Post by QPR Report on Dec 24, 2009 7:29:35 GMT
From The Times December 23, 2009
England captain John Terry greedy to embrace hire purpose
Terry has cashed in on his position as England captain, a stance that sits uncomfortably with his almost mythological status as a footballer famous for his loyalty to club and country
Matthew Syed, Sports Journalist of the Year
JT is a bit of a lad, isn’t he? This time he has been filmed accepting a black briefcase stuffed with £10,000 after giving three businessmen (actually three undercover reporters from the News of the World) a private tour of Chelsea’s training facilities in Cobham.
As the cash was handed to Tony Bruce, a ticket-tout who apparently pocketed £2,000 for acting as the broker, John Terry expressed the importance of secrecy: “If the club finds out, it’s a little bit . . . you know.” Later when more trips were discussed, Terry said: “Yeah, but you brief them that they don’t speak to no one. Cos if anyone finds out, then we can’t do it no more.”
Terry has claimed that the cash was intended for a children’s charity, although some may wonder why he was so keen to keep the whole thing hush-hush when his intentions were so noble.
Either way, the Chelsea press office decided to back up their captain by sending out a press release rich in comedy: “Chelsea gives our players room to exercise their discretion when contacted personally with regard to visits, and the club keeps security and access to the training ground and Stamford Bridge under constant review. However, as a result of the security breach highlighted by today’s article, we will be further reviewing access to our facilities and clamping down where there are gaps in the process.”
The wider question in all this is: why is the Chelsea defender so often given the benefit of the doubt? He continues to command a reputation as the embodiment of the English bulldog spirit, a man who would sacrifice his right arm for club and country.
But when you look at the totality of his actions, it is difficult to understand how he has managed to sustain such a lucrative aura of moral dependability for so long.
Take last summer when Terry was approached by Manchester City. What did Terry do? That’s right, he refused to pledge his loyalty to Chelsea for more than three weeks, maintaining a Trappist silence while on holiday in Tenerife. Call me cynical, but could this have had anything to do with him using the offer as leverage to boost his earnings at Chelsea by more than 20 per cent, taking his pay packet to an astronomical £170,000 a week? He is worth an estimated £17 million at present.
Not that there is anything wrong with maximising income, of course. We all have to earn a crust, whether in brown paper envelopes or otherwise. But why, then, did Terry see fit to announce to the world that he had never even considered the offer from City? “I am totally committed to Chelsea and always have been,” he said. He was taking his fans for suckers, of course, but then who can blame him when so many of them buy into his self-serving mythology?
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that Terry has managed to sustain his position as the England captain. This is surprising because the England captaincy is not just a footballing position, but a symbolic role as a figurehead of our national game.
This aspect of the job is well understood by anyone taking up the honour: that they be put up to answer the tough questions at press conferences and required to give a lead to fans and team-mates alike.
But when Capello handed Terry the captain’s armband, the only question for many of us was how long it would take the defender to cash in.
Sure enough, within months he had signed an exclusive deal to write a football column for a national newspaper and shortly before that his handlers sent out an e-mail hawking their client to anyone with deep enough pockets.
“Are you looking for a leader to represent your brand?” the e-mail said. “John Terry, Captain of England and Chelsea football team . . . is available to create effective brand awareness and endorse products and services globally”. The e-mail also pointed out that Terry was voted Dad of the Year in 2008, although it failed to mention that Homer Simpson had come second in a poll for the most popular fictional character people would like as their father. Terry later issued a statement distancing himself from the e-mail.
Some have sought to undermine Terry in recent weeks by pointing to the travails of his family (his mother and mother-in-law were arrested and cautioned for shoplifting this year, and his father was filmed by a Sunday newspaper allegedly passing cocaine to an undercover reporter), but this is more than a little unfair.
Terry cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of anyone except himself.
