Terry set to lose England captaincy over Ferdinand race slurs as one veteran insists: "Racism is rife in English Premier League"

Chelsea defender John Terry looks likely to lose the England captaincy – not for the first time – when the FA announce the result of their probe into his racist slurs against Anton Ferdinand this week.

Allegations were made after QPR upset Chelsea 1-0 in a high-tension clash at Loftus Road on October 23 which featured two red cards for Terry’s team. Youtube footage – since removed by the Premier League – shows Terry appearing to mouth “Fucking black cunt” at Ferdinand during the match.

Terry admits to using the phrase but insisted he only shouted the abuse in response to an on-field allegation from Ferdinand - but the brother of Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand says he is “stunned” by Terry's account of the controversy.

Terry argued the TV footage had missed out the full sentence and misconstrued its meaning and said he would “never do such a thing”, explaining how the pair had met up after the game to settle the matter.

Ferdinand admits he never heard Terry’s racist remarks at the time and insists the first he knew about the row – which erupted on the social networks shortly after the final whistle - was when Chelsea’s England full-back Ashley Cole came into the QPR dressing room and told Ferdinand that Terry wanted to talk to him.

A Rangers source said: "Anton went to see JT, who explained some video footage had appeared on the internet that made it look as though he had said something racist.

"JT strongly denied saying such a thing and said to Anton 'Everything's cool between us, isn't it?'

"Anton, who at that stage didn't really know what JT was talking about, said everything was fine and that there was no problem."

Moments later though, Ferdinand himself watched the footage on his mobile phone.

The QPR man told The People, a Sunday tabloid: “I didn’t know racism still existed in football until last weekend. I thought we were past all that here. I had no idea it had happened until I left the ground. It was pretty shocking. It’s crazy, I can’t believe it.

“I don’t need to say anything, it’s all on YouTube, everyone can see what he said. What do you think he said? Look, it’s with the FA now.”

A week before the Ferdinand/Terry clash, Manchester United fullback Patrice Evra made allegations of racist abuse against Uruguayan Luis Suarez in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

Ferdinand is reported to have “resisted the temptation” to publish a blow-by-blow account of his clash with Terry. He chose to back the FA probe into the affair.

In a statement this week, Ferdinand said: "Today, I finalised my report to the Football Association with regards to the incident that occurred last Sunday at Loftus Road in our Premier League fixture against Chelsea.

"I have very strong feelings on the matter, but in the interests of fairness and not wishing to prejudice what I am sure will be a very thorough inquiry by the FA, this will be my last comment on the subject until the inquiry is concluded."

The row has even moved to Belgium, where the notoriously powerful Chelsea media officers refused to allow questions from journalists about the race row in their press conference before the Champions League clash against Genk. Terry may be “rested” for that game as the investigation rumbles on.

Though the FA in England have led a “Kick It Out” campaign against racism over the past five years, Blackburn’s veteran striker Jason Roberts sums up the real situation in the English Premier League.

He said: "Is racial abuse something that used to happen all the time? Absolutely. In my 14-year career, I've had it numerous times. More times than I can count.

“It has certainly slowed down recently. But for people to say they can't believe this has happened, let me tell them this has happened throughout my career at all levels of the game. The battle isn't won. People still need educating.

"If it can be proven people have been doing this and it's caught on camera, they have to be punished. We cannot allow for this to be seen to be OK.

"My uncle Cyrille Regis, who played in the 70s and 80s, put up with disgusting abuse and just dealt with it like I just dealt with it.

"I think in this day and age we need to change that. It's not acceptable. Some people think they do stuff like this to put you off your game and that it's fair game. They say 'I'm not really like that, some of my best friends are black'.

"Well it's not good enough because there are kids watching and people in the crowd."

Ferdinand has since been subjected to racist abuse from Terry supporters on Twitter but he insists: "Of course, it's been strenuous — but it's football as usual as far as I'm concerned. I've been focusing on nothing other than playing for my club."

Terry lost the England captaincy before the 2010 World Cup over allegations that he had an affair with former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge’s partner Vanessa Peroncel. He has also been involved in a series of controversies involving his mother – who was charged with shop-lifting along with his mother-in-law – and his father, who was caught on video by the now-defunct News of the World conducting a drugs deal.

On eNews tomorrow morning (November 2) at 7.20am to discuss this. Feel free to comment.

