204: Wayne Bridge, Manchester City, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes some time to focus on the playing career of a man who often fell into the shadows of others despite winning 36 England caps and a domestic treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup (although not in the same season). Football creates a fair number of heroes and villains and it’s fair to say today’s subject came across a few of the latter. Over to Mat.

Gareth Southgate’s near-perfect decision to pick four right backs in the Euro 2020 squad brought back memories of Sven Goran Eriksson’s England. Southgate’s multiple full back approach was nothing new, with the Swede pipping him to the decision by sixteen years in another attempt to solve the left-sided problem. In a 2006 World Cup qualifier, the natural left winger choice of the time, Joe Cole, was injured, so Eriksson plumped for a Bridge in front of Cole (Ashley) solution on that flank. The fact it never stuck shows how successful that attempt was.

But the former Southampton man made a much bigger impact in football (and outside of it), although it would have been bigger had he not been facing competition for Three Lions’ caps with one of the best left backs of his era. Ashley Cole, as hated as he is by many (especially in North London), claimed the number three shirt, although Bridge was a very able deputy.

For Southampton, he shone. He made more than 150 appearances between 1998 and 2003. He graced The Dell and St Mary’s, and was part of the agonisingly close (for everyone but Arsenal fans) attempt to win the FA Cup in 2003. Then came the big money move (at least big for the time) to Chelsea with a £7m transfer-plus-player deal with Graeme Le Saux moving to the south coast. For three years, he was once again first choice, before his international nemesis Ashley Cole once again arrived and usurped him. A loan spell to Fulham came and went in 2006, before he left for Manchester City in 2009. More on this later.

A nomadic conclusion to his career saw moves to West Ham United, Brighton and Hove Albion and Reading where our resident ‘ding fan Emlyn said: “he played twelve games and did bugger all”. Retirement and a new career as a poker player followed.

Southampton struggled for a few years post Bridge, until their new left sided protégé Garth Bale emerged. Sadly for Bridge, he will forever be tainted by John Terry. As we all know, John “celebrating in my kit even though I didn’t play a.k.a. doing a David May” Terry, is a wonderful human being. His own family have even hurled abuse at him when he played and scored against West Ham – his family’s club. Aston Villa fans may also harbour hatred to him as he apparently told the £100m Jack Grealish to move to Man City.

However, the infamous episode here revolved around Bridge’s girlfriend at the time, Vanessa Perroncel, where Terry allegedly had an affair with her while they were teammates. Scandal in the tabloids followed, and Bridge left Stamford Bridge for City. Things came to a head when City played Chelsea, and in the pre-match handshake ritual, Bridge left Terry hanging, and left a lot of fans with a wry smile. City then won 4-2.

In general, Bridge seems like a nice guy and deserves to be known for more than being Ashley Cole’s understudy and someone stained by a John Terry saga. I mean, it’s not many people who play for Reading, appear on I’m a Celeb and play ‘kamikaze’ poker.