John Terry: Victim?

Yes folks, John Terry's gone. Now, don't get your hopes up, he's just retired from international duty. Or, if you're a fan of cheap jokes, perhaps he just thought he overheard Anton Ferdinand say it and sarcastically repeated it.

Sadly, we'll never know what was really/allegedly said here.

Shockingly, this announcement has led to a not inconsiderable amount of uproar and controversy. Seriously, it's like you people save up all your anger and outrage for John Terry news items. Don't you have anything better to do?

First, for those of you living under a rock but still equipped with a selective internet connection that makes this the only website you can access that allows any mention of football, John Terry has retired from the England squad less than 24 hours before he went in front of an FA hearing into his alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand.

Quoth the JT: I feel the FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable.

I hate to play Devil's Advocate, but he does have an extremely good point here. Terry has been cleared of racial abuse in a court of law. Legally, John Terry is not a racist and thus, surely, the FA is on extremely shaky legal ground by, effectively, suggesting that he is. It can't be too much of a stretch for him to reasonably be able to sue them for slander.

Equally, by putting these charges against him, the FA have, somehow, managed to give Terry the moral high ground in the situation. Or at least, that's how it seems. Even the press release comes across as rather "woe is me, everyone's against me" in a manner not dissimilar to Luis Suarez' response to him being booed at the Olympics. But, fishing for sympathy or not, it remains that the FA has given John Terry a chance to play the persecuted victim.

The cynics would point to the timing of the announcement and say that Terry has probably been tipped off that he won't win this FA case, and that he might as well jump before he's pushed, perhaps try to spin it as showing humility and willingness to accept that he's wrong. This is probably true, but again, it's only a position that the FA has allowed by having this joke of a retrial in the first place.

The main issue, however, is that England will be without a man who has captained them 34 times. Through that time, for all his arguable off-field failings, he has performed to a generally high standard, especially when compared to other marquee players such as Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard.

But over all that, and certainly the latter part of his captaincy, has hung the spectre of controversy, something which good old JT has become something of a lightning rod for. The first real issue, which overshadowed England's dismal World Cup 2010 to some extent, was the extramarital affair with Vanessa Perroncel, Wayne Bridge's then-recently ex-girlfriend.

That led to Bridge resigning from the England squad, and the widespread (and fairly justified) belief that if anyone should have to step down, it was Terry. But as captain, he was effectively untouchable, particularly under Fabio Capello. Did this scandal result in England's piss-poor World Cup 2010? Probably not, and in the end it proved a welcome distraction, but a distraction nontheless.

It was probably that episode that made it easier to vilify Terry over the Anton Ferdinand issue. Anton might have quit the England team too, I'm not sure, largely because he never had a look in, anyway. What did happen was the FA sticking their nose in and stripping Terry of the captaincy. Again.

This then led to Capello leaving the England manager's position. Some would call that a blessing, but once again, an issue surrounding John Terry has had a detrimental effect on the England team, more so than his club. And, it could be argued, once again it was the FA's meddling that caused it. And argue it I shall.

You see, both times (after the Bridge affair and Ferdinand charge) it was the FA, rather than Capello, that stepped in to remove the armband. This in no small part led to Capello feeling undermined to the point of leaving the position. And it could have been avoided had they kept their collective noses out.

Now, I'm not saying that Terry is innocent, far from it. Nor am I saying he should stay in the England team, much less remain the England captain. But if the FA leaves the decision of who to name as captain up to the manager, surely they should leave stripping the captaincy up to the same man. Capello would have felt a huge pressure to take the armband off Terry anyway, in some form or other, but instead again the FA stepped in and left, in this case, both Terry and Capello feeling victimised. Compare England's turmoil with the calmness with which Chelsea have gone about their business in the same time period, and you can see the direct effect the Football Association's meddling has caused.

