A raging debate brings a barely suppressed yawn

The football debate in the sports pages this week is predictably dominated with talk of the England football team. The usual questions. Does the fact that they can dispose of a poor Welsh side demonstrate their potential against stronger opposition? Are the right players being played in the right places? Can player A play with player B? Blah, blah, blah.

Around the time of a competitive England match at any point in the last decade, you could pick out different newspaper articles, and it's more than likely you would find the same tired issues dominating.

The most painfully dull debate is that of the saga that surrounds the captaincy of doe-eyed Chelsea defender, John Terry. It's hard to imagine why anyone would even feign a shrug of interest about the personal life of 'JT'. The very fact that the issue of this monotoned, sad faced man's infidelity creates such a media storm is testament to the country's glorification of celebrity mishap, which undeniably has a detrimental effect. Terry, despite his 'charmless man' qualities, is probably befitting of the role of England captain. To have his captaincy stripped away in a world cup where England were dumped out earlier than anyone thought in the realms of possibility, demonstrates just how damaging the media frenzy really is to anyone who actually cares whether they succeed or not.

This is why I'm past caring. Surely the England football team, who undoubtedly have some very talented players, despite the majority of them having about the same amount of personality as a park bench, have got the best chance of succeeding if everyone just shuts up and leaves them to it. Every day there's another story on the BBC sports page about what John Terry or Rio Ferdinand said. Why are we constantly subjected to listening to the inane comments of these illiterate, yawn inducing men.

I was reading somewhere about Rio Ferdinand  'tweeting' Lily Allen about her mother's recipe for Shepherd's Pie. The very fact that I know this piece of information severely undermines my resolve to care about the fortunes of the national football team.