Venables: Terence Frederick (Terry)

2002-2003 (Manager Details) (Manager Details)

Born in Dagenham on 6th January 1943, Venables left school in 1957 and started as an apprentice with Chelsea after gaining Schoolboy international honours with England. He turned professional in August 1960, having played for England at amateur and Youth level and made his debut in 1959/60, his only game that season. Surprisingly for one so young he quickly became a regular and apart from Chelsea's relegation season of 1961/62 he was a virtual ever-present for the next six seasons. Despite several near misses his only medals were in 1962/63 when he gained a Second Division Championship medal and in 1964/65 when he won a League Cup Winners' medal. A disagreement with Tommy Docherty saw him leave Stamford Bridge for Tottenham Hotspur for £80,000 in May 1966. He had scored twenty-six goals in two hundred and two League games and Thirty-one goals in two hundred and thirty-seven in all games. While at Chelsea he had completed the full set of honours for England at all possible levels, when he played twice for the full team as Alf Ramsey experimented in 1964 during the lead up to the 1966 World Cup after he had represented the Football League and played four times at Under-Twenty-three level. His move came back to haunt the Pensioners when he helped the team from White Hart Lane triumph 2-1 over his former team at Wembley in the FA Cup Final of 1966/67. He scored five goals in one hundred and fourteen starts and one substitute appearance in the League and four more goals in twenty-five starts and one substitute appearance in Cup and European games before moving to Second Division Queens Park Rangers in June 1969 for £70,000. He stayed at Loftus Road for just over five seasons. After Rangers had just made the top dozen in the first two seasons, they finished fourth in 1971/72 before gaining promotion to Division One as runners-up the following season.He played thirty-six games in the League as they finished eighth in their first season back in the top flight and had made five more appearances before Third Division Crystal Palace paid £70,000 to take him to Selhurst Park in September 1974 after he had scored nineteen times in one hundred and seventy-six starts and one game from the bench in League games for Rangers. He only made fourteen League appearances for Palace before retiring after being appointed Coach of the club by Malcolm Allison on New Years' Eve 1974 and after Palace had reached the FA Cup Semi-Finals in his first full season as Coach he succeeded Malcolm Allison as Manager in June 1976. He signed for Irish club St Patrick's Athletic in February 1976 and made his debut for them on the 22nd February 1976 but only played two games, before hanging his boots up for good. In his first spell as Manager of Crystal Palace he took them into the Second Division in 1976/77 after a third place finish in Division Three and then after a consolidating ninth place finish in 1977/78 he guided the club into the top flight, as Champions of Division Two, in the 1978-79 season. After a mid-table thirteenth finish in 1979/80 he left in October 1980 for Second Division Queens Park Rangers. After finishing eighth in 1980/81 and fifth in 1981/82, as they just missed promotion by two points, he took them back into the First Division as Second Division champions in 1982/83. He also guided Rangers to the FA Cup-Final in 1982 whilst still a Second Division side, but lost in a replay against his former club Tottenham Hotspur. His final season as Queens Park Rangers Manager, 1983-84, brought a fifth place in Division One and qualified them for the UEFA Cup. Venables' growing reputation brought him offers from some of Europe's most prestigious clubs and in May 1984 he took the role of Manager at Barcelona, earning the nickname "El Tel". Venables used a very English system, a classic 4-4-2, which took advantage of outstanding defenders like Gerardo, Migueli and Julio Alberto and a hard-working midfield led by German Bernd Schuster. During his three seasons in Catalonia, Venables led the club to the Spanish title in 1984/85 and League Cup. He signed Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes for £5.3million and Barcelona finish second in Spanish League and reach European Cup final but lost on penalties to Steaua Bucharest in 1985/86. Barcelona were Runners-up in Spanish League again but he was sacked in September 1987, after failing to repeat his title success at the Camp Nou and the humiliation of losing home and away to Dundee United in the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup. On 23rd November 1987, he returned to England as Manager of Tottenham Hotspur. His success with Spurs was varied, In 1987/88 he signed Paul Gascoigne for £2million and Spurs finished thirteenth in First Division. In 1988/89 he sold Chris Waddle to Marseille for £4.25 million and signs Gary Lineker again and Spurs finished sixth. There was a third finish in the League for Spurs in 1989/90. Venables was a favourite to replace Bobby Robson as England National Football Team Manager when the job became vacant in 1990, but doubts about his honesty led to him being passed over in favour of Graham Taylor. He launched unsuccessful £20 million bid for Spurs with Larry Gillick in March 1991 and Spurs finished tenth in the League and finally got a trophy as they won the FA Cup with 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest. Then in June 1991 he became Tottenham Chief Executive after Alan Sugar won a takeover battle with Robert Maxwell. Over the next two seasons, the Spurs team was managed by Peter Shreeves and then the joint management team of Ray Clemence and Doug Livermore, with the final arrangement seeing Venables having more involvement with the first team. A clash of personalities developed and Sugar dismissed Venables on 14 May 1993,over his business dealings. After gaining a temporary injunction he was reinstated, but lost a three-day high court hearing and ordered to pay costs. After Paul Gascoigne had been sold to Lazio for £5.5 million, Spurs slumped to fifteenth in 1991/92 and eighth in 1992/93. In September 1993, BBC's Panorama programme alleged various misdealings connected with Venables' businesses. He offered money to charity if they can prove them and threatened libel action. By November 