Terry's stark attack on German ref heaps further pressure on the man who must hold England together at the World Cup

THERE are those who say John Terry is cracking up under the strain. That the man ear-marked to lead England into the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is falling apart as the on and off field pressures rise inexorably at the climax of a long, tough season with Chelsea.
This morning we are told his scathing assessment of German referee Wolfgang Stark as Chelsea plunged out of the Champions League on Tuesday against his old foe Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan will land him in hot water. Scalding in fact. It may even boil over into a full-scale UEFA ban.
After Inter's niggly but necessary 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge completed a 3-1 aggregate defeat, Terry said: "It was a bad performance from us but a really bad performance from the referee.I'm not going to use the word conspiracy. But I'm so frustrated by what happened. The penalty on Didier Drogba was blatant and how the ref and his linesman missed it frustrates me.'
Terry defended his half-time and full-time rants at ref Stark, saying: 'When a decision didn't go our way Iwent to speak to the ref as captain - and he just turned his back on me.
'We spend two years talking about the Respect campaign and he refuses to talk to me. I pulled and pushed other players away and he turned his back.
'I wasn't shouting. I went to try to talk to him and when he wouldn't talk that is when I got frustrated. That is just pure disrespect.
'It is not good enough at this stage of the competition. We didn't get one decision. For two years running we've been let down by bad refereeing. We need to talk to UEFA.'
Last season, Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa received length European bans when they hit out at Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo as Chelsea crashed out against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.
And of course, UEFA are unlikely to forget the death threats levelled at Sweden's Anders Frisk by angry Chelsea fans after their exit in 2005 - Frisk never really recovered from the Jose Mourinho-led attack and retired from the game.
Today, with Arsenal on top of the Premier League following their 2-0 win over West Ham yesterday, Terry and Chelsea must bounce back against Blackburn while Manchester United face a cracker against Liverpool.
Terry, whose father was in hot water of his own according to the newspapers on Friday, has already lost the England captaincy over his affair with Wayne Bridge's partner Vanessa Perroncel this season. The whole nation talked about the non-handshake with Bridge (pictured above) when Chelsea lost 4-2 to Manchester City. Every female columnist in Fleet Street attacked his wife Toni for taking him back.
Terry is under constant scrutiny - and accidentally injured a Chelsea steward as he raced away from Stamford Bridge is his Range Rover last Tuesday in another incident splashed all over the front pages.
But he won't back off. He won't ease the pressure on himself, showing off his captain's armband, insisting he is in control and having his say. He adds: '
'It must be looked at. We are disappointed but I can't look any further than the referee's performance. If I get myself in trouble, then so be it.'
Today against Blackburn we shall see if Terry can still perform under these conditions. As Chelsea push for the final two trophies available to them - the Premier League and FA Cup - the real John Terry will be on show.
Under the kind of pressures which would destroy most of us in everyday jobs, he has to deal with the £140,000-a-week scrutiny of bosses like Carlo Ancelotti and Roman Abramovich. It can't be easy. Watch the big man today. Decide for yourself whether he can play a pivotal role in South Africa this summer without cracking.
Personally, I think it might all get too much for the man. But Fabio Capello will be the judge of that.

Terrible times for Terry: Never tell England's driving force to "break a leg"

IT'S not been a great year for John Terry, the Chelsea captain who saw his side crash out of the Champions League against his old boss Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan last night.

Not only did he have a distinctly average game last night, leaving the pitch with a verbal volley at referee Wolfgang Stark, he also erm... ran over a Stamford Bridge security guard on the way home. I've just seen the video, lots of screaming and "oh my God's."

According to his spokesman Phil Hall on Sky Sports News: "John was surrounded by photographers and a bit of a media scrum. Some of the stewards were trying to keep people away and John drove off."

According to Hall, Terry had no idea he'd hit anyone until he got home in his Range Rover with wife Toni (she's had a bad year too, but we'll get to that later). Hall insisted: "John only found out when a pal of his called and told him. I can assure you, John Terry had absolutely no idea he had hit anyone."

So this morning, as those videos emerged of a screaming 35-year-old Chelsea employee left in the Terrys' wake, Surrey police questioned big John and breathalysed him. He was found to be under the legal limit.

You'd have thought things were bad enough for the former England captain. The 29-year-old, whose mother was charged for shop-lifting with his mother-in-law (both called Sue) and whose father was filmed peddling drugs by the News of the World last year, was in trouble earlier this year when he tried to hush-up an affair with Vanessa Perroncel.

