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GENIUS WHO CHANGED FACE OF GAME WITH CHARM, CHARISMA AND HIS TACTICAL NOUS
Evening Standard
|November 27, 2023
TERRY VENABLES was a national treasure, perhaps best known for leading the rebirth of English football at Euro 96, but he was also a London great, who made an indelible mark on Chelsea, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers.
Venables, who died yesterday aged 80, played for all four clubs and managed Palace, QPR and Spurs.
An innovative coach, Venables inspired a new generation at Euro 96, leading England to within a penalty shootout of the final on home soil, but for older fans he will also be remembered as an imposing player and the creator of some swashbuckling sides.
Venables captained Chelsea to the League Cup in 1965 and was described by the club as "one of the most charismatic players ever to represent the Blues". He also won silverware as a Spurs player, helping them to the FA Cup in 1967.
It was as a coach, though, that he truly changed the game, and Venables once said that his mother earmarked him for management when he was still a child as she watched him organise his peers during games.
At Palace, where Venables was first handed a coaching role, he created the 'Team of the Eighties', a youthful side which he led from the third division to the top-flight.
Venables was similarly impactful at QPR, leading them to the FA Cup Final in 1982, winning the second division championship in 1983 and finishing fifth in the top-flight the next season.
With Spurs, he won the 1991 FA Cup with an iconic team including Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne, two of the many players who adored Venables and owed much of their success for club and country to his intuitive man-management.
This story is from the November 27, 2023 edition of Evening Standard.
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