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I was really pleased to stumble across this article from The Times on Terry Venables. I'd not heard anything about him for so long I was starting to worry about his health - totally unnecessarily thankfully. As for the question in the title as to whether he is England's best living coach - yes, by a country mile. Venables, the footballer, is the reason I support QPR.
They call it La Escondida, the hideaway. It is hidden away from the Costa Blanca, up in the mountains, amid the olive groves. It is here, in the tranquillity of the Spanish countryside, that Terry Venables has found his oasis – the furthest thing he can imagine from the stresses and strains of managing England.
A retirement home? Hardly. Venables and his wife, Yvette, run a boutique hotel – Michelin-trained head chef and all. “We’re non-stop out here,” she says. “It’s morning to night, non-stop, no let-up. It’s not easy.”
So who does what? “She’s the Basil Fawlty role,” he says with a guffaw. “I’m front of house. I walk around, have a chat to people. I like it. It keeps me busy, keeps me engaged. If you want to keep going on, you’ve got to keep fit, stay busy.”
Yvette laughs at the mention of fitness. “Hang on,” she says. “We’ve got two swimming pools and you’ve never been in either of them.”
“Well, no,” he smiles. “But my health is good. You never like to say that, because I could fall off the mountain tomorrow, but I’m fit, I’m well. I feel like this is my third life. First life playing, second life managing. What do you do about the third? This is a nice existence. Busy, but nice.”
Venables turned 74 in January. Almost a decade has passed since his final job in football, as England assistant manager under Steve McClaren, but even here, in this idyllic setting, he admits he gets pangs from time to time. He says he was unexpectedly approached about a job recently – a good one, coach of one of the leading African nations, though he would prefer not to say which – and that, while his initial response was that it would be incompatible with his responsibilities, they have remained quite persistent.
Was he tempted? “I was, actually,” he says. “I believe I could still do it. Really, I do. Football has always been what I do. I watch matches now and I think, ‘If they only they would do this . . . Wouldn’t it be good to try that?’ There are so many possibilities in football.”
“That was always the challenge for me as a manager, wherever I went in the world. I always had to work out the way to get the best out of that group of players. Sometimes I would be thinking, ‘Crikey, I still don’t know what the team is like yet’, and I would be going through the videos and then suddenly I would shout ‘Yippee!’ and say to Yvette, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I know where we need to go to and what need to do to get there.’ ”
A classic example would be his experience at Euro ’96, where he urged his England team to cast off its tactical straitjacket and to embrace different systems; he had started, two years earlier, with an unfamiliar “Christmas tree” formation and ended up progressing, via 4-3-3, to the least conventional type of 4-4-2 and of course 3-5-2, deploying three central defenders, as indeed Gareth Southgate, one of his players at that tournament, now the England manager, did against Germany on Wednesday night.
“Great lad, Gareth,” Venables says. “He’s sensible, intelligent. I used to pick him out for things in training. I wanted him to add to what he was able to do. He liked to carry the ball out of defence, but when he first came into the squad, he would do it too quickly. I said to him, ‘You’re going so quickly, in a straight line, that you look like you’re running down a hill after the ball. You’re going so quick, you’re actually helping the opposition.’
“We worked out that if he did it another way, slowing it down, drawing the opposition towards him, making a half-turn, he could make a real difference to our attacking play.”
A wistful look comes over Venables as he casts his mind back to Euro ’96. “It was the most beautiful summer,” he says. “The football that we played, against Holland, against Germany, it was amazing. The feeling we had at Wembley, it was beautiful. We beat Holland 4-1, but we were just as good against Germany in the semi-final. We did everything but score the winner. Extra-time, I can still see it now . . . ”
Paul Gascoigne sliding in, a stud’s length from scoring the “golden goal” that would have taken England to the final? “That’s the one,” he said. “Gazza, my lovely boy. He deserved to score, but it wasn’t to be. And then penalties and . . . Gareth missed one, the bugger. No, I’m joking. It was hard on him. Anyone could miss a penalty. It speaks volumes for him that he was willing to take it when others were too nervous to take one. But . . . penalties again. Same as the European Cup final [in 1986 when his Barcelona team lost to Steaua Bucharest].” He puts on his Marlon Brando voice. “I coulda been a contender, Charlie.”
