VIDEO: AFC Bournemouth’s Lee Bradbury & Matt Tubbs

Published on Nerve Sport Blogs on February 12th 2012

In a very special video feature, we speak to manager Lee Bradbury and new signing Matt Tubbs about AFCB’s recent signings, last week’s result and their hard push for promotion in the coming months.The guys also add their 2 cents to the current England situation, and an interesting pick for captain from Mr Matt Tubbs.


Make sure to watch it in HD!



 Interview by Toby Gray. Video credit to Steven Baldwin. Thank you to AFC Bournemouth for facilitating filming.

Super Bowl Adverts of 2012: The Best (& Worst)

For all those tuning into watch the always much anticipated Superbowl XLVI, especially in Britain, it’s easy to pave over one of the biggest traditions in the States; choosing your favourite ads, for which they are plentiful. Each year, companies invest millions into developing the defining ads, and with a Superbowl ad slot the single most expensive in broadcasting at around $3.5million per 30 seconds, there’s as much to lose as there is to gain. But the rewards can be spectacular, with 2012′s game brining in over 111 million viewers in the U.S. alone, it can be a relatively cheap form of advertising, if it works. Last years success stories were as diverse as a grateful beaver to a mini Dark Lord, and this years endeavours would take some beating to top Jim Beam’s touching biopic which found crowning glory in 2011.

So without further due, we present you our favourite (and least favourite) adverts of this year’s Superbowl. Enjoy.

 Doritos – “Baby Sling”

Doritos got the right ideas with their superbowl advertisement campaign. Instead of spending time and money designing and promoting their own ads, they set up a competition for fans to produce a Doritos commercial, and the winner gets $1million dollars alongside their ad featured during the big game. ‘Crash the Superbowl’ as Doritos coined is now in its 6th year and each year they whittle the top ads down from over 6000, to just 5. All 5 contenders were fantastic, but our favourite, and eventual winner of 1 of 2 sought after spots has to be “Sling Baby”, in which a spoilt, contemptuous pre-pubescant gets his comeuppance when he pushes his sweet grandmother and innocent baby just a step too far. Despite signalling that horrific endangerment  of children is better than selfishness, as ad is pure, cute gold, and even more impressive that it’s a fan made production.

Honda CRV- Matthew Broderick’s Day Off

One for the film buffs, Honda’s rehash Broderick’s iconic film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was used to show that sometimes, just sometimes, there are better things in life, and a Honda CRV is one of them. Packed full of references to the original film, and using all the fancy gizmos of the flashed up Honda, Broderick is able to avoid his foolish boss and live life likes it’s meant to be, by singing in oriental parades and scaring small children in museums, obviously. Broderick is then so wrapped up in his relaxation day; he manages to get his car stolen by a runaway valet. Just another day in Hollywood it seems, but we still loved it.

Chrysler – It’s Half Time America

Now we’re not American, but this one runs deeper than that. Despite exemplifying the U.S.’s fortitude towards the crippling economic crisis, Chrysler create a society fighting back, and offers up some awe inspiring words of wisdom from the one and only Clint Eastwood. Beautifully shot with a delivery nothing short of perfect from Eastwood, he paints a world of hope and togetherness in the face of a misty future, and a determination to lead America back into prosperity. Now Chrysler could be criticised for exploiting hyped U.S. patriotism and disenchantment with the economy to essentially sell a product (an expensive one at that), when supposedly no one has any money and should be focusing on ‘rebuilding’. But for what it’s worth, this was a fantastically creative effort from Chrysler, who cleverly captured the hearts and possibilities of an American public wavering. Plus, we’d have Clint Eastwood as our gristled cheerleader any day.

Toyota Camry – It’s Reinvented

One of the funnier ad’s we’ve seen, Toyota show how inventive they’ve really gotten with their new Camry by claiming they just “couldn’t stop inventing” afterwards. Now the ad doesn’t actually show what’s been reinvented with this new car (we assume not the wheel – get it?) but it’s clever nonetheless. And who wouldn’t want a time machine baby?!