She was the mother of his old team-mate Wayne Bridge's son. She and Toni, mother of father-of-the-year John's twins, used to be quite close. They were near-neighbours in plush Oxshott in Surrey.

Sadly for John, a judge overturned his attempted "super injunction", Bridge was furious, Terry was forced to miss a game to placate his wife in Dubai and England boss Fabio Capello stripped him of the captaincy.

The latest incident hardly helps calm the big fella as Chelsea push for the Premier League and FA Cup double - their Champions League bid was ruined by last night's 1-0 defeat against Inter - and the World Cup campaign in June.

England's driving force may have to be a little bit more careful in future. Question is: can he keep on performing at the top level under all this pressure?

I got it wrong calling Bridge a wimp on Sky News. He's done the honourable thing. Unlike John Terry

I GOT IT wrong on Sky News this morning. I called Wayne Bridge a wimp when they rushed me in to Isleworth for a first response to the news. The statement was gloriously straightfoward and to the point. And it has got the entire football-speaking world talking.

The Manchester City left back, this week backed for a World Cup berth by coach Fabio Capello, said: "I have thought long and hard about my position in the England football team in the light of the reporting and events over the last few weeks.

"It has always been an honour to play for England. However, after careful thought I believe my position in the squad is now untenable and potentially divisive.

"Sadly therefore I feel for the sake of the team and in order to avoid what will be inevitable distractions, I have decided not to put myself forward for selection.

"I have today informed the management of this decision. I wish the team all the very best in South Africa."

First thought? This has happened to me. When my twins, now 22, were three, their mother left me for a younger bloke, the brother of a friend. All his mates played for the French Horn, our rival team in the village. On the common a few Sundays later, we had to play them. Everybody knew the story. I wanted to kill the guy and his mates. He had relentlessly pursued my wife knowing she was suffering from post-natal depression.

I wanted to run away, never mind walk away like Bridge. But I knuckled down, played the game, got through it. Proved I still had a life, pride, honour. The guy's still out there, my ex-wife and I are friends but I brought the kids up without her support for 18 years. I'd still like to catch him in a dark alley. He knows who he is. But that game, that confrontation - not without its flare-ups - helped me get through it.

And that's what I thought Bridge should have done. Knuckle down, confront the demon Terry, a former best-mate (see picture above) who had an affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the mother of his child.

So I told the world (at least that tiny bit of it which watches Sky News) I thought Bridge had wimped out. It was re-run several times this afternoon. Ah, the expert analyst. Superb. Not.

Tracy, my new wife, took me to task. She feels Bridge has done the honourable thing. Withdrawn to give England a chance. To keep the dressing room on a level keel.

Whether Bridge plays for Manchester City against his old team and former best pal this weekend is not the point.

What he's done, she said, is sacrificed his place at the World Cup for England's sake. I saw it in that awful masculine way. By standing down he had let Terry humiliate him again.

Wrong. Terry should have been the one to withdraw but as he hasn't and is such an important part of the World Cup plan for Fabio Capello, Bridge made the brave decision to walk away.

Imagine the pain that bloke has been through. Nobody is actually sure when the affair between Terry and Perroncel began. But it ended in an abortion and a pay-off. Whether Bridge had actually moved up north by the time Terry started his diversions on the way home from training or not, we don't know. But the flirting had been going on for months.

There was talk of other affairs, of further lurid details, but all that came to a halt when Perroncel and publicist Max Clifford decided not to run with her side of the story amid rumours of a £750,000 pay off.

We will never know the full extent of Terry's betrayal. And remember, Perroncel was close to his wife Toni, mother of twins of a similar age to his boy, too.

Bridge's heart is broken. His spirit low. Trust in Terry, the senior player, crushed. But he has returned to play for City and his boss Roberto Mancini insists he is the best left back in the country with Ashley Cole, another Chelsea man of loose morals, out following ankle surgery.

But when the side to play Egypt next Wednesday is picked on Saturday night, Leighton Baines is likely to get the call now. Bridge has given up his chance of immortality in South Africa this summer.

And for that he must be applauded. Quite how we greet Terry at Wembley next Wednesday I'm not sure. But here's a thought. If Terry, forced out as captain over this whole tawdry affair, gets injured before the World Cup, will Bridge return?

I for one certainly hope so.

Why Chelsea continue to dominate the headlines... for all the wrong reasons

MUST be a hell of a dressing room at Chelsea. If you believe everything the tabloids are currently throwing at us every morning, it's packed with international footballers taking pictures of themselves naked to blonde models.