1993, the England national football team was at low point, having failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup under previous manager Graham Taylor. Venables, though not active in the game, seemed to have the presence and charisma that could re-ignite some patriotic pride and achievement. He was appointed Manager on 28th January 1994. However, the speculation coincided with Venables coming under scrutiny and censure in connection with several of his business dealings. The Football Association struggled to identify an alternative candidate but their discomfort with his soiled reputation for honesty was articulated in their appointment of him as England 'Coach' rather than under the traditional title of 'Manager'. However, Venables agreed to leave the England job after the 1996 Championship in July 1996. As hosts, England did not need to qualify for the 1996 European Football Championship. There were plenty of highs and lows during the finals where England won three of their five games, including one on penalties. The highest point came with the 4–1 defeat of the Netherlands. Venables suffered heartache in the Semi-Finals losing to Germany on penalties. Venables became manager of Australia in November 1997 following the resignation of Eddie Thomson. In the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup, Venables led Australia to the final before defeat to Brazil. His side swept through the Oceania World Cup qualifiers but were beaten in a play-off by Iran on away goals, a match often referred to as the most tragic moment in Australian soccer history. With the team having drawn 1-1 in Tehran, Australia lead the second leg 2-0 at half time but the partisan crowd were left stunned when they conceded two late goals. Venables was later sacked. At the same time, Venables acted as consultant and then chairman at Portsmouth. He purchased a 51% controlling interest in the club for £1 in February 1997 but left in controversial circumstances eleven months later. His company Vencorp received a £300,000 bonus in the summer of 1997 and he is thought to have been paid around £250,000 upon leaving the club, but he left them bottom of Division One. Although Portsmouth avoided relegation 1997-98, their financial situation worsened and they were in real danger of bankruptcy until being taken over by Milan Mandaric in late 1999. In March 1998, he returned to Crystal Palace who had just been taken over by Mark Goldberg, and then relegated from the Premier League, for a brief period, before leaving acrimoniously in January 1999, as the south-London club went into administration. His appointment had created a media frenzy, with Goldberg boasting that he was going to turn Palace into a European force within the next five years. But the dream was over within a year, and Palace narrowly avoided going out of business. Despite being linked with vacant managerial positions with Wales and Chelsea, Venables remained out of football for nearly two years until December 2000, when he was appointed Head Coach to assist and co-manage Middlesbrough with the incumbent manager Bryan Robson in a bid to help the club avoid relegation. The club eventually finished fourteenth and survived. However, Venables felt Teesside was too remote a base for his media and business interests and he left at the same time as Robson in June 2001. In July 2002, Venables joined Leeds United as Manager. Despite Venables inheriting an arguably stronger squad than the one that had qualified for the UEFA Champions League two years earlier, the extent of Leeds' disastrous financial problems were only beginning to become clear with club captain Rio Ferdinand sold to Manchester United only a fortnight into Venables appointment. After a flying start to the League campaign in which they won their first two games against Manchester City at home and West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns and headed the League ladder, the side was hit by a long list of injuries and after winning 2-0 at Newcastle United and a Harry Kewell header had given United maximum points in their Elland Road encounter with Manchester United, which had seen Venables in an exalted third position, the season started to unravel. By December of that year the side had crashed out of both the League Cup and the UEFA Cup and were languishing in the bottom half of the table with mounting levels of debt. Leeds were further weakened in January 2003, when Jonathan Woodgate was sold to Newcastle United and Robbie Keane to Tottenham Hotspur, without Venables being consulted, in an attempt to pay off mounting debts. Venables threatened to leave if Woodgate was sold, but was persuaded to stay by Peter Ridsdale. After going into Christmas in sixteenth place, there was a mini-revival and relative safety in mid-table and a run in the FA Cup but losses to Newcastle United by 3-0 at Elland Road a fighting and unlucky 2-1 loss at Old Trafford, the dismissal from the FA Cup in the Sixth Round at Bramall Lane, and another home defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough saw the club spiralling towards relegation with no further interest in any trophies, and amid later substantiated rumours of further player sales by the board Venables was sacked in March 2003. The fortunes of Leeds turned around temporarily after his sacking as they escaped relegation under Peter Reid, securing safety with a remarkable 3-2 win away to reigning EPL Champions Arsenal, but continued selling of players to offset the clubs debt burden eventually saw the end of Reid and the relegation of the club. Venables was linked with Australian club Newcastle United Jets in 2005, but his commitments in the United Kingdom prevented him from taking up a role within that club. At the end of the 2005–06 season, he was linked with a return to Middlesbrough, but decided that at his age he would be unable to be a full-time EPL Manager. Later in the year, Venables returned to the England set-up as Assistant to new Manager Steve McClaren. He was later sacked from this role in November 2007, along with McClaren, after England failed to qualify for the 2008 European Football Championship. Venables, even though past sixty-five, continued to be linked in the media with the Republic of Ireland, Leicester City, Bulgaria, Iran, Newcastle United, and Tottenham Hotspur managerial jobs.