Terry Tamed by Bridge

When I was asked to write the following column, I was slightly concerned that it would detract from being a sports column to more of a preachy, moral argument about the rights and wrongs of relationships...but I’ll try anyway.
Tiger Woods, Ashley Cole and now John Terry, it’s as if being unfaithful is fashionable and the ‘in’ thing for this season. We all know that Tiger and Ashley have been linked with a number of women recently, with JT being involved with one known girl. So why is JT getting the most of the bad press?  Simple, Ashley and Woods were with a string of random girls, JT on the other hand just happened to sleep around with former team-mate Wayne Bridge’s girl.
Now I’m not interested or even bothered about the details, but as far as I’m concerned, you don’t go for your mate’s missus, no matter how drunk/hot/desperate she is. It’s an unwritten rule and JT broke the rule.
So let’s look at Saturday, Chelsea v Man City, Terry and Bridge on the pitch together, would sparks fly, would there be fists, maybe a dreaded FA inquiry on conduct? No, aside from the refusal of Bridge to shake JT’s hand, it was business as usual. Was Bridge right to snub JT’s outstretched hand? In a nutshell, yes, I doubt that any sane man would have shook hands with him. OK then, the furious encounter never transpired – both maintained a degree of professional behaviour, suggesting that the managers must have pleaded for calm before the match.
Long-term implications? Bridge has pretty much ruled himself out the World Cup this summer, citing team unity – last thing the media need is a bust-up in team England’s camp in South Africa; but we should feel for the guy, he’s a solid defender, something that we lack and being 33-34 when the next World Cup comes around, who’s to say he’ll be in the running then.
Moving on to last night – JT playing for England, aside from a few wayward passes and occasional booing, the performance was acceptable and as the commentators said; there are still 100 days until the World Cup and lots can change between now and then. Here’s hoping Capello reaches out to Bridge privately and rationally asks him back to the team.
We all know football is a funny game and shame that all this took place in a World Cup year, but here’s hoping for another major story between now (foreign story ideally) and then so all parties involved can get aboard that plane to South Africa and show unity.

Omar Malick