First we had the John Terry story - his affair and subsequent abortion with Wayne Bridge's ex-partner Vanessa Perroncel resulted in him losing the England captaincy.

Then, when French underwear model Ms Perrroncel had been paid an alleged £750,000 to stop, The Sun switched targets to Ashley Cole, married to the nation's darling, Cheryl Tweedie.

Today were are told he sent naked pictures of himself to a SECOND blonde, and apparently Cheryl didn't spend much time together on Valentine's Day.

Page five of The Sun has a magnificent picture of ultraslim Cole, pictured from the chest down with just a pair of underpants on. Mouthwatering stuff it ain't.

Elsewhere, on page nine, Terry and wife Toni are pictured in a pool in Dubai, where they are patching up their marriage. Allegedly. In front of the cameras.

Other papers add further spin to the Chelsea goings-on. The Mail claims Ashley and Cheryl are now living apart and has accused Terry of play-acting throughout the trip to Dubai.

Of course the former England captain had to miss Chelsea's FA Cup fifth round tie over Cardiff to sort things out with Toni, his childhood sweetheart.

While he was away, having blundered in their last Premier League game against Everton (Terry was at fault for both Louis Saha's goals in a shock 2-1 defeat), the Blues crushed Cardiff to reach the quarter-finals on the road to Wembley.

And that of course, resulted in a last eight clash with Manchester City, who drew with Stoke over the weekend and will need a replay to reach Stamford Bridge next month.

Why is this relevant? Because Bridge moved to City last January, leaving Vanessa in London with his son. Somewhere around this point in our tawdry tale, his former pal Terry began stopping off at their Oxshott neighours for post-training hanky-panky.

Over the weekend, the News of the World assured us Bridge refuses to respond to Terry's calls or texts about his betrayal. But now we have the prospect of Bridge v Terry in the Premier League on February 27, the pair of them in the England dressing room together for the friendly against Egypt at Wembley on March 3, followed by the FA Cup quarter final the weekend after.

Yes, having been at loggerheads for a few months, they'll now be forced to see eachother three times in a week.

The tabloids are lapping it up. I assume the fans are too. A Man City source tells The Sun today: "Wayne acted with dignity and he doesn't need anyone to tell him what this FA Cup game would mean.

"If City needed any extra motivation to beat Stoke and get back to Stamford Bridge, this will be it."

Meanwhile Ashley Cole, whose broken ankle sustained against Everton last week has left a place for Bridge at left-back in the England team - possibly for the World Cup too - has to hope Cheryl will invite him for a let's-make-up holiday in an expensive overseas resort sometime soon. Though he will be in a plaster cast after undergoing surgery on Friday, so it may be uncomfortable for both of them.

The real football stories - like Crystal Palace being robbed of victory over Aston Villa by a dodgy decision , England struggling to overcome Italy in the Six Nations and David Beckham preparing to take on Manchester United for Milan in the Champions League tomorrow, must remain on the back burner.

That's what happens when you have the Premier League leaders’ high profile stars making silly mistakes away from home.

Suddenly the tabloids are being all nice to Mr Terry and Ms Perroncel. So much for press freedom!

WHAT worries me about this morning's press coverage of the John Terry/Vanessa Perroncel affair is just how soft the tabloids have gone since the French underwear model received her hush money on Friday.

Incredible. The Mirror say the poor lass wants to be reunited with the father of her three-year-old Wayne Bridge, The Sun have got some mushy stuff about Toni and John Terry both getting shirty, it's all so nicey-nice now.

Just like Max Clifford, the famous (and talented) publicist would want it. The money (allegedly £800,000 according to the Mirror and The Sun, the News of the World said £750,000 yesterday) seems to have brought an end to the great quest for press freedom.

Suddenly the Mirror have stopped searching for what they called last week "Terry's second Chelsea wife" and the Sun's investigation into "the fifth Chelsea lover of Ms Perroncel has gone strangely silent.

Weird isn't it? Can it be that the whole thing was just a tawdry tabloid tale, generated by Mr Clifford until his client was satisfied? And who exactly paid this hush money? John Terry? But according to today's Mail there is a suggestion the poor £150,000-a-week axed England captain is struggling for money because of his huge outgoings.

Is anyone going to investigate where this money came from to keep Ms Perroncel quiet? Could it be that our brave investigative journalists on the tabloids are happy to just let the truth be hushed up... for cash?! Surely not.

