In the weeks since his affair with Wayne Bridge’s ex have been up for public consumption, John Terry has looked pretty off his game. Ok, initially he had a couple of games he threw everything into but that didn’t last long and as the media circus gathered momentum, he was clearly knocked off his stride.
Hardly surprising really, given that every journalist in the country seemed to be competing for the most JT-laden headline award, whilst every new set of opposition supporters he faced were competing for the most amusing lyrics of the year to express their feelings towards him. So, by the time the main attraction came around and the press had blown bulbs to capture the non handshake moment with Bridge, you’d have to suspect he’d lost the will to live – or at least he certainly played as if he had anyway.
For England against Egypt though, Terry didn’t quite get the negative reception predicted and his performance was quietly effective. In fact, for the first time in a while, the press stopped just short of applauding him. Not to worry though because the former England captain applauded himself anyway.
Clearly feeling a little defensive after his weeks spent under the microscope since losing the England captaincy, Terry says “I played well against Egypt. It was important for me to come through that with a good performance. I think I did carry on as a leader against Egypt. I think anyone who was watching the game could see that.” And fair enough, he had a decent game but does he really need to blow his own trumpet? No-one who’s slated him in recent weeks will care less what he did for England, so who exactly is he trying to make the point to?
Himself maybe?
Oh I know what any opposition fan would think about that suggestion – John Terry, ‘Mr Chelsea’, the only man in football whose standing within a club would appear even more exaggerated after shagging a team-mates missus. The British Bulldog who can get away with whatever he likes as far as his supporters are concerned because he’s the ‘Captain, Leader’ Legend’ after all.
And he knows it right? Why else would his goal celebration against Stoke have revolved around his armband if not to serve as just another public display of his level of arrogance? What about kissing the badge and handing his shirt over to some lucky disciple in the crowd? Isn’t that just another sycophantic gesture to wrap his adoring fans even tighter around his little finger? And what about the haircut in preparation for the City game? Surely that was another ‘look at me’ moment?
Well, that’s certainly the way the press and opposition supporters see it anyway. Whatever John Terry does, he does because he really believes he’s on the pedestal Chelsea supporters have put him on. Does he though? I mean, would he care how he looked if he wasn’t bothered about having every camera in every ground trained on him? Would he feel like he needed the mouth-to-mouth with his badge in front of his adoring public if he was so certain of their adoration? And what about the armband? That’s his almost by birthright isn’t it? So why would he feel the need to point it out so deliberately?
Well, John Terry’s explanation is: “I was just giving the Stoke fans a bit of banter. That was all. They were giving me a bit of stick and I was just giving a bit back and that is what football is about. They are entitled to do what they do and so am I on the pitch as long as they take it in the right manner. I am sure they did.”
But he’d taken ‘banter’ for weeks without feeling the need to bring his armband into the equation – until he scored. And here’s where we come back to why he felt the need to applaud his own performance for England…….because he feels vulnerable. Yes, John Terry. He royally f***ed up and whether he lets on or not, deep down he knows it. He let his country down and paid the price with his captaincy but worse than that, he let his club, his team-mates and even some of his supporters down – and questions were asked. Ok, so there’s plenty out there who might have shouted his name a bit louder but for every one of those, JT knows there’ll be quieter voices asking the questions he’s yet to answer on and off the field for his club. That’s not a position he’s been in before and for all his bravado, as some of his recent performances have shown – he probably doesn’t have quite as much belief in himself as he’d like everyone to think. He needs the press to say he’s played well, he needs to see supporters wetting themselves over him, he needs his players jumping all over him.
A long time ago, long before the days where he could demand whatever terms he wanted on his contract, Chelsea came very close to letting John Terry go. The club didn’t always value him quite as highly as they have in recent years but he battled his way to the position he has now, and he’ll do whatever he thinks it’ll take to keep hold of it.
Blue is the colour