He is laughing. “But as everyone always says to me, ‘Behind that mask . . . ,’ ” he says. “I tell them, ‘Well just take the mask away and see what you’ve got.’ ”
Venables believes Southgate, whom he also coached at Middlesbrough, will do a “really, really good job” as England manager, but to make a real success of the job would be to buck a trend dating back to 1966 – or even further, as Venables sees it.
“We have had fantastic individual players in England,” he says. “Go back to 1950. Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, all those great players went to Brazil for the World Cup and they got beaten [by the United States]. You go from the 1950s right the way through, all those fantastic players, and with the exception of one tournament, they couldn’t win for England.”
Why? “My feeling is that too often they wanted to be individual players, just like they were when they were kids with mum and dad watching,” he says. “When they went back to their clubs, they wanted to show, ‘Look, I’m a player. I’m a star.’ Well, as I see it, you don’t get ‘stars’ in football. You get people who win and who deserve it because they do it – above all else – with each other. I can’t stand when people want to be the individual. You do that and all you’re doing is letting everyone down.”
He is not naming names or even referring to one generation – for example the one that, under McClaren and himself, failed to reach Euro 2008 – rather than another. He believes it has been a common thread in English football history, which is damning. Rather than claim credit for finding a system in which individualism was curbed in 1996, he suggests the greatest strength of that squad was the personalities involved. He reels them off. “Seaman, Neville, Southgate, Adams, Pearce, Gascoigne, Ince, Anderton, Platt, McManaman, Shearer, Sheringham . . .” he says. “That team had leaders. Inner strength. Smart leaders, too. And they’re like gold dust.
“I watch football with people and they’ll say to me, ‘Cor, look at him. He’s a good player.’ ‘Who? Him? No he’s not.’ ‘Look at him, he’s dribbling around. He’s a really good player.’ ‘No he’s not going anywhere. He’s just enjoying himself.’ I’m not chiding anyone here, but the thing is that any player can look good on the ball when the pressure’s off. Anyone can play football over the park. You need to be able to do it under pressure. That’s where you need your strong personalities, your leaders, your players who can spot when one of their team-mates is struggling and who can paddle even harder to get that guy through.”
Recent England teams have invariably lacked that quality. When up that creek, they have often found themselves without a paddle. Venables was watching at his London home, aghast, as England disintegrated at the hands of Iceland at Euro 2016. “You could see it just slipping away,” he says. “No disrespect to Iceland, but they were what we used to call hammer-throwers, weren’t they? But they did it. They stopped our players. Credit to them. They did really well.”
Other England managers have talked about a culture of fear. “That has always been a problem,” he says. “Can you take the pressure? That’s where you need your leaders, your strong personalities. It’s not just about clenching your fist and giving people a bollocking, although you need your players who can do that. It’s about being strong enough to play under pressure and to get on the ball and pass it, pass it, pass it. Not everyone is. But if you get that right, if you’ve got the players who will do that, you won’t be too far away, my son. That’s what we had in Euro ’96. We didn’t have that fear.”
We keep coming back to the summer of 1996. It is a constant reference point for Venables – inevitably so. He wishes he had had more than one tournament as England manager, wishes he had been able to take that young squad to the ’98 World Cup, by which time David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Michael Owen were also on the scene. “I was pleased to get the chance to do what I did, but, yeah, it would have been nice, all those young players coming through,” he says.
Venables never saw eye to eye with the FA hierarchy. He felt that Noel White and Peter Swales, on the international committee, were always against him. He is unwilling to go over that old ground – or to revisit the subject of Alan Sugar, with whom he clashed so disastrously and so publicly during their time at Tottenham Hotspur. He rejects the suggestion that he had fingers in too many pies, that his interests in the business side of the game, even working in an executive role at QPR early in his managerial career, became a distraction from his true vocation. “Coaching was what I did,” he says.
