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Rumours abound that John Terry may be reinstated as England Football International Team Captain. This may go some way to restore some confidence in Capello who should never have taken the captaincy from him.

Whatever Terry’s crimes, we wait for the full story on that, I am certain he did not deserve the treatment the press, public and football community have  lavished upon him.

Whatever his weaknesses as a person or his failings as a footballer may have been he has never failed to respect the England or Chelsea football shirts, wearing both with honour and pride and always giving of himself 100%.

I am sure his wife recognises the true merits of John Terry for she has been loyal throughout his apparent fall from grace and subsequent post trauma troubles and rehabilitation . As far as I can see and from the facts to hand she is the only one who has been truly wronged by his alleged misdemeanours despite Wayne Bridge’s pouting disapproval of his ex-girlfriends choice in men. No England fan, no Chelsea fan have been misled by Captain Marvel’s dedication to his job. They continue to see the best the guy can be so give the guy a break, he certainly deserves one and should the nation accept he truly is the right man to lead us into the Euros that vote of confidence will do wonders for his returning form.

'...he has never failed to respect the England and Chelsea shirts...'

Bobby Moore, David Beckham, Terry Venables, Gazza, even the wonderful Gary Lineker were not faultless. None of these heard boos ringing round Wembley nor had jokes and jibes constantly made at their expense within the country they love so clearly. Come on nation that is England, embrace your fallen leader like a spartan of old. J.T. has shown enormous character and strength to endure these past 12 months. Perhaps he can, after all, lift us a trophy at last in Poland next summer despite the ignominy of last years World Cup fiasco in South Africa.

written by eden bray 15.03.2011

Can anyone really explain why Liverpool fans are so bitter and twisted?!

There are surely no more insular, paranoid, reactionary, chip on the shoulder, ‘football owes us success’ group of football fans on the face of the planet.

Finding a rational, balanced, open-minded and self analysing Liverpool fan is like finding an empty syringe in the Spion Kop on a Saturday afternoon on game day.

True, Liverpool have a marvellous and rich heritage based largely on a 20+ year period of unprecedented success domestically and in Europe. True, they have suffered more than a fair share of tragedy in the past but other clubs have known tragedy!

True that on certain game nights they do produce a wonderful stadium atmosphere. So do others however and one wonders whether the endemic hostility ‘Pool’ fans feel toward the football world doesn’t in part contribute to the atmosphere they create. They seem to say ‘Why cant we still be the best, respect us, respect us why don’t you?   No, okay then we’ll make you by making a lot of noise even when we don’t win anything.  See, huh!’

So now Fernando has crossed the mighty ‘spirit of Anfield’ and ‘it’ is not happy. No one is remembering how much they loved him when he scored those many inspired and important goals. No one that is except Chelsea fans who actually have at least 7 more reasons to be oh so bitter with Fernando.

His image is being torn from the memories of young Liverpool fans who were oh so happy to open their Torres shirt parcels on Christmas mornings for the past three years. ‘Hey, son lets get that shirt I gave you and burn it’. The behaviour of certain Liverpool fans has been nothing short of disgraceful but it is endemic only of the introverted, blinkered thinking prevalent in the club.

No one is thinking about the discretion El Torro apparently showed when an earlier Chelsea bid of £35,000,000 was made for him in June of last year and he was asked to wait till the sale of the club was completed as his departure might de-stabilise the deal. He deferred out of respect for the club and waited for a more suitable occasion. When the chance came for him to join the club who have been chasing him since Roman Abramovich arrived at Chelsea and well before Liverpool, he was obviously interested.

Pity Dalgliesh couldn’t set the record straight by reminding Liverpool fans of this, thanking ‘FT’ for all he had done and wishing him all the best in his after game interview at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Instead of perpetuating the Anfield myth and thereby condoning the unbalanced hatred of a seemingly nice lad by self congratulatory smug remarks suggesting Liverpool’s current players whether home grown or imported mercenary would die for the shirt they wear now poor ole Rafa and Roy have been gotten rid and Fernando has deffected (the ridicilous word used by Martin Tyler repeatedly in his commentary on Sunday). Dalgliesh, despite his low key persona and unintelligible Glasgow scrawl is still the master of  ‘bigging’ himself up. He should suit Sir Alex well across in Manc land, excellent bed fellows up in the oh so deprived north.

Lets not get things too twisted sister – Liverpool’s football was not that exciting to watch. They played well but hey they only won by a short head against a very poor performing Chelsea. They are not going to win the title anytime soon or even make Champions League this year, not for me anyway.

While commenting on bad attitudes among football fans lets not forget to point a finger or 35,000 at three sides of Stamford Bridge on Sunday. While Chelsea’s away support continues to be one of the very best in the Premier League it has to be said most home games are embarrassing. If Liverpool fans have got a serious problem so have our lot.

