John Terry Retires from International Football, but doesn't Retire from making the Front Pages

Good old JT has no problem making everything all about him. He plays the card of victim time and time again, when in reality it is often he who has instigated the circumstances for which he is spinning a line of 'poor old me'. His PR team and personal agenda has seen him retire from international football this week after he claimed the FA made his career for the national side 'untenable'. Although the FA are never really entirely blameless JT bought this one on all by himself. Firstly, 'retiring' from international football is a cop out. He just doesn't fancy flying all over Europe during the next two years to help his country try and quality for a tournament he probably won't play in (Terry will be 34 and a bit by the time Brazil rolls 

around) and instead would rather sit at home in west London and distance himself from a team and country that's supported him time and time again. The fact the FA have only just got round to hearing the racism case where Terry is accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand is incredible (Suarez was tried and found guilty over the Evra affair within 2 months). Over 11 months and an international tournament later he is finally being investigated by the English governing body after being acquitted by the Crown Prosecution Service on July 13th of this year.  Although he did use the words "fucking black cunt" and "fucking knob head" towards Anton Ferdinand he was not proven guilty as no one could tell if his angry words were a question or statement of intent according to Justice Riddle. Terry was rightly stripped of the captaincy and some have argued it actually cost Fabio Capello his job as England coach, although many would have been pleased to see the back of the Italian, Terry was again at the heart of the action and a stimulus for the sacking.  The case against Terry also saw Rio Ferdinand missing out on the Euro's as Terry had made the camp very uneasy and the 'footballing reasons' Roy Hodgson stated for leaving out Ferdinand  probably had more to do with keeping a happier dressing room than anything the Manchester United man was doing on the pitch.  Now Terry is gone, Ferdinand has tried to throw his hat back in the ring, but bringing him back would be an opportunity missed by Hodgson and England, and would also mean a real loss of respect for the manager who will have gone back on his previous word and will suffer from the players if he does indeed choose to give Rio another shot.  With Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Ryan Shawcross these younger England prospects have a chance of emerging as a new, younger group of center backs where there is decent strength in depth, competition and hunger for the starting positions to push England through the qualifying campaign, gain experience and play at the World Cup in 2014.  Bringing back Rio is just more of the same, and now he is past his best and injury prone, it's not worth the risk of bringing him in.  A new dressing room minus the personality of Terry could be just what England need to push on, and by 'retiring' JT has done Hodgson a favor, and getting himself out the picture before Roy had to.  

The dressing room without Terry will surely make it a more pleasant place to be around, and with Steven Gerrard captain, the players look more united as a group without the presence of one prominent character accused of racism, womanizing and upsetting fellow players in the squad means one less of this type of character England must deal with, although I'm sure they'll still have more than their fair share!

So it's goodbye to John Terry for a career well done internationally (for the most part) as a footballer, but good riddance to the personality and man that seems to cause more unrest than he solves, even when he was leading his country as a captain.