We had a pretty tough time deciding between this Camry advert, and the more serious, sentimental attempt from Toyota, which you can see here, but we’re confident we went the right route.

Volkswagen – The Dog Strikes Back

Now this ones a bit of marmite. We loved the concept of the advert in itself; a fat dog must lose weight and avoid all the finest temptations in order to fit through the doggy door and chase the volkswagen of his dreams. But the unnecessary addition of the star wars reference tolast years advert drew it back somewhat. Why did we need to be reminded on how successful last years advertising campaign was? Sure it was nicely intertextual but essentially, it was a fairly lame attempt from Volkswagen to further milk the massive success of ‘LittleDarth’. Despite this, the advert was made a whole lot more impressive when tagged with the teaser advert released pre –game, which brilliantly recreates the “Imperial March” theme using just the barks of dogs. Now obviously, with the recurrent Star Wars theme, the main problem is the stretched link between that and the dog? Is there even one? The Star Wars reference just seems superfluous and ‘stuck on’ at the end, which is disappointing. But nonetheless, the original ad was brilliant, and huge credit has to go to whoever choreographed that teaser which was essentially perfectly executed and deliciously nerdy.

Acura – Seinfeld

Probably one of the more higher budget ads this year as securing Jerry Seinfeld’s signature is far from cheap, but his hilarious performance deserves credence. In order to get the 1st ever Acura NSX, Jerry must use all at his disposal to convince the 1st in line to hand over the keys. Deliciously creative and amusing, Jerry finally gets his man until Jay Leno turns up to steal them away, offering up a flying squirrel suit; who wouldn’t want one of them? So essentially this one delivers what Seinfeld’s name signifies; fantastic stand up from one of the legends of comedy.  A novel idea for Acura was made even better by the whole host of additional extended content they posted online, making it one of the stand out superbowl hits, notching up nearly 18 million viewssince the end of January.

Bud Light – Rescue Dog

It would be impossible to feature the best ads of the superbowl without one on beer, and Budweiser wins for us this year. Combining 2 of man’s best friends, Budweiser create the dream pet; a dog that can give complete companionship and (probably more importantly for these guys) a loyal delivery servant of the holy suds. A real life rescue dog, and a nice touch from Budweiser to raise a quarter of a million dollars to help rescue dog’s, which we think paves over any ‘playful’ slave labour from the lovable ‘Weebo’.

 Worst Ads

Bridgestone – “Performance Sports”

Bridgestone tyres went the sport route by making a series of 30 second spots that highlighted their new infusion of noise absorbing “Serenity” technology into the worlds of basketball, American football, ice hockey etc, revolutionising the games as we know them. A strenuous link to sport at best is made even worse when the supposed Bridgestone ‘experts’, fronted byPS3’s ad starlet Kevin Butler can’t even fathom a supposed purpose for this innovation. The best line has to be “how will this revolutionise the game?” “It’s quite”. Just in case the NBA started playing their games during nap – time at pre-school, we can’t really see the advantage. In fact the noise of the basketball is pretty endearing, it would have worked so much better if they’d decided put a stop to that incessant squeak of basketball shoes, the noise that’s actually annoying. But then there would be no link to sport!

Furthermore, the quietness doesn’t  even transcribe to the American football ad, but instead it completely ruins the game by allowing for complete control of the ball, essentially ruining the sport as a competitive spectacle. Nice going Bridgestone, now keep your hands off ‘soccer’.

Audi – “Vampires”

Okay so vampires are cool again thanks to Twilight, or at least they are to teenage girls. So when Audi decided to market their £30,000+ car to ride that wave, did they not realise that most people that age probably don’t have those funds at their disposal? It’s also quite confusing. Is the ad proposing that the uncontrollably power of Audi’s mighty LED highlights is enough the say ‘#SoLongVampires’ and kill them all off? But we thought vampires were cool? So inadvertently, buying an Audi is such a momentous choice, it makes you idiotically turn your friends into speckles of vampire dust and ignore a chorus of deathly screams so you remain smooth. And since when was the power of headlights a selling point? Especially if it turns you into a mass murderer. It doesn’t work Audi, just no.

