Bates responded, as many of us would have done, by saying: "Bugger off. You are a pain in the arse."
A press photographer captured the moment and Sunday's newspapers accused Bates of launching "a foul-mouthed tirade."
Not for the first time, I have some sympathy for Bates, who does not go out of his way to win friends and influence people but is, in reality, much more vulnerable than you would imagine from all his bullish bluster.
I certainly have some sympathy with him on the issue of Morris and Terry, who will appear in court tomorrow.
Bates - who read the riot act to Terry, Morris and the other Chelsea players who were involved in a drinking spree in front of shocked American tourists one day after 11 September - will feel badly let down that Terry and Morris were involved in another incident fewer than four months later.
A court will decide what happened outside the club in Knightsbridge last week, but nobody disputes that both players were there in the small hours of a Friday morning.
I am certain Chelsea will sell Morris as soon as possible.
What happens to Terry depends on his criminal trial, and Chelsea will continue to pick him until then and will be roundly criticised for doing so.
The criticism will wound Bates, but he will not show it. He will retreat into his shell and be all the more determined to stay loyal to Terry.
Morris, already out of favour, does not present the same problem.
What should concern Bates, however, is that some of his players obviously believe that they can go out drinking on Thursday night, run off their hangovers on Friday morning and play on Saturday and nobody at the club will say anything to them.
That is the nub of the problem for Chelsea.
At some clubs, the footballers know that if they step out of line they will be fined and dropped; that inappropriate drinking will simply not be tolerated.
At other clubs the players know that if they turn up red-eyed and reeking of extra-strong mints, they will get away with it.
Chelsea have to decide which sort of club they want to be.