These days, despite certain pangs for the touchline, La Escondida is what he does. He loves it. Alan Shearer came out to stay while filming a BBC documentary last year. “When I came here, I tried to see if I could get Gazza to come and stay for a few days,” Venables says. “We’ve spoken on the phone from time to time. He was a wonderful player, the most fantastic player – with all the problems that he had – that I’ve ever seen. I still love him. I could just see him out here, you know, kicking stones down the road . . .”
Venables smiles once more. Whatever those slight regrets, life is great. He “coulda been a contender”, he feels, but he took England an awful lot closer to glory than any man alive.
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Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 11:14 - Apr 4 with 2032 views
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 09:39 - Apr 4 by ElHoop
Venables often triggers the subject of ‘managerial bloodlines’ in my head, which admittedly doesn’t seem to engineer much interest from anyone else, anywhere, ever, as I’m such an old fart really. Anyhow, as a club I think that we have been quite heavily influenced by the Allison-Mercer line over the years, and that’s a good thing in my view. Allison in particular was a designer of quick attractive sophisticated teams with some flair players. Mercer I think gave Man City a bit more tenacity and he was a better man-manager than Allison. Allison was a big influence on John Bond and Dave Sexton for instance. Mercer took on Gordon Milne as his new Allison when he left City for Coventry and Milne obviously ended up playing a big part in the development of Sir Les at Besiktas and was a successful manager in his own right. Venables of course was another disciple of Allison — at Palace. This is quite a good clip: What I’m not sure is how much Gerry Francis was influenced by Allison, albeit indirectly. His contact with Venables at QPR was both before Venables worked with Allison and post-Allison when Gerry (and Terry) came back from Palace, so it’s difficult to say for sure, but I would think that Gerry does have a bit of Allison in his footballing genes. Holloway was of course a Gerry disciple but in his first stint at Loftus Road we hardly played the beautiful game, and we don’t really do so now either. If there’s any of that Mercer-Allison bloodline left at the club now then it’s probably more in the form of Sir Les. Another QPR manager influenced by Mercer-Allison was Redknapp. He spent a lot of time with John Bond who was an Allison man from their time at West Ham I think. Bond’s son Kevin ended up as his assistant and Jordan was signed by and played for Sexton at Man Utd, so there’s a fair bit of genetic material there. Other QPR managers who join the line via Venables would include Waddock and Gregory and to some extent Wilkins I suppose. At international level, Venables obviously represents the chain, as does Southgate and so would Eddie Howe if he ever got the job (linked via Redknapp and the Bonds I think). It’s quite probably a load of rubbish but it passes the time on a boring day.
Great post ElHoop - what a clip..great to see the magic on fire lefty on the right Peter Taylor destroying the scum - except I don't think Stan rated Mercer as a man-manager at all.
"Mercer during his England caretaker tenure in 1974 had to deal with Bowles, who had absconded from the team's Welwyn hotel two nights before the game to go to the dogs at White City. Asked by a reporter who spotted him whether he intended to return to fly to Scotland the next day, he said: "No." He later rang Mercer to apologise and issued a statement saying: "I left the England party yesterday because I was sick and depressed. It has always been my ambition to play for England, particularly at Wembley, and no one can know how I felt when I was taken off." Mercer accepted the apology, saying: "It's sad isn't it?" then told Bowles there was no way back under his management."
'I'm 18 with a bullet.Got my finger on the trigger,I'm gonna pull it.."
Love,Peace and Fook Chelski!
More like 20StoneOfHoop now.
Let's face it I'm not getting any thinner.
Pass the cake and pies please.
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Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 11:36 - Apr 4 with 2015 views
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 11:14 - Apr 4 by 18StoneOfHoop
Great post ElHoop - what a clip..great to see the magic on fire lefty on the right Peter Taylor destroying the scum - except I don't think Stan rated Mercer as a man-manager at all.
"Mercer during his England caretaker tenure in 1974 had to deal with Bowles, who had absconded from the team's Welwyn hotel two nights before the game to go to the dogs at White City. Asked by a reporter who spotted him whether he intended to return to fly to Scotland the next day, he said: "No." He later rang Mercer to apologise and issued a statement saying: "I left the England party yesterday because I was sick and depressed. It has always been my ambition to play for England, particularly at Wembley, and no one can know how I felt when I was taken off." Mercer accepted the apology, saying: "It's sad isn't it?" then told Bowles there was no way back under his management."