Fiat 500 Abarth – Seduction

This ad aims to depict the sensual, sleek sexiness of the new Fiat 500 Abarth by personifying it as a sensual, sleek sexy Italian woman, who becomes worryingly bi-polar in her reaction to his this mans gawk. So after a series of sexual cliches, including the ‘longing pull of the tie’ and the ‘speck of coffee foam falls provocatively on cleavage’ our man snaps out of his daydream to realise it’s really a car beside him. 2 problems. Not only does our man display a concerningly overwhelming sexual attraction to cars, to which therapy may be a serious option, the ad reminds us that beautiful cars are exactly like beautiful woman – open to objectification by men.  Obviously.

One for Discussion

1st Bank

1st bank went the risky route by making a deliberately dull ad encouraging viewers to go to the bathroom, safe in the knowledge that they won’t miss one of the ‘exciting ads’. But to what effect did this have? Was this really worth the $3.5million placement cost the Superbowl charges? But was it original enough to create a memorable ad? We really couldn’t decide, so we’ve left it to you. Have a look and tell us what you think, because we sure were stumped by this one.

What are your best and worst Super Bowl Adverts of 2012? Do you agree with our list? Let us know by leaving us a comment!

INTERVIEW: AFC Bournemouth Legend Steve Fletch

Published in February 2012's edition of Nerve Magazine. 

It has been some few months for Steve Fletcher. His 19th season with AFC Bournemouth has seen him step down from the assistant manager role in November to focus on his playing career, as well as netting a dramatic 93rd minute equaliser against Walsall last month. The 39 year old talks openly about his humbleness towards his legendary status at the club, his future hopes for AFC Bournemouth, and his 'greedy' plans for his last ever game. 


Still buzzing from that header?

Yeah I am, it was a great moment for me. First goal of season, and favourite moment of 2011/12 so far. I just hope there’s a few more to come! I thought maybe coming on on Saturday [against Notts County] I was going to grab the winner, but it wasn’t to be. It would have been nice if I could have managed back to back goals, but that’s just me being greedy I suppose!

Explain the feeling, and the praise you got after the goal. Twitter was going crazy for you.

It was amazing. I didn’t actually set up my Twitter account until after I’d stepped down as assistant manager because I didn’t feel it was appropriate. But it was my daughter who mentioned it to me so I set it up, and it was going mental after the game. It took me half the journey home from Walsall to reply to all of messages people were sending me!

"Probably the biggest reason I didn't leave was my heart was here"

Did you reply to everyone’s messages?

I felt obliged to reply to every single person yeah so I made the effort. Whether I can do that every time I score I don’t know! But I was in such a good mood, and I did 1 or 2 so I thought I’d better do everybody. Maybe I should have just done a general message! It was great though, I had fantastic support. People were coming up with all the different stories about where they were when they heard the goal. I read about people driving around beeping their horns along with other people so obviously they were all listening to the game. It was a great feeling.

Of all the goals for the club, how high up did it rank?

It’s up there. It was important because it kept the away run going, and kept the spirits high because we’d just had a few good results. We came from 2-0 down after playing a terrible first half to rolling our sleeves up, going out there and proving we can do to others, what’s happened to us in the past when we’ve relinquished 2-0 leads. To do it in 93^rd minute with a great header and a great cross right in front of our supporters it felt like a win, even though it only got us a point. The lads were buzzing in the dressing room after.

What’s been the secret behind AFC’s form of late? A fantastic run of has pushed you up to 9^th in the table.

It’s been our away form that’s kept us there. People ask me this over the years, you always have seasons where your home form might be great and your away forms terrible, or vice versa, which was until of late, the case here. I know we’ve won a couple at home recently, but to start with, our home form was terrible. Whether it’s we got nervous at home I don’t know, you can’t put a finger on it. We might just relax a little bit more away from home, but to climb up the table is down to us being able to string a few wins together, rather than letting to them slip. When you’re down near the bottom, you only need 4 or 5 wins out of 6 or 7 games and you climb the table rapidly. We’re not just going to jump into 4^th position in a couple more wins because teams near the top are winning as well.

