Made himself unavailable for England selection. No big loss imo think he's being a bit of a t**t about it like i said in another thread its heavy what happened but thats his private life and this is his job.

Everton man it is then


Wonder what odds the bookies will give me on Bridge nutting JT when they meet at the weekend. Must be very bitter about it still if he's turned down the chance to be selected for England.

Thought long and hard about it for the past couple of weeks
2nil to John Terry
Right or wrong move by Bridge?

I don't think there are any right or wrong moves. Whatever he thinks will help him get over this, he should do. I hope he does smash John Terry, I can't wait to see if he shakes his hand in the line up.

This piece in the Guardian by Daniel Taylor is very interesting (it was published last night too). Looks like Bridge still feels very strongly about the situation. Taylor's assertion that "Bridge is not a naturally confrontational person" is also noteworthy. On the face of it looks like he's bottled it, but deep down I think Bridge knows that he wouldn't have been able to give his best for England in the same team as JT and that's why he's made this decsion. I get your point about it being his job, though I'm not sure how much you get paid for England appearences these days, but I think he feels he wouldn't be a useful part of the England squad given the current circumstances and so it would be better to leave it to someone else.

My money is him NOT shaking his hand. Now if you said shake him by the neck that would be a different story. f**king his England career up because of John Terry, nah he shouldnt be letting it happen for me.

What about the pride of playing for your country. Most people would walk through a brick wall to even be given a sniff of doing that

this is f**king depressing. i wish the judges never made that decision to let the papers publish this story out. before all that the english defence wasnt too bad. now its just f**ked. johnson is injured, ferdinand barely plays these days because of his back, terry has the affair thing, and ashley cole has a damaged ankle. FFS, seems our chances have got a whole lot worse.

i dont blame bridge at all. i am pissed at these f**king journalists and newspapers like the sun, NOTW etc etc going at lengths to just f**k up the morale of the team before the world cup just so they can sell more of their shoddy bullshit papers. its just pathetic and extremely reprehensible.

given that baines and warnock are having good seasons so far i guess then it makes sense to call both up for england and give them some international experience at the friendly(s?) coming up. baines might be beneficial for the first world cup match given he trains and plays with donovan (their star player) and would therefore have knowledge of how he plays, and thats our most crucial match. i just hope ashley cole makes it in time, because we bloody need him. bridge has had a so-so season anyway...if i try hard to see the positives, maybe this is a blessing in disguise, i dunno.

wind back to january we never had any of these problems. now it seems our primary defence is all but finished. if it isnt injuries, fitness etc its the f**king papers. if we f**k up in the world cup it'd be because of these sensationalist ba***rds having rattled the cages of the players mentalities before the big tournament. wankers.

The papers haven't f**ked your world cup bid - JT did that all on his own, maybe he should have thought about his mate before dicking his (ex)girlfriend.
Cant believe how you believe that the courts & the press should hush things up just because of a sports tournament.
If England don't win the WC, you can now blame the judges, the press - anyone except the players

my point is it's ruined morale. before the terry thing was made public things might have at least been better, and if we didnt win the WC it was because we lost fair and square. but look at us now, we're pretty much f**ked and the media is not stopping at anything for it. if its not terry, its cole, and look what they've done there. i bet theyre f**king happy cheryl has split and now they'll continue on building on that. all for the sake of selling papers.

If a player lets stories in the press get to his game i'd question whether he should be playing for us in the first place. Gone on for years and always will do. the press love nothing more than a story or 3 along the way and while the world cup is taking place. To put a fair bit of the blame on them is weak

I dont blame the lad tbh, he's obviously still hurting, I know it didnt happen till it was over, but Terry was sniffing whilst they were together, I know its his job, but I cant see him needing the money England pay.

I reckon Baines is in front of him now anyway.

There's no doubt that he partly did this to avoid a media circus during the WC, which would affect the entire team. It's one thing having a mate porking the mother of your child for a number of weeks, but it's another thing that happening, and then that being all anyone talks about for about a year.

Personally if it was me, I probably couldn't be in the same room as John Terry without punching him. Since Bridge is a squad player at best he did actually man up by stepping aside for the good of the team.

Wouldnt really need to sleep in the same room with him though. I just think he's let a big chance pass him by and all because of JT. Will be gutted in years to come once we win the WC
Most of the ex pro's i've heard interviewed today think Bridge has made a mistake

we need to get the english defence shaped up and sorted out now in these friendlies. is it true england has only arranged ONE friendly before the world cup!? wtf capello!

Dont think it makes a massive difference. Managers cant win in cases like this. Play too few they get slagged, play too many and its wtf is he doing the players will be f**ked before a ball is kicked.


In the Italian we trust

its important to still gell the team together through games, though. i wonder who fabio's going to lineup against egypt. i think given their lack of experiences, hart and baines should start. downing's been playing too recently.

I've seen enough of Downing in an England shirt, I f**king hope he's on a beach when the world cups being played.

fair play..who do you think should start on the left wing for the egypt match?

Normally Gerrard ain't it with Barry and Lampard in the middle.

i think near the end of the season when liverpool have confirmed their final position, gerrard to get some practise on the left in the remaining games.

Firstly we've got to get 4th and secodnly...

f**k that. The amount of times he's come back injured from England duty, I'd sooner play him in goal than help England. They've not exactly helped us in the past.

Don't blame Bridge one bit. I'd have done exactly the same. Fortunately Terry is the better player and more important to England.

oh come on, you cannot possibly be serious. even if gerrard gets injured he has a good month or two before the premiership resumes again. why not prepare for the WC for the meantime? i dont understand why you dont seem to care much for the world cup, paul

I don't care too much about it either, infact as I've gotten older I've progressively cared less and less about it. I think it's down to the players in whole honesty, aside from Gerrard, there's no England player I really like. Ferdinand, Terry & Co annoy me to the point I can't look at them without getting angry.

Most of the English footballers are thick chavs and people wonder why Wenger shows a lack of interest in them.

Your private and personal life should stay away from the sport. They're professionals and they're required to do their job. To back out of your job and on your Country because of personal issues is weak to me. Especially when there's a chance he could play a major role at the tournament.

Although I think he's been poor before & after this embarrassment and Baines would have been selected before him. Terry is a dirty cheating dog and his marriage is on the rocks, but he made the choice to be that failure and is letting it affect his game clearly as well. It's all pretty pathetic.

think thick chavs covers most footballers not just English ones. Although us at Burnley have the brightest in the box in Clarke Carlisle

The Judge had no choice but to let the papers publish. There was no legal grounds for him to prevent publication. The fact that Terry's side appeared in front of the Judge and put their case without informing the press, and then ludicrously claimed that they "didn't know" who the other side in the injunction hearing was, yet as soon as the Judge laid down an interim injunction (which he only did whilst he considered his judgment) ran off to fax the letter to every national newspaper threatening them if they chose to publish, certainly didn't help. Nor did their frankly ridiculous claim that the story should have been "super" injuncted (where there is an injunction preventing anyone from referring to the terms of the original injunction).

My experience working in this area of law around libel and freedom of expression leads me to the conclusion that the print media in this country are rotten to the core and to blame in most cases...... but not here. This was Terry's fault and Terry's legal team's fault.