Terry Venables

I was very sorry to hear that Terry Venables had died.

Venables played for Tottenham when Spurs beat Chelsea 2-1 in the 1967 FA Cup final.

Partly as a result of that match (I was eight at the time), and the fact that my aunt lived in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, I decided to support the losing side.

It was only later therefore that I discovered Venables had played over 200 games for Chelsea in the early to mid Sixties, having signed for the club as a schoolboy in 1958.

Armed with this knowledge, I subsequently followed his career as a player, and then a coach and manager, with interest.

He began his managerial career at Crystal Palace, then moved to QPR and Barcelona (where he was head coach from 1984-1987), before returning to Spurs as manager, winning the FA Cup in 1991.

I should add that ‘El Tel’ was coach of Barcelona when the other club I support, Dundee United, beat them home and away in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1987.

Even though it was a terrible result for his team, he was typically gracious about it, telling the press, “I must say that Dundee United have a chance to win the trophy now.”

(He wasn't wrong. United beat Borussia Mönchengladbach in the semi-finals, but lost the final to Gothenburg of Sweden.)

In 1994 Venables finally got the England job, a role that culminated in an unlucky defeat, on penalties, to Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 96 at Wembley.

He should of course have gone on to manage England for many more years but his off-field business interests got in the way and the FA decided, even before Euro 96, to replace him with Glenn Hoddle.

He did however leave us with one indelible memory, the 4-1 defeat of the Netherlands in the final group match that secured England’s place in the quarter-finals.

In my experience only two England matches come close to England’s performance that day - the 5-1 win against Germany in Munich in a World Cup qualifying match under Sven-Göran Eriksson in 2001, and the 1-0 loss to Brazil in the 1970 World Cup that, even in defeat, was arguably the best England have ever played against a top tier nation in a competitive match.

But I digress.

Venables was far more than a football manager, which is why he was so interesting. He sang and co-wrote detective novels that were turned into a TV series. He also had many business interests.

But what he really wanted, it seems, was to run a football club from top to bottom, which is how he came unstuck at Tottenham where he lost out in a power struggle with owner and chairman Alan Sugar.

One thing however has always puzzled me. I could never understand why he was never invited to return to Chelsea - his first club and the club he supported (I believe he was a season ticket holder in later years) - as manager.

Perhaps he was and said no. Or perhaps it was his chaotic business interests that put the club off.

Truth is, during his best managerial years, Chelsea was owned and run by Ken Bates, an equally strong-willed personality, so that could be the reason.

Either way, Venables will be remembered as one of England’s greatest and most innovative coaches whose man management was, by all accounts, second to none.

Too late now, but if I was to have a fantasy dinner party, he’d be one of the first names on the guest list.