http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/721715/JUST-TYPICAL-TERRY-THOUGHT-HED-ESCAPE.htmlJUST TYPICAL - JT THOUGHT HE'D ESCAPE REPRIMAND Skipper didn't see sacking coming
TERRY: Denied affair to pal Zamora
By Neil Ashton, 06/02/2010
HE lay on the masseur's table, not cocky but confident this was just another episode he could breeze through.
Despite the writing appearing on the wall in six-foot red letters, John Terry still thought he could brazen this one out.
Get a massage, jump in a car, drive the 31 miles from Cobham to Wembley, deny everything and walk away with a reprimand.
Even those without an intimate knowledge of Fabio Capello's mind-set could barely believe Terry could be so deluded.
But denial is the state in which the erstwhile England captain currently resides.
Yes, he thought it was going to be more than a slap on the wrist from Capello. He fully expected a lacerating dressing down. After all, he'd be warned the Italian was running out of patience.
Before Christmas, when News of the World reporters exposed his willingess to breach the privacy of the Chelsea training ground for £10,000, Franco Baldini had delivered what amounted to a final warning.
Yet still Terry thought he was untouchable.
His mood may not have been exactly ebullient on Friday morning but there was enough of a spring in his step to suggest he had no inkling of what lay ahead of him.
And that, perhaps, says everything you need to know about the former England skipper.
Terry would have felt the omens were good when a member of the Chelsea staff drove his black Range Rover out of the training ground, turning left with the waiting media pack in hot pursuit.
Minutes later and shortly after midday, chauffeured by one of Roman Abramovich's security men, a black Mercedes turned right and swept towards London in splendid isolation.
It was just about the only victory of the day.
When Terry returned to Cobham after the 12 most brutal minutes of his life, those who saw him described him as 'shell-shocked' and 'glassy-eyed'. It was clear he'd been crying.
The realisation had dawned somewhere during those 30 miles that his reputation had been shredded, taken apart by Capello, the first man in a long time to truly hold a mirror up to Terry's shattered life.
Even those who thought they were closest to him have been shocked by his stance.
Bobby Zamora has been a friend since the days when they played for Senrab as kids in East London.
The Fulham striker asked Terry outright a little over three weeks ago, when the football world was already buzzing with rumours of the liaison with Vanessa Perroncel.
Was the England captain sleeping with Wayne Bridge's ex? Again, denial.
Since then Zamora has left Terry alone with his thoughts, unable to comprehend his pal's capacity to duck, dive and deceive.
It has become a way of life for Terry these past two weeks, denying everything despite the prospect of losing the England captaincy.
From his Chelsea team-mates, there has been a degree of understanding. Amazingly, the foreign contingent in the dressing room have been laid back, barely able to conceal their disdain at the whole situation.
Others have been supportive, pinning up their own 'Team Terry' posters around Cobham in response to Manchester City's backing of Bridge.
What isn't open to doubt is the tension in the air at Cobham.
Terry has been quiet, a remote figure apart from in actual training, keeping his thoughts to himself, refusing to open up, scared that any sign of contrition be misconstrued as weakness.
That, in itself, was part of the problem. Had he apologised personally to Capello at the start of the week and stepped down, he would have been spared Friday's humiliation and won back some respect from the Italian.
As it was, the silence simply hardened the manager's attitude and approach until there was only once course of action left open to Capello.
Had Terry shown he was accountable for his actions, for the disharmony caused in the dressing room then he would have stood a chance. Slim, but a chance all the same.
Instead, as one England source revealed, Terry gave us "a version of events", hinting heavily that he did not admit to the affair.
He misjudged the manager's mood spectacularly, failing to recognise the damage he has done to the England team as they prepare for the World Cup finals.
Two hundred miles away in Alderley Edge, his England team-mate Wayne Bridge was at home watching Sky News when the Football Association verbalised Terry's dismissal.
He was unchecked, still unable to comprehend the actions of a man he regularly described as his best friend when they were together at Chelsea.
Capello was kept full informed of events last week and yet he also asked his right hand man Franco Baldini more probing questions about his captain's activities.
They were aware of all the rumours that have circulated this week, from betting to birds and the bit on the side hawking her story.
Capello is staggered by the intensity of the scrutiny the skipper has been under since he took News of the World investigators on an unofficial tour of the club's training ground.
That was for £10,000 and yet the captaincy has come at an even bigger cost.
It hurt him to return to an empty house on Friday afternoon, absorbing the impact of losing the captaincy of his country.
What a night it must have been, a lonely existence without his wife and two children, who are thousands of miles away in Dubai.
It will take time for the enormity of becoming the first player to be fired from the role of England captain for off-field activities to sink in, something he had coveted since he made his debut for the senior team against Serbia & Montenegro in June 2003.
He still has the shirt, framed on the wall of his specially created trophy room at his magnificently-appointed £2.5million home in Oxshott, Surrey.
Since then he has captained his country 28 times, trading shirts with some of football's well-known faces along the way.
Many of them have been lovingly framed by his pal Phil, a memorabilia fanatic who trades from a shop in Eastbourne.
With Terry's reputation, passers-by might just see the captain's armband up for sale.