I stand by what I've said throughout this sad tale. John Terry - as he proved again during the 2-0 win over Arsenal yesterday - can captain the side at the World Cup no matter what he might get up to off the field. He was captain of Chelsea yesterday and the crowd loved him during a faultless performance - and he made the first of Didier Drogba's two goals.

The journalists today all make a big point of how well Terry played despite the pressure - if they'd read this blog, they'll have noticed he scored the winner at Burnley on the day of the first revelations, was impeccable against Hull during the week. And when he was under similar pressure last year over revelations about his mother's shop-lifting and his father's salesmanship, he thrived too.

Fabio Capello has done the big, brave thing and sacked Terry as captain. But the story was no more than yet another tabloid publicity stunt to make money all round. And Rio Ferdinand now offers a succulent target for the next set of shock-horror revelations.

Clearly, Rio has been a good lad since his early days when allegations and missed drugs tests surrounded the lad from Peckham, who now does a lot of work for charity and anti-knife crime organisations.

But no footballer is spotless. The News of the World and Max Clifford know that.

Terry is history. Job done. Bring on the next victim. It's the way of the world. But I suspect Mr Capello, a devout Catholic, didn't quite realise that.

Terry sacked as England captain, it's official. Capello: "I would like to thank the FA for letting me take this decision"

JOHN TERRY was sacked as England captain this afternoon at Wembley after a 12-minute meeting with coach Fabio Capello.

In a statement, Capello said: "After much thought I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry.

"As a captain with the team, John Terry has displayed extremely positive behaviour.

"However, I have to take into account other considerations and what is best for all of the England squad.

"What is best for all of the England team has inspired my choice and John Terry was notified first."

Capello went on to say thanks to the FA for "allowing me to make the decision".

This blog suggested Terry was going at noon after receiving an email detailing further allegations to come against the £150,000-a-week Chelsea defender.

Rio Ferdinand - Capello's vice-captain - will be captain for the friendly against Egypt at Wembley on March 3.

Terry's demise was announced at around 3.30pm. I was on Sky News with, amongst others, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, PFA chief Gordon Taylor and the News of the World's Neil Ashton for about half-an-hour by phone discussing the decision.

Ashton, once a Sunday League team-mate of mine with the Warriors in Amersham, said the Terry family will not want to buy the News of the World on Sunday but Perroncel, according to Max Clifford, has now decided not to sell her exclusive story to the papers.

In a nicely worded statement she said her main concern was her three-year-old fathered by Wayne Bridge. Bit late in the day for sentiments like that, I would argue.

When the story of Terry's affair with Perroncel broke on Saturday after his super-injunction was over-turned, there was a groundswell of opinion against the immoral Chelsea leader.

But as the days passed, Ms Perroncel lost some of her allure as she joined forces with arch-publicist Clifford and hawked her story around for £250,000.

The mood changed. Why ruin England's World Cup preparations by getting rid of the captain when the woman involved apparently slept with FIVE Chelsea players (according to The Sun) and has been dabbling with celebrities like the dark-haired bloke out of Steps since her teens?

Suddenly the underwear model was the bad lass, despite a tearful reunion with Wayne Bridge, father of her child and Terry's former Chelsea team-mate. We were ready to write off Terry's affair - which allegedly featured an abortion and a £20,000 payment - as just another footballer going astray with a temptress.

Even his wife Toni, who fled to Dubai with the Terry twins after the story broke, publicly said she would forgive him when he flies over for Valentine's Day, missing Chelsea's FA Cup clash with Cardiff on February 13.

But today the mood changed. And there are several reasons for it, not all of them publishable at this point.

Word reaches me that Terry may indeed have slept with another team-mate's wife at Chelsea. The woman is a model and a mother. Hilarious. Not.

On top of that, Perroncel has apparently slept with "another household name" at Chelsea. The Mirror made that allegation on Wednesday. I have the name. Actually two. One of them is really going to shake things up.

On top of that, also in the top-secret email naming these names, came the allegations over Terry's use of a box at Wembley. Certain claims were made. Now, 24 hours later, if you read this morning's Daily Mail back page, you'll see further details of that. Terry's minders are offering to hire the box out to a third party for around for £4,000, which is "strictly prohibited".

The Daily Mail suggests this is "so much more serious" than his personal problems. I'm not sure I agree with that. The email I've seen also suggests further revelations with more women, coming on top of the eight already listed in most papers so far. I was going to keep the email to myself until the box story emerged this morning. But it looks all too accurate.

