John Terry: Captain Disgrace.

John Terry has not led a quiet life in the spotlight.

In recent memory, he has been caught: getting in brawls in bars, taunting American tourists about 9/11, speeding, gambling, selling unofficial tours of Stamford Bridge, mouthing off and intimidating referees at every given opportunity (a slap in the face of the Respect campaign), cheating on his [now] wife... vowing he would never do it again... cheating on her again with his own teammates partner... the list is seemingly endless. The same can be said (and worse) of many footballers, it seems to be an unfortunate result of the money and celebrity of football in this country, and were John Terry any other player, I would probably not have worked myself up into such a rage.

Such as it is, John Terry is the England captain. He is the representative of our nation on the football pitch. Despite his endless transgressions and absolutely deplorable behaviour, he has thus far, retained the armband and the blind devotion and hero worship of any commentator you happen to be listening to. Terry's grit, determination and leadership are all we hear from the disembodied voices of Motson and the rest. "He's not intimidating the referee by getting in his face with his 10 mates and screaming at him, he's showing great passion and leadership". Leave it out.

When Capello came into the managerial position of the National side, he said that he would not hesitate to drop those from the team who were behaving inappropriately or disgracing themselves in the public eye. I have seen no indication that he intends to back up his words with actions, as surely John Terry is a prime candidate. Don't just take the armband from him, take his place in the team away too. A great leader is not one who betrays his teammate and his own wife in such a fashion. It is an absolute disgrace that he shares the same venerable position as the late, great Bobby Moore. I don't care if England play worse as a result of his exclusion, I find it incredibly difficult, almost to the point of embarrassment, to support a team with him as captain. This is not the way one should feel about their own national side.

Give Matty Upson a starting CB place and give the armband to Rooney. He may be no saint, but he's a damn site better than John Terry.

Here's to new beginnings...

I have hitherto only ever used blogs as research and development tools for University projects. However, just this moment, I have been stung by the urge to maintain one for personal use. I know I am a bit behind the train here, but that doesn't matter as I am not expecting anyone to read this. It is more like a way for me to externalize thoughts and feelings, when there is no one around to talk to. I suppose then it is almost like talking to myself. Hopefully though, this isn't the beginnings of my becoming a sociopathic lunatic.

I think about things quite a lot. I like talking about these things. Lately, I have had precious little time for it. Though it is likely, that time isn't my only obstacle, rather my ever increasing Hermit-ude is the true culprit.

So here we are. I intend to post about things on a semi-regular basis, although it is of course rather likely that I will give up on it after a week or so.