Saturday 6 February 2010

We All Knew John Terry Liked Scoring At The Bridge, But This Is Ridiculous!


After reading the stories in the newspapers over the past week about John Terry I'm surprised he still hasn't come out and talked about the situation.

I do understand it is a very hard situation for him to deal with and overcome, I'm not saying people cheating on their wives is acceptable but if you are going to do it you don't do it with your team mates girlfriend!

I think he deserves all the criticism he's getting right now as what he has done is unacceptable and I'm glad he has been sacked as England captain! There is no way he can gain the respect he previously had from any of the England team after what he's done.

He has hired PR expert Phil Hall, the former News of The World editor to try and deal with the crisis. But what is Phil Hall actually doing? It seems to me that he has done absolutely nothing in helping Terry as he still hasn't made any comments on his affair with Wayne Bridge's ex girlfriend. Even though I'm no PR expert I'm sure common sense would be for Terry to apologise for his actions and apologise to all his fans and tell them how he has made a big mistake.

After reading a blog post by Phil Hall, commenting about Tiger Woods and the crisis he was faced with, he said that it was essential to "tell your side of the story - quickly, honestly and accurately", rather than "cower behind bland statements". He goes on to say, "On every main principle of crisis management, Woods and his team failed". Now that's a bit rich coming from him, what has he done differently from what Woods' team did? Hall needs to take on his own advice he gave for Woods and use it for Terry if he wants to handle the crisis in the best way possible.

It sounds like Hall has had an easy job so far in advising Terry how to handle the crisis as all he would have said to him is "keep quiet" but there's going to come a point when he has to respond and in my opinion the sooner the better.

One thing I'm sure Hall won't be able to do is find a way for jokes like this to stop - Ashley Cole was caught doing 105 mph in a 50 zone. When asked by police why he was speeding he said "I have just heard John Terry's car is parked outside my house".

3 comments:

  1. Ha ha, I have heard that joke also, I'm sure there will be plenty more to come. I completely agree with you Raj, the best thing to do in these situations, where it has been made so public by the media, and you are someone that is in the public eye, especially someone who is a role model to lots of young impressionable boys out there, the best ting to do is to speak out. The public need to know how sorry he is, they almost need a reason and remaining silent is only giving the public the impression that he is not sorry at all.

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  2. I do agree that a PR expert handling this kind of crisis situation should act quickly. They should attempt to repair the damaged reputation immediately, and that should start with a public apology.

    Due to the fact that no public apology was made, this leaves me to wonder whether or not there is some new approach to crisis management that we are yet to be informed about.

    Honestly, this seems to be a pattern of practice among PR experts when handling these sports celebrities crises. Is this silence actually part of a strategic public relations plan?

    However, any crisis management plan that I would employ would definitely begin with a swift apology to the public that would hopefully start to rebuild his reputation.

    Secondly, you need to convince the public that you are going to get help, especially in the case of Tiger Woods.

    Even though he has tarnished his reputation as a fully-committed family man, that will not change the fact that he is one of the greatest golfers of all time. This is a personal crisis that simply affects how he is perceived, so I believe that with time and another golfing title, this will pass.

    If he was a sprinter who had won several gold medals and then it was discovered that he/she used drugs, that would be more difficult to repair because his/her entire sporting career would have been based on deceit. However, this is not the case for Tiger Woods and John Terry, so preparing a crisis management plan for them should be easier as they have their sporting ability to rely on.

    Maybe this is the reason for the silence

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  3. I would agree that John Terry's team handling his reputation was utterly appailing. Even up until, early this week, the press have continues to scrutinise Terry and labled him as 'cocky, arrogant'. The press where delighted to hear he lost the England captaincy. The press behaved as a lynch mob, and Phil Hall failed miserably to manage this crises effectively. When infact, what should have happened is a statement should have been issued as soon as the court order was issued.

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