I reckon we’ve been a bit of an eye – opener for some clubs who probably turn around and say well ‘why can’t we go and do what Bournemouth have just done? They were in 18^th/19^th 6 weeks ago, and now look at them, flying high as one of the most in-form teams.’ But we can’t rest on our laurels, if we do that we’d soon get kicked in ‘orchestra strolls’, and back down where we don’t belong. So we’ve got to make sure we go into every game and we’re not complacent because that’s the one thing in football. We have to very disciplined to go out there and have the drive and desire to do, and get where we’ve got already.

"It took me half the journey home to reply to all the messages people were sending me!"

What are the goals for the next month or so? Secure mid-table or push for promotion?

If you’d have asked me 3 months I would have loved a mid – table position, but a weeks a long time in football, and 2 months is an eternity. Things change day to day and they have done over the last few weeks. All of a sudden we’ve gone from people saying we’re going to struggle down the bottom end to we’ll be happy with a mid-table position to know people talking about us in and around the playoffs. We’re only just over the halfway stage of the season, there’s a hell of a long way to go but we’ve put ourselves in a half decent position, and an unbelievable position if you look at us at the end of September. We would have never contemplated being in the situation we are now, but we’re there on merit and we’ve got to make sure we apply ourselves in right way and carry it on.

This is your 19^th season with AFC. Was there ever a point in your career where you considered leaving for other things?

No I’ve never wanted to leave. My move in 2007 was forced but luckily manager Eddie Howe brought me back in January 2009. I’ve had opportunities, and windows have come along a few times in the late 90’s/ early 00’s from some half decent clubs. But I’ve always thought the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Don’t get me wrong, I’m like any player (I’m different now at 39 ½ years old), I was ambitious when I was younger. But it had to be the right club and I just didn’t feel it was going to progress me any better than Bournemouth. Whether that would have proved right or wrong – who knows? But I don’t have any regrets.

 I think I would be a liar if I said I don’t think about what could have happened, because you do. I know the clubs that came in and I look back and wonder – what if? But I’ve never turned round to myself and say “I wish I’d done that” or “I wish I’d taken that opportunity”, but you do sit there sometimes and look back on your career and wonder.

I have no regrets at all, I’ve had a fantastic 19 years here and another 18 months left on my contract, so hopefully there’s a few more scripts to written here!

What are some of the bigger clubs that came in for your signature?

I had an opportunity to go to QPR, Preston and Burnley, as well as Luton Town when they were in the Football League. For whatever reason it didn’t happen, but probably the biggest reason was that my heart was here. I would never swap the fantastic moments I’ve had in the 19 years I’ve been at Dean Court. I’ve had special moments that the majority of players don’t get ever in their career. Just to see my big ugly mug on the stand [outside Seward Stadium] has to be one of the most honourable things anyone can ever do for a player.

"I've been here half my life and don't want to leave for nobody"

You stepped down as assistant manager in November 2011, how was it as an experience? Was it something you anticipated you’d be doing at this stage in your career, or was it more spontaneous?

I had contemplated it but it happened so quick. Me and Bradders [manager Lee Bradbury] were put into the position within days of Eddie Howe leaving [for Burnley].  I had a fantastic 10 months with a great insight into the club and how things happen, so I was enjoying both sides of playing and managing. People ask me whether at times I found it difficult – I didn’t. I found it fantastic; I could enjoy my football as well as having an input on how we play.

Why did you decide to hang up the managerial boots?

For whatever reasons, I just felt that at that time, (and I spoke to chairman Eddie Mitchell in depth) that it was probably best for me to go back to playing for the time being, and re-evaluate my situation. He’s offered me positions at the club as long as he’s involved and that’s fantastic. Hopefully, whether it’s at the end of this season, or next season, I’ll get back involved in the coaching side of things.

