Handbags and Handshakes

I'm not well.

I hate having colds. They're designed to just appear when you least expect them and make the whole world seem shitty for days and there's nothing you can do about it to make it all go away.

A bit like the various "Footballers have sex with women that they're not supposed to" stories circulating the tabloids.

There was far too much media hype surrounding a football game because two men on opposite sides of the pitch had sex with the same woman and one of them totally shouldn't. It became a mini Big Brother moment where John Terry and Wayne Bridge came face to face for the first time during the Man City vs Chelsea pre-match handshake and this frenzy had suddenly been created whereby everyone was circling like vultures waiting for Bridge to totally bitchslap Terry upside the face.

I'll tell you for something. It was NEVER going to happen.

Oh my God. Bridge didn't shake Terrys hand. That was it. That was all that happened and Sky TV laugh all the way to the bank not because they orchestrated all this...because it was little to do with them, but because the nothing-is-private nature of the British public all wanted to gawp at two men who have a deep personal issue explode.

John Terry did something he shouldn't have done, and now he's been found out he feels like a proper idiot. Of course he does. He lost the England captaincy which is a much bigger blow than many would think over it. I don't condone what happened, but he and Bridge are professionals and while they had little choice over the League game this weekend about being on the same pitch, while both men probably given the choice would rather not be on the same patch of turf, they're professional enough to get the job done for 90 minutes and do whatever it is they do at home. They were never going to create headlines that day for anything other than the rejected handshake Bridge promised, and the football that was played. Now the media circus can end and we can go on with our lives.

But it can't, can it. England have a friendly against Egypt this week and now the focus is on booing Terry every time he gets the ball. Why? What possible good could that do the team? Write shit about him on blogs if you must. Post stuff on message boards to get the message across and chat crap with your mates, but when it comes to an International match, where you're supposed to cheer your team to victory, all you will be doing by booing John Terry is helping the opponent to win. Some football fans those people will be.

Don't get me wrong. John Terry deserves the personal heartache he's getting from losing his friend, a great deal of self-respect and the support of the England manager, but he's making a (very decent) living out of the sport he works for and all he wants to do on Wednesday is help England win a game of football.

I would gladly support him in that because that's what I'd do for my national team. I won't because I'm not English and as such don't care an awful lot about the result, but if I were and did I would.

In other news, Grundy and I have finished booked the next two On a Thursday nights and have started booking the May date as well. Bands are on the right hand side somewhere. Fun times.