On a wonderful weekend for John Terry.

Facebook is awash with City and United (Manchester, that is) trying to come to terms with the shift in power.City should take the title from United and when or if that happens, things will never be the same. Never.

Meanwhile on the other side of  Facebook. there is another tribe.  These are the people who like John Terry.  There can be nobody in the City United axis that like John Terry. Maybe the odd failed medium who predicted his transfer to Eastlands some summers earlier who wanted to get their "like" in early.  There are 10,000,000 plus people who like Arsenal.  I presume that they find "like" too strong an emotion for John.  Can you see where I am going with this?  Tottenham Hotspurs is "liked" by over a million.

I'm unsure of my exact feelings for John.  I never met the guy, but I have met a few professional footballers.  I had a lovely chat with Luther Blissett in a sandwich shop on a street corner in Bury. "What are you doing here?" Luther was doing some coaching at Gigg Lane at the time and was happy to chat and share with a complete stranger.  He confounded the stereotype of a professional footballer. Articulate and happy to interact.  I could have asked him about playing for AC Milan or scoring for England. A special moment sadly missed. I also met Christiano Ronaldo on a late Christmas shopping trip outside Lush opposite M&S in Manchester.  I had a Manchester United Calendar for the coming year and it was for my Partner's colleagues young son.  Christiano was unable to oblige with the requested autograph. His physique was something to marvel at. I put my hand on his shoulder and I felt a great toned body beneath my intrusive grip.  Only now can I rejoice that he was able evade my clutches without resorting to an Ashley Young style evasion of Shaun Derry's less delicate touch. His prone body on the Market Street Pavement is a haunting thought.

So I guess these are my poles between which John Terry must be placed.  Is he more like Luther or more like Christiano. I only have the things I read and hear and see of John to make my decision.  The first time he came across the Rodney, Rodney! radar would have been his ill fated night out with Jody Morris and their Wimbledon co-player whose name refuses to come. Des rings a bell.  Help me somebody.  Since then John has never been short of column inches. His family enjoy almost equal media prominence.  The stories are lurid and very disturbing.  So if I take all that into consideration I feel I must conclude I do not like John Terry.  He comes over like a man with little or no control. He looks selfish and self serving. If I saw him outside Lush I feel certain I would cross the road in the other direction.

Shortly a group of 12 people will have the same difficult task of judging him.  Did he mean what he is alleged to said as witnessed by some zealot lip reader?  Is he to be believed? What are his true motivations?  Does he enjoy a more Uruguayan sense of colour and racial tolerance?

Oh and by the way an unbelievable 2,059,544 like John Terry. I guess they haven't met him either, which might explain the figure.  If they had met Luther Blissett they might wish to have reconsidered.

The birth of a beautiful club

We return to the subject of "Money versus God" and the concurrent rebirths of both AC Ancona and QPR. You may recall from previous blogs setting up the contest where QPR got Briatore and Ecclestone and Ancona got the Pope. At that point as a veteran fan of the Hoops, I thought that disaster loomed and that Ancona would take the divine intervention and streak away. Money in football is no guarantee of success. Whereas Maradona proved that God can often come in at the most helpful times to save a sinner.

Now nearing the end of the season the picture is fast evolving where money is shifting into the final furlong a length or two to the good. Admittedly Ancona seem set for promotion and Serie B but they were in that slot from the day they kissed the Pope's ring. They have continued in a steady vein since the takeover. QPR on the other hand have dramatically stemmed form that would have guaranteed them a dip into the 3rd Division [old habits sorry] and are now developing a neck complaint looking up the table. All well and good but the true joy of this Lazarus like comeback [Mark, not the biblical one] has been the ability for Briatore to transform the whole fabric of the club, to turn them from a gun toting laughing stock of an operation, to a slick and sensitive club that is going places.

To me it's all marketing but it is just the kind of marketing that a club like QPR needs. The tradition of QPR is very glamorous. Since 1965 QPR have enjoyed some heady times and laced through that recent history have been players of immense skill and personality. The list is endless. No other club can boast a series of number 10's like it. Briatore and his sidekick Amit Bhatia can constantly be heard preaching the gospel of the club traditions and the power and passion of the support. QPR appear rich but they are using their heads not their wallets to build a sustainable viable club. "We are not Chelsea". is the mantra. Who wants to be? You only have to look at the likes of Terry and Lampard and their pay packets to see the poisoness route Chelsea have chosen. Pay packets that appear to all of us as indecent and obscene, but to Frank and John the slip is always half full.

The new kids in Hammersmith will build something unique and precious because that is what that have bought in it's rawest form in the very first place. Exciting days lie ahead. Briatore made Benetton Shops and F1 success out of thin air and just watch him create the greatest football club in the world. You read it hear first.