an annoying squeak under the bonnet of a Bentley conceals damage below the surface.
Despite Capello's insistence that his centre-half's form is unaffected, Terry was bamboozled by Manchester City's Carlos Tevez at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and passed straight into touch on his first contact with the ball in this 3-1 victory over Egypt.
It was wishful thinking on Capello's part to believe that spending a week in Dubai with his deceived wife, having the England captaincy taken off him inside 12 minutes and then being held responsible for Bridge's international retirement would not affect Terry's equilibrium on some level.
Not forgetting Bridge's refusal to shake his hand at Chelsea and Capello's subsequent declaration that Terry would not be captain again on his watch, which was accompanied by a sermon about kids and how England players need to show them a path through life.
On the evidence of this tussle with the best team in Africa, Terry retains his outcast status in the eyes of his manager and many England fans, who have developed a generalised antipathy to hedonistic and narcissistic conduct.
Terry always exemplified the lionhearted geezer persona many England fans have always warmed to, so you would think it must have taken a lot for them to turn on him, when it really only took extra-marital slap and tickle, plus clear evidence of greed in the way he chased every buck that could be wrung from his position.
So the question for Capello, for England, is how long Terry will be locked out in the cold before being allowed back inside to his basket. Booing serves no purpose beyond allowing fans to feel righteous and they soon tired of it. For the England coach, meanwhile, there is the inescapable knowledge that successful teams are built around strong centre-back pairings.
With Ledley King plagued by knee trouble, a Terry-Ferdinand partnership is England's only fully credible combination for a World Cup quarter-final against a top-five nation. Neither Matthew Upson nor Joleon Lescott consistently attains the standards needed to nullify the world's best strikers.
The slip by Upson that led to Mohamed Zidan's first-half goal was attributable to the continuing farce of a £757m stadium being home to such a bad pitch, but the point remains: Terry is the best stopper in the English game.
After the interval the ex-captain was more vocal and demonstrative than the stand-in, but when Gerrard was withdrawn the armband passed under JT's nose to Wayne Rooney, then Gareth Barry. Another few weeks of shame and then a weird kind of sympathy will kick in.
Something to do with that woman and the reserve left-back. England's sacked captain was being booed by Premier League crowds long before Wayne Bridge said not-on-your-nelly to the World Cup.
What we have here is disapproval as a kind of new Mexican wave. Captain Sensible is a role Fabio Capello identified this week as one he urgently wants to see filled by the injured Rio Ferdinand and the third man down the line of illusory power, Steven Gerrard, who must have been overjoyed to be given the chance to repeat stock phrases in press conferences about responsibilities and role models.
Gerrard will hand the armband back to Ferdinand with all the reluctance of a childminder hearing a parent's ring on the bell when an upset toddler is screaming the walls down. For Terry, on the other hand, it is mortification in ribbon form, flashing around the pitch on another man's biceps.
Life would be much simpler if he could get it back and resume his East End guv'nor role. After a consoling word from Sir Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League, Terry lined up for the ceremonials four from the end rather than in the old meet-and-greet position.
Lord Triesman, the Football Association chairman, moved to clasp his hand in upright, arm-wrestling mode, but then thought better of it, tapping Chelsea's skipper on the arm, as if His Lordship felt His Pariah's pain.
This solicitous gesture prompted the thought that Terry is close to entering the next phase of his trial by fire, when the mob stop taunting him and admire him for his resilience, his "quiet courage", as they did, in another context, with David Beckham, many months after he had been hung in effigy outside a London pub.
Beckham is easily the England centre-back's best bet for advice on cultivating an appearance of dignity and making it work in one's favour. Terry needs it, too, because the booing of his name before the kick-off was followed by persistent jeering that was dark and disdainful and took 20 minutes to subside.
A core of (Chelsea?) supporters tried to drown this hostility in cheers, which created the dissonant soundtrack of a previously admired bulldog leader being at once encouraged and condemned less than a hundred days before a World Cup.
The disconnect in Terry's brain that allows him to treat emotional turmoil as nothing more serious than an annoying squeak under the bonnet of a Bentley conceals damage below the surface.
Despite Capello's insistence that his centre-half's form is unaffected, Terry was bamboozled by Manchester City's Carlos Tevez at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and passed straight into touch on his first contact with the ball in this 3-1 victory over Egypt.
It was wishful thinking on Capello's part to believe that spending a week in Dubai with his deceived wife, having the England captaincy taken off him inside 12 minutes and then being held responsible for Bridge's international retirement would not affect Terry's equilibrium on some level.
Not forgetting Bridge's refusal to shake his hand at Chelsea and Capello's subsequent declaration that Terry would not be captain again on his watch, which was accompanied by a sermon about kids and how England players need to show them a path through life.
On the evidence of this tussle with the best team in Africa, Terry retains his outcast status in the eyes of his manager and many England fans, who have developed a generalised antipathy to hedonistic and narcissistic conduct.
Terry always exemplified the lionhearted geezer persona many England fans have always warmed to, so you would think it must have taken a lot for them to turn on him, when it really only took extra-marital slap and tickle, plus clear evidence of greed in the way he chased every buck that could be wrung from his position.
So the question for Capello, for England, is how long Terry will be locked out in the cold before being allowed back inside to his basket. Booing serves no purpose beyond allowing fans to feel righteous and they soon tired of it. For the England coach, meanwhile, there is the inescapable knowledge that successful teams are built around strong centre-back pairings.
With Ledley King plagued by knee trouble, a Terry-Ferdinand partnership is England's only fully credible combination for a World Cup quarter-final against a top-five nation. Neither Matthew Upson nor Joleon Lescott consistently attains the standards needed to nullify the world's best strikers.
The slip by Upson that led to Mohamed Zidan's first-half goal was attributable to the continuing farce of a £757m stadium being home to such a bad pitch, but the point remains: Terry is the best stopper in the English game.
After the interval the ex-captain was more vocal and demonstrative than the stand-in, but when Gerrard was withdrawn the armband passed under JT's nose to Wayne Rooney, then Gareth Barry. Another few weeks of shame and then a weird kind of sympathy will kick in.
No comments:
Post a Comment