I see myself here. It’s my ambition to be part of the management set up at the club,  whether it be next year, 3 years, 5 years, it’s something I want to do. I’ve been here half my life and I don’t want to leave for nobody really.

But you never know in football. It’s pointless saying I’m definitely going to do this or that because you just don’t know what happens in football. But if I had a choice, I would love to stay here and help the club progress.

In your last ever game for AFC, would you rather score a hat – trick and lose, or play poor and win?

[long silence]

Do the team play poorly?

Yeah, the team and you have a shocker.

[Immediately] Nah I’d rather score a hat-trick! (laughs). Now that is being very very selfish but if it’s going to be my last ever game I might as well leave with a bang! Unless the game was really important then I would obviously change it, but if there was nothing on the game I’d take the hat-trick.

Team quiz – Get to know the AFC Bournemouth changing room.

Best Dancer?

Warren Cummings, but best/ worst. Change that to ‘funniest’.

Biggest mouth?

Warren Cummings

Most quiet?

Shaun McDonald

Most angry?

We haven’t really got any angry lads, they’re all quite placid really. Harry Arter, but mostly at himself.

Best trainer?

[long, long deliberation] Probably captain Adam Barrett, he tries to do everything right.

Worst trainer?

Steven Cook, even he admits it himself.

Weirdest pre – game routine?

If they have they keep it to themselves because I haven’t seen anything! Stephane Zubar goes through a little routine, but keeps it to himself.

Any – pre game music?

I used to put it on, but Pierce, Taylor and even Pughey’s had a crack at it of late. There’s a variation depending on what we want to listen to. Thomas and Taylor like their Hip Hop and R&B, Symes likes his dance and Wally will dance along to Girls Aloud! It’s whoever gets in the room first and puts their iPod on!


Want the full picture? Check out the designed interview as it appeared in Nerve Magazine here!

England Captaincy Dilemma: ‘Joe Hart Offers the Best Future Solution’

In wake of the recent strip John Terry’s England captaincy, we way up the best 3 options for the three lions band to find a a reliable, strong and effective leader going into the Euro 2012 finals.

Steven Gerrard

Picture by 'I POST RANDOM PICTURES'

Gerrard is the obvious choice, and clear bookmakers favourite. With nearly 90 international caps to his name and 9 years experiencing in captaining Liverpool under his belt, Gerrard does, on paper appear the perfect solution for Fabio Capello. Despite the England boss naming Manchester Utd star Rio Ferdinand as the successor to John Terry in 2010, persistent injuriesmeant Gerrard led England through the 2010 World Cup campaign, and the early stages of 2012 qualification, before Terry regained the armband.

Little can be contested that Gerrard has the experience to lead the England team, but if Capello is looking a solid captain for the future, the Liverpool legend may not prove so smart. At 31, he only has a few years at best left at international level, and increasingly persistent injuries could begin to take their toll. Gerrard hasn’t played for England since November 2010 and with Capello’s proposed plans to re-build the team with a new crop after a failed World Cup, there was always the distinct possibility that Gerrard wouldn’t even travel to Euro 2012, even more so if Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere was fit for the season. So is a player not certain of a place really worthy of the captain’s armband?

Who else is saying it? – Former England Managers Graham Taylor and Terry Venables, Arsenal legend Ian Wright and former Newcastle strike Alan Shearer.

Caps: 89

Age: 31

Odds*: 4/5  (1.8/1)

Scott Parker

Picture by Neil Tingle/Sportsphoto/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

The punter’s choice, and going by Twitter, Parker is the perfect candidate for the role. A calm, level – headed professional who exuberates class with every touch on the pitch. Surely he’s the perfect person? He’s been excellent for Tottenham this season, but again at 31, he’s hardly a choice for the future. A short term solution possibly, Parker may be a leader, but he has never lead  in such a high profile way and throwing him into fierce scrutiny of the role so close to the finals could very well backfire.

Who else says it? – Iconic singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, Daily Mirror Chief Sport Writer Oliver Holt.

Caps: 10

Age: 31

Odds* – 9/2 ( 5.5/1)

Joe Hart

Picture by 'I-LOVE-BARCELON'.