Whatever you think of Terry as a person, it's hard to deny that he's a bloody good footballer. It's part of what makes him so easy to despise, in the same way as Cristiano Ronaldo is easier to hate when you wish you had half the skill he possesses. There's arguments for Lescott, Jagielka etc. to step up, but none of them have really looked as solid in an England shirt as Terry has over the years. He's popped up with a few important goals and last-ditch saves too, including the off-the-line-or-slightly-behind-it against Ukraine at Euro 2012. Not to mention the number of times when, as captain, he's been seen clapping his hands together trying to gee up his teammates as a good captain should.

Like him or not, and like it or not, Terry has been a good captain and invaluable presence in the England setup. And, in my humble opinion as a faceless voice on the internet, he still had something to give. No doubt his retirement from international duty will prolong his Chelsea career for a season longer than if he'd kept on, but that won't have been anywhere near the front of his mind when the decision was made.

The decision was to save what's left of his tattered reputation, and also to allow him to play the victim while sticking two fingers up at the FA by pre-empting their most likely punishment should he be found guilty. And while it was Terry who instigated all of the issues surrounding him, I'd like to go on record and say that the FA has exacerbated the effect of every single one.

Back to the Future with Lampard and Gerrard?

Since England made light work of defeating Moldova 5-0 on Friday evening, we have been subjected to statements like "Lampard and Gerrard prove the critics wrong" and The Guardian's Michael Cox claiming: "England's midfield shift proves more successful than Holland's. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard work better together now because they have been forced to adapt their style".

The latter part of that is not wrong. Gerrard and Lampard have had to change their games in recent times. In the past when they have failed to perform to their best for England, the problem has always been that they are too similar. Both men wanted to be the one that breaks from midfield into attacking positions, with neither having the tactical discipline to hold their position while the other attacked.

Both men reached their peak as the attacking midfielder in their respective teams. Both Chelsea and Liverpool would play 4-3-3 systems to suit them. Gerrard allowed to make his powerful runs through midfield and Lampard his late dashes into the box. For England, this has never been the case. The two have been shunted into a 4-4-2 that has failed to get the best out of either of them. The 4-4-2 systems have been altered in many ways to try to accomodate both men.

Paul Scholes was a casualty of the preference for a Gerrard -  Lampard partnership as he rightfully complained of being played out position on the left side of midfield. Later, after the emergence of Owen Hargreaves, England began to use a holding midfielder, in theory to provide freedom for the aforementioned duo to attack. England's rigidity in persisting with a 4-4-2 formation meant that often Gerrard would play on the left of midfield with Lampard permitted to play something close to his Chelsea role.

The reliance on the 4-4-2 was likely a tactic aimed at recreating the shape of Manchester United's team because it is proven that Wayne Rooney performs better with a partner. We even witnessed the re-emergence of Emile Heskey for a brief stint in the England team under Fabio Capello.

Nowadays, Lampard and Gerrard are not the players that they used to be, both in the sense of style and quality. Lampard struggled last season to modify his game to Andre Villas-Boas' high intensity game and under Roberto Di Matteo, he does not have the same goal threat that he had earlier but he does now use his considerable passing skills in a deeper role in the team.

Gerrard, however, is perhaps going to find his adaptation a more difficult task. Gerrard, in his pomp, was a dynamic, direct footballer whose principle qualities were his long passing, shooting and runs through midfield. The team around him for both England and Liverpool has changed, now. Gradually, it looks as though Roy Hodgson will want to implement a more possession based game, much like Brendan Rodgers is doing at Liverpool.

Gerrard embodies what is so popular about Premier League football, but Barcelona and Spain are influencing football at the moment with their need to control games. They have inspired Brendan Rodgers and thus far this season, Gerrard has failed to impress, but for England he did show greater maturity to dictate play from a deeper position.

So the question has to be asked, why are England resorting to using Lampard and Gerrard again? Against Moldova, there was no risk. England were never going to lose or even draw this game. The two were able to play the more reserved game that they are adapting to with Tom Cleverley putting in a useful performance behind Jermaine Defoe.