But it is here, of course, that he is most conspicuously vulnerable. There is no disputing the fact that he is a decent centre half with considerable aerial abilities, but it is his hypocrisy, and that of his handlers, that defies belief. They spin him as Mr Chelsea and as Mr England, a footballer of rare moral depth and fibre. They tout him as a man imbued with indestructible loyalty to club and country. The reality, however, is that Terry’s principal loyalty is reserved for one thing and one thing only: his wallet.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6965635.ece
England captain John Terry greedy to embrace hire purpose
Terry has cashed in on his position as England captain, a stance that sits uncomfortably with his almost mythological status as a footballer famous for his loyalty to club and country
Matthew Syed, Sports Journalist of the Year
JT is a bit of a lad, isn’t he? This time he has been filmed accepting a black briefcase stuffed with £10,000 after giving three businessmen (actually three undercover reporters from the News of the World) a private tour of Chelsea’s training facilities in Cobham.
As the cash was handed to Tony Bruce, a ticket-tout who apparently pocketed £2,000 for acting as the broker, John Terry expressed the importance of secrecy: “If the club finds out, it’s a little bit . . . you know.” Later when more trips were discussed, Terry said: “Yeah, but you brief them that they don’t speak to no one. Cos if anyone finds out, then we can’t do it no more.”
Terry has claimed that the cash was intended for a children’s charity, although some may wonder why he was so keen to keep the whole thing hush-hush when his intentions were so noble.
Either way, the Chelsea press office decided to back up their captain by sending out a press release rich in comedy: “Chelsea gives our players room to exercise their discretion when contacted personally with regard to visits, and the club keeps security and access to the training ground and Stamford Bridge under constant review. However, as a result of the security breach highlighted by today’s article, we will be further reviewing access to our facilities and clamping down where there are gaps in the process.”
The wider question in all this is: why is the Chelsea defender so often given the benefit of the doubt? He continues to command a reputation as the embodiment of the English bulldog spirit, a man who would sacrifice his right arm for club and country.
But when you look at the totality of his actions, it is difficult to understand how he has managed to sustain such a lucrative aura of moral dependability for so long.
Take last summer when Terry was approached by Manchester City. What did Terry do? That’s right, he refused to pledge his loyalty to Chelsea for more than three weeks, maintaining a Trappist silence while on holiday in Tenerife. Call me cynical, but could this have had anything to do with him using the offer as leverage to boost his earnings at Chelsea by more than 20 per cent, taking his pay packet to an astronomical £170,000 a week? He is worth an estimated £17 million at present.
Not that there is anything wrong with maximising income, of course. We all have to earn a crust, whether in brown paper envelopes or otherwise. But why, then, did Terry see fit to announce to the world that he had never even considered the offer from City? “I am totally committed to Chelsea and always have been,” he said. He was taking his fans for suckers, of course, but then who can blame him when so many of them buy into his self-serving mythology?
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that Terry has managed to sustain his position as the England captain. This is surprising because the England captaincy is not just a footballing position, but a symbolic role as a figurehead of our national game.
This aspect of the job is well understood by anyone taking up the honour: that they be put up to answer the tough questions at press conferences and required to give a lead to fans and team-mates alike.
But when Capello handed Terry the captain’s armband, the only question for many of us was how long it would take the defender to cash in.
Sure enough, within months he had signed an exclusive deal to write a football column for a national newspaper and shortly before that his handlers sent out an e-mail hawking their client to anyone with deep enough pockets.
“Are you looking for a leader to represent your brand?” the e-mail said. “John Terry, Captain of England and Chelsea football team . . . is available to create effective brand awareness and endorse products and services globally”. The e-mail also pointed out that Terry was voted Dad of the Year in 2008, although it failed to mention that Homer Simpson had come second in a poll for the most popular fictional character people would like as their father. Terry later issued a statement distancing himself from the e-mail.
Some have sought to undermine Terry in recent weeks by pointing to the travails of his family (his mother and mother-in-law were arrested and cautioned for shoplifting this year, and his father was filmed by a Sunday newspaper allegedly passing cocaine to an undercover reporter), but this is more than a little unfair.
Terry cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of anyone except himself.
But it is here, of course, that he is most conspicuously vulnerable. There is no disputing the fact that he is a decent centre half with considerable aerial abilities, but it is his hypocrisy, and that of his handlers, that defies belief. They spin him as Mr Chelsea and as Mr England, a footballer of rare moral depth and fibre. They tout him as a man imbued with indestructible loyalty to club and country. The reality, however, is that Terry’s principal loyalty is reserved for one thing and one thing only: his wallet.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6965635.ece