A formidable figure, Hart has commanded the #1 jersey for both Manchester City and England in the last 18 months, and for the first time since Seaman, England have an obvious choice between the sticks. If Hart remains fit, and continues to develop at the rate he has done, he can stay #1 for the next 10 years. He is clearly commanding of his defence and a popular personality within the dressing room, and at 24, he is arguably old, and mature enough to take on the ultimate role.

There are vastly more experienced players at just 16 caps, and no experience at big tournaments but Hart has the temperament to deal with it.  What England needs is a settled captain, so the issue can be firmly put to bed and the team can concentrate on playing, rather than placing too much emphasis on a status that other top ranked teams hold little value in.

The same case may be made for Hart as Parker, in that he is too inexperienced, but as a mature head on young shoulders, he seems the perfect long term solution for England, going far past the Capello era which looks set to finish after 2012.

Who else says so? – Legendary commentator Jon Motson.

Caps: 16

Age: 24

Odds* – 6/1

NERVE’S PICK: JOE HART

*Odds according the Sky Bet on 03/02/12

COMMENT: Stripped of the captaincy – can Terry even go to the Euro’s now?

Never short of attention, Terry falls directly into the spotlight again today with news from the FA chairmen David Bernstein coming through early this morning. Following the decision to delay the trial charging Terry with racist misconduct against QPR’s Anton Ferdinand until after the Euro 2012 finals, the FA concluded a player cannot lead a team with such serious allegations looming over them. But what now? Debates have already sparked a light on Twitter and such on who will succeed the Chelsea legend, but an equally serious dilemma faces Capello; can Terry even go to Euros now?

Let us remember this is not the first time Terry has been stripped of the ultimate honour in football, but cast our mind back to the Wayne Bridge debacle in 2010, which threatened both his international and club career. Fans and commentators across the land were disgusted that someone could do such a thing to a fellow English compatriot. But a year is a long time in football and all faith was restored when he regained captaincy in March 2011 after a prolonged injury to Terry’s then successor; Rio Ferdinand.

This times different though. An interpersonal bust up between the private fracas of professional footballers is one thing, but allegations of in – game racist abuse is a whole other ball park, and for that (if the allegations are true)  there is an increasingly misty horizon for Terry.

Oliver Holt of the Mirror has reported that Terry is considering retirement from international football after the decision, albeit nothing has been confirmed, but if there are grounds to that report, it certainly appears Terry is looking to jump before he’s pushed. His inclusion would, according to Daily Star’s Chief Sports writer and Sky Sports Sunday Supplement presenter Brian Woolnough be a “media circus”, and judging by past tournaments, England must learn from their mistakes and avoid media controversy at all costs if they face any chance of success.

“So now Capello now faces a problem: risk the possibility of in-camp hostility and division by picking him, or lose out on his undoubtedly natural leadership ability on and off the pitch if he leaves him out.”

It is not to say that the professionalism of the modern day footballer will not be able to deal with external media pressures, they cope with it week in week out, but every training session and press conference will be heavily scrutinized for divisions and player allegiances. How will the camp act in the inevitable tension between Terry and Rio Ferdinand, who may be forced to work and train alongside a man accused of abusing his younger brother? Surely no amount of professionalism can counter act raw emotions such as these, leaving the serious dilemma of sacrificing one for the other.

So now Capello now faces a problem: risk the possibility of in-camp hostility and division by picking him, or lose out on his undoubtedly natural leadership ability on and off the pitch if he leaves him out. The FA have emphasised that he is still free to pick Terry for the summer, but more and more arguments are racking up to suggest taking him may be more trouble than it’s worth. Capello’s response will be one to watch, as he wasn’t even consulted over the decision, so it remains to be seen whether he will stand by the man he has remained faithful to, or whether he will opt for fresher, ‘cleaner’ blood.

Phil Jagielka (left) and Gary Cahill (right )offer solid solutions to Terry's absence.