Against stronger opposition it remains to be seen how Gerrard and Lampard would do together but it is unlikely that they will continue behind Cleverley because it would leave the team without a natural defensive midfielder. Of course, there are experienced options with Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry and Scott Parker but as Roy Hodgson plans for World Cup 2014 and Euro 2016, it is imperative that the long term replacements for these players are unearthed.

Holland may not have beaten Turkey in the most convincing manner, but whereas England defeated the team ranked 141st in the FIFA rankings (they have also lost 4-0 to Venezuela this year), Holland beat the team ranked 35th 2-0 with a new midfield.

Louis Van Gaal, the newly installed Holland manger, has recognised the pedestrian midfield of Nigel De Jong and Mark Van Bommel as a weakness and he acted quickly to replace them with possible long term replacements.

There are two years left before the World Cup, games against the likes of Moldova should be used to blood England's future internationals. Lampard and Gerrard will be 36 and 34 respectively at the next World Cup. It makes no sense to use players for qualifying that will, most likely, not be relied upon at that tournament.

Strip-tease

The close season is a dull time for a football fan. Saturdays drift by aimlessly, and it's only around now, with the minor consolation of pre-season friendlies getting underway, that there's any relief from an otherwise dreadful summer of drizzle, golf and the Women's World Cup.

The only thing that's kept me going is the steady stream of new kits being revealed, something I've kept on top of thanks to Football-Shirts.co.uk. Now, the issue of new home, away, 3rd, and sometimes even 4th (not to mention European home and away) kits being replaced every season is a rant in itself, and one I won't get into for now.

Because I wanted to focus on the kits themselves. If you sift through the standard, bland and oft-recycled Nike and Adidas templates, and try to kid yourself that Umbro's featureless 'Tailored' range isn't just them running out of ideas rather than the PR excuse of wanting to celebrate [insert team name here]'s proud heritage, there's actually some cracking designs knocking around.



Wycombe's offering, in particular, is a belter, as Kappa show that you can actually do something interesting with a fairly restricting template of two-tone blue quarters, with their wobbly (and, let's be honest, comedy breasts lookalike) chest panels giving the shirt an nice little feature. That said, it does suffer from the age-old Kappa issues of a sponsor that's far too high, and those damn shoulder logos.

But where's the fun in looking at nice shirts? Like a club just before closing time, there's some absolute munters hanging around trying desperately to grab somebody's attention. And what better place to start than at the top of club football?



Grim. I've seen someone wearing this shirt around town (Preston must have a fledgling Catalan population) and it looks just as bad in real life. I can appreciate that Nike want to do something interesting and different with one of its biggest clients, but this? Really? When have asymmetrical stripes EVER looked good? In fact, I'm reminded of this:



Still, it could be worse. You could be a Gillingham fan, stuck with wearing this. At least it's only a third shirt, so hopefully for Gills' sake they won't have to look at it too often. And just in case you were wondering, the shorts are pink, too.

But before I go, spare a thought for goalkeepers. You'd think they'd be fairly safe from the atrocities afflicting their outfield team-mates, after all, shouldn't they just be stuck in a plain green shirt and left to it? Not if you're the England goalkeeper!



This is, quite possibly, the worst kit of any sort I've seen since, well, England's away goalkeeper kit from Euro 96. What, you don't remember? Well let me refresh your memory...



It looks like a parrot was sick on a rainbow. I remember laughing about this kit when I was 8 in the playground. It was even worse when it was what Seaman was wearing in that heart-wrenching shooting against the Germans. And now that memory has made me cry, I think it's an appropriate time to go.

But hang on. How can I possibly write a blog about bad football shirts, and even go so far as to mention goalkeepers, without this fella getting in on the action. Jorge Campos, we at Half Time Oranges salute you!