Well, that’s a resounding show of support for their ex-Chelsea left back isn’t it. Fair play to the Manchester City players for that show of solidarity.
It joins their ‘Team Togo’ shirts worn in support of teammate Emmanuel Adabayor after witnessing his teammates and coaching staff being gunned down by rebels en route to their CAN training camp. Well it joins it in spirit anyway, they would have actually had the shirts printed for that but, you know, they were busy and stuff. Priorities and all that.
Sniping aside, I suppose it’s understandable Wayne Bridge’s teammates will want to show solidarity to their colleague at this time. The further detail that most of the players in fact did not wear the shirt is neither here nor there.
An interesting hypothetical question arises from this issue, though. And we have to look back to the summer of 2009 to set the context. Manchester City are waxing strong in the wallet department, then-manager Mark Hughes is looking for an on-pitch leader. The club are bidding massive sums to secure the services of – John Terry.
A selling point for City’s Bungler-General Gary Cook was the England contingent in the City camp. Gareth Barry, Micah Richards, Shaun Wright-Phillips and of course Wayne Bridge were meant to be a honey pot to the England captain.
SWP, Bridge and JT all won medals at Chelsea and formed a strong bond, so it was a decent angle to take.
Say, then, they HAD secured the services of John Terry.
Would ‘Team Bridge’ still be in existence? Or would a left-back with alleged alcohol and gambling problems in his past, through which he is alleged to have been supported by his then-captain John Terry, be quietly marginalised by the consensus from Manchester City and their supporters that their £30+ million asset and their one footed left-back be left to ‘sort things out man to man’.
‘Team Bridge’ is an embarrassing highlight of the ridiculous double standards within the football fraternity, the plastic drum thumping of certain grannies within club squads, and mostly the anxious grasping of key figures within Man City to strike out at the player who snubbed them. Remember, this is the club that said Kaka “bottled it” when rejecting a move to Eastlands.
Today has seen a notch upwards in the hysteria, with the lesser or slower news agencies getting in on the tacky Sunday’s action. Phone-ins, MP’s, ex-FA chiefs, managers, ex-managers, WAGS all having their say – and it bears note that there is by no means a landslide of anti-Terry propaganda from those WITHIN the game.
If, as it is largely believed now, JT and his mistake got together after Bridge and she had parted ways, the situation becomes slightly clearer – it then becomes ‘England captain cheats on wife’ which is a story we’ve seen for captains and managers in the not too distant past.
The fact is though this situation is being used as excuse by various different parties to score points. The actual moral indignation on this from most quarters seems minimal when looking at it for genuineness. That’s probably because the key commentators on the subject know full well there’s a saying: People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
This will all blow over, whether or not JT survives as England captain who knows – it depends how well his PR man and Max Clifford (acting on behalf of his mistake) can deflect the bullets.
It’s important not to let jealousy and spite from opposition fans and media slime-balls thinly veiled as moral indignation effect our season or our regard for JT. Some would say it got damaged in the summer; be that as it may he remains the Chelsea and England captain and remains the focal point for our drive for success.