And there is no shortage of such blood. Centre back options are plentiful, with Cahill, Jagielka, Ferdinand, Jones and even Smalling all in with meaningful cases for making the squad. Notably, Ferdinand will surely make the cut, yet despite possibly falling short of a starting XI spot, with Cahill and Jones offering the most viable options at the back, he holds the experience that will compensate for Terry’s exclusion. So much is to be held to contend that leaving Terry out maybe isn’t such a big decision, as going by Capello’s mantra of “who plays well gets in”, he would do well to allow the new crop to prove themselves on the biggest stage.

Interestingly, England have won 65% of games with Terry as captain and 63% without, so any ‘pivotal’ influence seems somewhat exaggerated, but what few can argue is he can become a driving force, for which he has proved on countless occasions for both Chelsea and England.

Despite contentions over his influence, one problem persists: the role of the FA in determining Terry’s fate. Following the decision to delay the pending trial until July, just 9 days after Euro 2012, which was justified as a method of helping England, Terry and the FA, has forced a hand they would certainly have rather avoided. Their difficult decision to revoke his captaincy is a pre-emptive effort to clean any egg off their face before any are even cracked. But in doing so, they have hung Terry out to dry and despite stating vehemently that “this decision in no way infers any suggestion of guilt in relation to the charge made against John Terry”, it’s difficult to concur any other reasoning behind the move. Obviously the FA didn’t want the case looming over the tournament, but it seems puzzling that they’ve made the decision in such a way, and by not even conferring with Capello have singled themselves out to even more scrutiny from the echelons of the football stratosphere.

The tensions the looming Terry trial will create are best avoided by the England camp. SUPERNATURALFAN90

Should they stand by Terry? Or do they need to uphold the professionalism needed in dealing with such serious issues? Chelsea coach Andre Villas- Boas has come out to fully back his man, but the FA seem all too comfortable in abandoning the target so long as it maintains their ‘traditional’ value.

The last thing the FA want to do is look weak in the face of adversity, but by doing so have split both opinion and allegiances by making the first, solitary move. Obviously the whole issue has gone on far too long, and in contrast to the Suarez/ Evra racism row, which was put to bed almost immediately after a swift review by the FA, the Terry/Ferdinand saga became criminal before the FA could react. As soon as it became out of the FA’s hands, it was inevitably going to become complicated, but for them to come out and authoritatively infer a such a level of guilt, regardless of their claims to the other, purely adds further fuel to their blazing fire.

There are, of course two sides to every coin, and some may claim that the decision, however hard for the FA was the correct one. Say for example, Terry isn’t stripped and England pull out a 66’esc campaign with his trophy lifting glory enshrined in English sporting history, but just days later is convicted of racial abuse. What then? The (2^nd) greatest moment in English international football would have a gloomy black cloud loomed over it; a sour aftertaste to its iconic status. Of course Terry hasn’t been convicted yet, but rather feels “disgusted” at the claims against him. But the FA couldn’t risk it, there is far too much at stake. Their decision proposes they are less concerned with the trial in 5 months time, but what is right and wrong in football. For what it’s worth, that doesn’t leave much to be desired for the FA’s treatment of its players, in that before the court of justice has spoken Terry has been thrown to the wolves. But it does work in the idealistic desires of English football, in achieving that timeless success to be paraded for years to come, even if that comes at the expense of a potentially innocent man, who arguably, shouldn’t have been re-given the band in the first place.

The next question that remains for Capello is who can succeed Terry. Ferdinand has ruled himself out, and Twitter has gone mad with speculation and rumour all day long. Nerve’s next blog will way up the best options for the Lions armband, but for as far as Terry’s involvement in England’s campaign, there seems little room for the controversy that would surround his inclusion, and the risk is counter active. For what he can offer in terms of experience and complete dedication to the cause seems outweighed by the impossibility of a completely non – partisan dressing room. Say what you will about the FA’s choice and the treatment of Terry, inevitably, people will place England’s success or failure down to Capello’s big decisions in the coming weeks, and for what it’s worth, he may be better placed putting the Terry saga firmly on the backburner, and concentrate building a solid, unified team for the future