The tv shots of miserable, deflated, shell-shocked pale-faced Chelsea fans wearing their blue on Sunday reminded me of fancy dress guests waiting for a late taxi home in the wet and cold night air and already suffering hangovers. I wasn’t there but I would love to have got a ticket. I hope I would have provided a slightly more inspiring vision to the players on the pitch than some of the spoilt, anaemic and dull specimens Sky chose to present to the football world. I think maybe a dose of what Liverpool’s travelling hordes were shooting up on wouldn’t do us any harm after all.

Thats another sad story to tell however. For today, I just don’t get Liverpool fans and their bitter and twisted attitude and for me Dalgliesh might still take them back 20 years but I’ve been wrong before and to think of it thats probably what Liverpool fans would like anyway. So maybe ‘King Kenny’ actually is the new Doctor Who who can reverse Anfield fortunes by a ‘back in time’ trip. I just wish they could lose their sod-awful attitude.

I’ve just returned from my local computer Games shop and can’t wait to open the bag and pull out the latest version of  ‘Football Owner 2003’ the relatively new game from PC.

‘Football Owner 2003’ is a cleverly devised trip into the ultimate football fantasy and gives people like me who once dreamed of having a better life back in those harsh days when I lived with my adopted family in the cold, barren wastes of the frozen tundra in Northern Russia, the chance to live a dream. I whack the new game into my PC and soon I am not only owning but running my own top football team. I can write off debts, invest in Europe’s top players and if the manager is not doing the biz I can get a better one. This is of course something to enjoy, a leisure pursuit, a recreation and for once in my life I’m not going to worry about wheeling and dealing or having to make a profit. When I’m playing ‘Football Owner 2003’ I don’t have to look over my shoulder to see if there’s some dark shadowy figure from my past or deal with any of the murky legal cases I have negotiated in my meteoric rise to a position of financial power and security. I have after all been assessed as the 50th wealthiest man in the world. No, I’m stepping into the arena of openness and accountability and here I can play with something new, fresh, stress free and fun.

Soon ‘the game’ allows to me to walk round the pitch to meet the fans. Suddenly I’m a local hero and the fans are singing songs to remind me of my home country and obviously trying to make me feel welcome. The dream is becoming a reality and I’m realising there may be more to this game than I first thought.

….. The years have rolled by now and I’m waiting for the latest ‘Football Owner 2011’ to arrive in the post, I ordered it on-line. The world has moved on and so have I. I still play the game, although as I’ve lost a few ‘bill’ during the recent global recession I don’t feel I have quite the time to commit to it as much as I did, I think I’m a better player than I was. I’m trying hard not to keep changing managers when things aren’t going right and I’m trying to balance the books better, since they introduced the new Euro rules into the game which are a pain by the way. The ‘grass roots’ section is tricky too where you have to try and develop a youth programme and bring young players through into your team but as I won the FA Youth Cup I must be getting that right.

All in all I reckon I’ve done very well in the game, won 3 titles, 5 cups and got to a European Cup Final. Thats the one I’d still really like to win and also like to update the stadium but the main thing I’ve learned is however well you do, your fan base seem to remain unhappy, which is either an unfortunate glitch or a clever design facet sewn into the game to make it more true to life.

……Roman Abramovich has been owner of Chelsea Football Club since the summer of 2003 and in the eight seasons he has played the ‘Owner Game’ he has had six managers, spent over £600,000,000 on the club. In that time he has improved the infrastructure, training complex and facilities immeasurably whilst Chelsea have remained consistently a top ‘two’ or ‘three’ club.

Of all the foreign owners of the Premier League Football Clubs Roman Abramovich has retained the strongest commitment to his club, still attends most home games building a family home nearby and visiting the home dressing room after many home games. Despite a continued applied and suggested aura of mystery that is attributed to him there is no evidence that he has ever behaved incorrectly to players, staff or fans as he has piloted Chelsea Football club through an unprecedented era of success whilst making no apparant accountable personal financial gain from ownership.

There is no reason why any Chelsea fan, indeed any football fan, should have anything less than ultimate respect for a guy who obviously has enjoyed and lived, as would we all, the ultimate football fantasy – owning your own football club.

Our club has benefitted, Ken Bates and Leeds United have benefitted, the game here in England and abroad has benefitted. Claudio Rainieri, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Phillipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Ray Wilkins etc etc have benefitted from his money and interest. Whatever his history may hold I cannot say and few can, as there is at present, no concrete evidence that has proved him guilty. Perhaps he has been lucky BUT as far as his dealings with Chelsea Football Club are concerned we have all certainly benefitted!

It may have been just a game to him when he took us over but the guy has shown he’s prepared to move and learn and stick. He’s stayed with it and ‘us’ while the media and the UK public have shown constant xenophobic hostility, bordering on ethnic prejudice, toward him. …So hey, Chelsea fans dont knock the guy while you enjoy his success. For me, as a football guy he’s definitely earned ultimate respect. I reckon he’s also a richer guy not poorer, for having started out in a fantasy that become a true reality the day he found out he had a true blue heart!  !                                                                                                                                                                                                           eden bray written 26.01.11