Poor old Terry. He must have thought he was slipping out of the noose when Stuart Pearce, Capello's closest English ally and the England Under 21 manager, came out on Tuesday saying Terry should keep the captain's armband (available for £4 at the Wembley shop).

But with further revelations now a promise rather than a threat, Capello - a devout Catholic and a disciplinarian nicknamed "Generalissimo" in Italy - decided to act before Sunday's exclusive hits the streets.

And the new captain? Rio Ferdinand. The Manchester United centre-back has been injured for weeks. And he was banned one game into his comeback.

What worries me now Terry is gone is that his successor will get it in the neck from the tabloids, who will remember his lengthy ban for missing a drugs test three years ago. And ultimately it won't just be Terry and Bridge who suffer. It will be England's long-cherished World Cup dream in South Africa.

Terry was the best man for the job. The only one capable of playing under such intense pressure, as he will have to do again when Chelsea play Arsenal on Sunday. Watch this space.

And then there were five Chelsea lovers. But Vanessa denies it all.

French model Vanessa Perroncel today dismissed claims in the Sun newspaper suggesting she has erm... enjoyed the company of FIVE Chelsea players.

Amid rumours of another big name conquest, the undeniably attractive underwear model is now alleged to have slept with Romanian striker Adrian Mutu and Iceland's Eidur Gudjohnsen before her having a child with Wayne Bridge and an abortion after her affair with Bridge's former team-mate and England captain John Terry.

Now it really is getting seedy. But what do you expect when you hire Max Clifford to help you with publicity? Apparently Clifford and Perroncel are on the verge of agreeing a £250,000 deal with a Sunday newspaper (either the News of the Screws or the Male on Sunday) where, doubtless, she will reveal the name of her fifth Blue move.

I said it on Sky News twice last night and I'll say it again tomorrow morning on their Sunrise programme - sometimes you have to consider the role of the woman in these scenarios. For every afffair these immoral footballers have, there is a woman. And Vanessa (above) is all woman, though she denies this morning's "five-a-side" splash in the Sun as "nonsense".

Whatever she might think and however Bridge, now at Manchester City, might feel, the latest allegations ease the pressure on Terry as England boss Fabio Capello prepares to return to England from his Swiss chalet in the morning.

The FA's Lord Triesman has said he will leave Terry's fate in the hands of his "Generalissimo" and despite Capello's devout Catholic views, he is now expected to leave the Chelsea man in charge after a stern warning about his future conduct. Or so I am led to believe.

Quite what we do about the mystery fifth Chelsea player - who must be sweating buckets at the moment - I'm not sure.

But when Manchester City take on Chelsea on February 27, Bridge may find himself outnumbered. And when England pick their side for the March 3 Wembley friendly against three-time African champions Egypt on March 1, expect Terry to have the capital C after his name. That's C for captain of course.

Terry, who had an injunction on the story over-turned last Friday, remains silent on the whole topic. He scored the winner against Burnley last Saturday despite the lurid headlines and was the best defender on display in the 1-1 draw at Hull last night.

Booed with every touch and cheered only when he received a yellow card, Terry appears capable of playing under extreme pressure. In fact he appears to thrive on it.

He scored against Manchester United the day his mother and mother-in-law were arrested for shop-lifting and captained his country at Wembley after his father was exposed in a video dealing drugs last year.

Capello may yet shock us all and behead Terry before the clash with managerless Egypt, but he should know this: If Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard get the captain's armband, they'll be put under huge scrutiny by the Sunday tabloids, who put circulation ahead of patriotism.

Terry stands four months short of becoming a potential Bobby Moore character in the nation's sporting history. His England team-mates apparently consider the possibility of ending our 44 years of footballing hurt of far greater importance than any hurt suffered by Mr Bridge-too-far.

According to Ian McGarry in The Sun, 13 of the 16 England players asked said they would stand by Terry. Three said it was none of their business. And my old paper, the London Evening Standard, reckon Gerrard, Lamps and Rooney are all reluctant to take the armband from Terry under these circumstances.

Have a stern word, Fabio. But don't ruin our World Cup preparation. Wintertime in South Africa, with a Group C line-up consisting of the USA, Algeria and Slovenia means we have never had a better chance of emerging as world champions in the last 40 years.

That should be the priority. Judgement day for Terry will come. But not until long after he's hung up his football boots.