FILTER FOCUS 25/02/10
Football journalist Will Wainewright takes his latest look at one of the week’s big stories
No answer to Terry/Bridge dilemma
Some sad news for England fans came today with Wayne Bridge announcing his retirement from international football. The Manchester City and England left back’s decision does not come as much of a surprise following last month’s shock revelation that his best mate and former Chelsea colleague John Terry had been sleeping with his ex-wife.
Along with being the news story of the year, the episode was the latest example of a footballer behaving badly. Sports journalists longed for the clamour surrounding the story to die down so they could write about their subjects in the back pages once more.
In an article in The Times on Monday, chief football writer Oliver Kay – a journalist I much admire – bemoaned ‘the climate we are in,’ in which ‘nothing gets the nation in more of a lather than tales of footballers behaving badly.’ But the Terry/Bridge case is different from the standard scenario.
The recent off-field stories concerning Ashley Cole may have brought himself and his club into disrepute, but had no real impact upon the dressing room. Terry’s actions, however, produced a situation where it would be unthinkable for him and Bridge to play on the same team ever again.
The news has massive consequences for England in football terms. With first-choice left back Cole now a major world cup doubt after breaking his ankle, Bridge’s retirement leaves Capello with a huge problem in that position. Terry is obviously to blame, but no one other than the most ardently moralistic Daily Mail reader would argue for his exclusion. Fair it is not, but Terry is the more important player for England.
So how to resolve such a dilemma? Terry is at fault, yet Bridge, the injured party, has taken the fall. The saddest part of the entire shabby episode is that there is no other alternative, other than Bridge somehow finding it within himself to forgive Terry or the latter himself retiring. Neither will happen, and that is a tragedy for Bridge.