Having been following the John Terry trial, I have come to the conclusion that the final verdict, be it guilty or not, comes secondry to the appaling attitude of today's "footballers". I would like to say "Professional footballers" but this hardly the fact. Before the 60/70's most footballers could be classed as professional and gentleman. Take Jim Langley for example. Then came the hard men (Harris, Hunter, Mackay etc). They hit you hard and reminded you that they were there. Then arrived the wind up merchants (Savage and Wise come to mind). Their intention being to wind you up to spoil your game. With the relevations in the Terry trial we have now moved onto a state where anything goes. A bit like stand up comedy where any subject is considered to be fair game. According to Ferdinand, Terry overstepped the mark when he introduced colour into the argument. Yes it was wrong but is it worse than questionning your parentage or the morals of your wife and family. I'm not so sure. It seems the players have adopted the terrace attitude and feel they can say anything and no doubt there great wealth and so called stature gives them a feeling of being untouchable. I am sure that when the dust settles, the FA will be looking at ways of preventing such goings on's and bring the game back to some kind of professionalism. On a lighter note it was great to see the QPR badge on the Caterham car at Silverstone. It looked quite spendid and I felt quite proud in the crowd wearing my Caterham cap and QPR shirt, wheras everyone else to chose to wear orange advertising Vodafone. Quite like the idea of a 3rd strip of green with with small gold hoops!!!
A very thoughtful and balanced post. A refreshing change from the "hang 'im high" mob. Neither player has covered themselves in glory but I've no doubt similar niceties were exchanged in eras gone by and it will continue to happen.
