You can bet on outrage at JT stunt

JOHN TERRY’S 26th-minute departure was hugely misguided, but well intended. Chelsea merely wanted to give their captain the best send-off. They did not consider the sanctity of competition in what was basically a dead rubber, they did not factor in betting coups or Twitter storms. If they had, someone would have said no. Someone higher up the chain than Antonio Conte, obviously. He has been in England less than a year. He was not to know this was a controversial issue. There was even a precedent: Didier Drogba, in his last game for Chelsea, chaired off by his team-mates after 28 minutes two seasons ago. The stunt had the full approval of both managers, Jose Mourinho and Dick Advocaat, of Sunderland. Very accommodating, Sunderland. What amuses most about this is those presuming to lecture on Terry’s farewell. The noble folk at Paddy Power, for instance. ‘We should have clocked sooner there’d be another cringeworthy send-off for JT,’ read a statement, having been hit for £3,500 by wagers predicting the time of Terry’s departure. Note the tone, the slang, the nickname shorthand. Even when making a wobbly stand on the moral high ground, Paddy refuses to relinquish his laddish prose. For if we’re talking cringeworthy stunts, Paddy Power are the experts. Who can forget their juggernaut displaying a poster that read ‘Immigrants, jump in the back — as long as you’re good at sport!’ parked at Dover. To prop up the gag it even featured photographs of noted immigrants such as Andy Murray, from that warravaged hellhole, Scotland. And truly is there any better starting point for a bookmaker’s publicity stunt than a global humanitarian crisis? Other highlights? Well, transvestites were the subject of a Cheltenham campaign inviting punters to tell the stallions from the mares; another advert had a hitman shooting ‘chavs’ with a tranquiliser dart. The working class, eh? What are we going to do with them — apart from take their money with a series of tacky novelty bets? Paddy Power no doubt think Terry (above) — or ‘JT’ as they call him, because they’re lads — is a bit of a chav, too, and therefore fair game. Not that they were averse to making some free publicity off his name, which was why they hastily trumpeted their small-time losses from Sunday, attracting the attention of the Football Association. The Gambling Commission are not interested, but the FA will investigate the timing of Terry’s substitution in case any bets were placed by people in football — although it is more likely the beneficiaries were fans keeping a closer eye on proceedings than the bookmakers. For at 2.26pm on Sunday, the Twitter feed CFCUK revealed to its 14,000 followers that Terry would come off after 26 minutes. Both of the big winning bets were placed after this announcement, yet at odds of 100-1. Time was, the bookmakers would have been all over the information, the way they used to be the best forecasters of trivial events such as the Eurovision Song Contest or Miss World. Now, they appear to have more staff employed in the cunning stunts division, which is why they were still offering long odds on a 26th-minute Terry exit after the news was out. Not the smartest move, was it? In this way, at least, Terry and Paddy have much in common.