Having covered Mark Saggers and Henry Winter previously, we’ve had our attention drawn to the column of one Oliver Holt writing for the Mirror. This paper has not been known for it’s kindness towards Chelsea or indeed our esteemed captain. This author has not been known for his avoidance of a quick quip at a players expense.
So when he states the following, it makes you wonder..
“Well, that’s fine (hating Terry after recent press sensationalism), but what if you knew a few other things. What if you knew a different side to the story?
What if you knew that the vast majority of the players in the England squad felt the same way as Terry about the spartan regime they have been living under for the last five weeks?
What if you knew that most of them have been moaning and griping about it but that Terry was the only one who had the guts to speak out about it? And when he did, most of rest of them melted into the background so fast a few tweaked their hamstrings as they ran for their rooms.
What if you also knew that at least one figure within the England hierarchy is actively trying to undermine Terry with private briefings to the media because they see him, wrongly, as a threat to Capello’s authority?
What if you knew that the story that appeared this week that said Terry had been causing trouble by refusing to finish a training session was planted by that figure?
What if you knew that on the day in question, the Sunday after England played the USA, the truth was that Terry and Frank Lampard were the only players who had been involved in the game who were doing any running at all?
What if you knew that the rest of the team were doing light ¬exercises and swimming and that Terry only stopped when he felt his hamstring tighten?
What if you knew that the same figure in the England hierarchy also regularly briefs against other players known as ¬independent spirits, like David James?
Oh and of course…
”What does that say about Capello? That he likes weak players, players who won’t say boo to a goose, players who bottle it on the big occasion. Apparently, a couple of them were upset because Terry mentioned that they had had a beer at the team hotel the night after the game against Algeria.
Really? Capello was sitting on the next table, for heaven’s sake. It wasn’t as if Terry was divulging some terrible secret and dropping them in it.”
Now bear in mind this is an individual currently in and around the England operation, observing and discoursing with his peers and the England players and staff. He is one of a growing number of English journalists who appear to have dropped the baton of beating their team to death in the media and instead are verging on disclosing what they feel is very real, very wrong behaviour by certain players and certain figures.
Whilst it would mean England had surely bombed out of the World Cup, I for one hope that if that happens these hacks have the free reign to go all out and blow this spreading poison into the open and let the English public know just who the RATS are…
Oliver closes on this note..
He (Capello) suggests Terry likes talking to the media too much when, er, the FA had asked Terry if he would speak to the media that Sunday. Terry was hardly begging to attend the press conference. He knew it was a hospital pass.
Interesting tactic, don’t you think, slagging off your first choice centre-back 48 hours before you need him to play at his best?
Lesser players than Terry might fold. Lesser players than him might feel they were being systematically undermined.
He’s not an apostate or a regicide or a traitor.
The truth is a lot more banal than that. The truth, in the midst of Capello’s World Cup shambles, is that John Terry is one of England’s last hopes.
Well said Oliver, for once.
Oliver’s article..