But i think that Mercer stood up for Stan at City and wanted to get the player out of him, whereas he had rows with Allison which ultimately finished him there I think. And then he upset Mercer with England, but Mercer did pick him in the first place remember.
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Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 12:01 - Apr 4 with 1998 views
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 19:43 - Apr 3 by ElHoop
Mercer for sure. Having said that, if Mercer had got the job, Gordon Milne would have been his assistant and that might have meant that he didn't manage Besiktas which meant that Sir Les didn't go to Besiktas, which might have changed the history of the world somewhat.
[Post edited 3 Apr 2017 20:06]
I bow to your superior knowledge, but a handful of games isn't really enough to put someone in the rankings.
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 15:08 - Apr 4 by kensalriser
I bow to your superior knowledge, but a handful of games isn't really enough to put someone in the rankings.
Well maybe you had to be there at the time or maybe you are right. We ended up being shite and boring under Ramsey and that was followed by being shite and boring under Revie and thereby not qualifying for two consecutive World Cups, but somewhere in the middle of the all of the rotten miserable carnage there was that little Mercer oasis.
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Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 17:49 - Apr 4 with 1871 views
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 15:18 - Apr 4 by ElHoop
Well maybe you had to be there at the time or maybe you are right. We ended up being shite and boring under Ramsey and that was followed by being shite and boring under Revie and thereby not qualifying for two consecutive World Cups, but somewhere in the middle of the all of the rotten miserable carnage there was that little Mercer oasis.
Revie's stint started pretty promisingly. First game the 3-0 against eventual European champions Czechoslovakia (in which he gave Gerry and Dave Thomas their England debuts), beating the world champions West Germany 2-0 and the 5-1 demolition of the Jocks at Wembley. The wheels started to come off in the return game with Czechoslovakia which we lost 2-1 after leading (a draw and we'd likely have qualified).
Revie got IIRC unmercifully slaughtered for his tactics in that game (particularly the selection of Ian Gillard) which started to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind and he soon became a tinkerer, rarely keeping an unchanged side. He wasn't helped though in 1976 losing his midfield at a stroke when Gerry and Colin Bell got long term injured within a couple of months of each other.
Terry Venables, England’s best living coach? on 22:33 - Apr 4 by CamberleyR
Revie's stint started pretty promisingly. First game the 3-0 against eventual European champions Czechoslovakia (in which he gave Gerry and Dave Thomas their England debuts), beating the world champions West Germany 2-0 and the 5-1 demolition of the Jocks at Wembley. The wheels started to come off in the return game with Czechoslovakia which we lost 2-1 after leading (a draw and we'd likely have qualified).
Revie got IIRC unmercifully slaughtered for his tactics in that game (particularly the selection of Ian Gillard) which started to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind and he soon became a tinkerer, rarely keeping an unchanged side. He wasn't helped though in 1976 losing his midfield at a stroke when Gerry and Colin Bell got long term injured within a couple of months of each other.
Yeah I remember beating the jocks 5-1, but they were shocking that day and we still ended up watching Ally's tartan fecking army trying to beat Holland for some World Cup thrills. It's normally the other way round. The bingo, carpet bowls, thick dossiers - it was like the middle ages in modern footballing terms. Yes losing Gerry and Nijinsky were pretty hefty blows, but it ended being desperately bad football. If you're going out then go out in style, but Revie wasn't up to it either way. We still had players who would shortly form part of numerous European Cup winning teams - not all English of course, but we should have done a lot better and have done it in better style. Lots of World Cups are of the 'nobody much good but someone has to win' nature, and the Germans tend to excel in these because firstly they get there and secondly they are organised to get the best of what they have. On very few occasions have we got the best of the available resources - Ramsey, Robson and Venables in my lifetime and that's about it.
As for that Mercer-Allison rubbish, I think that Keegan was quoted as saying that Mercer was a big influence on his management style so there's another bit of Mercer influence on Sir Les if you like that sort of thing.
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