Terry deserves support of England fans

John Terry is a man who many believe committed an unspeakable wrong when having an affair with a team-mate's ex-girlfriend and therefore thoroughly deserved to be denied the England captaincy in the lead-up to the World Cup. However, with that supposed affair never actually proved, with both player and the other party involved always denying it, could it be that Terry deserves nothing but honest praise for the way he has handled himself over the past year?

Many players would have taken Fabio Capello's decision to take away the captaincy in a way that would be to many of us entirely understandable. We all make mistakes, we're all accused of things that are never as black and white as they are made out to be, and we all have to deal with our actions in private. However, being human also means that we're liable to take criticism in entirely the wrong way. It therefore is admirable that a man in the public eye and for whom playing for his country and wearing the armband is the ultimate honour took Capello's decision without questioning, the Chelsea man apparently ending the meeting with a promise to continue to do everything he can for the team and those concentrating on the international football betting should remember this.

Terry has excelled this season at Chelsea and showed at the weekend against Manchester City that rare quality in central defenders nowadays: the quality of preventing the opposition from scoring even if it means risking injury. With Terry captaining Chelsea for the best part of a decade now, he has the experience that not many other defenders for England can boast and anyone who has bet on football will recognise this.

Self-belief is obviously one thing the defender possesses in abundance, and that's what England need at the back, especially when coming up against superior teams. If Terry can convey this self-belief to his younger team mates on the pitch and perhaps lead his team to success in the Euros, it could be that he does go down in the England history books after all, despite what may or may not have gone on off the pitch.