|
With a club playing career at Chelsea, Spurs, QPR and Crystal
Palace and appearances at every level for England, Terry Venables has
the experience to impress pretty much any player in the game. Add to
that his turns in management at QPR, Palace and rather notably three
and a half years at Barcelona, Spurs, Boro (as an "adviser") and his
record at organising and motivating club sides stands up well. And
then there's the small matter of his time as coach to the England
national side - which ended in glorious failure in a shootout against
Germany in the semis of Euro 96.
With all that in his favour, what could anyone have against him
managing their side? Well, after the GG episode you could be forgiven
for being a bit chary about someone whose affinity for the capital was
so strong, and when a High Court judge has less than complimentary
things to say about a person's fitness to run a business, you can't
completely ignore the possible negatives. But in terms of who's
available and willing right now to take charge of the side, I guess
you'd be hard-pressed to find a more experienced pair of hands, and if
he can steady the ship and re-energise some of the star players who
haven't been performing to their fullest abilities then it will
clearly have been a gamble worth taking. If he tinkers around for half
a season and then wanders back down the M1, there will be plenty of
people queuing up at Peter Ridsdale's door to tell him they told him
so.
As a club manager, he's taken QPR to the FA Cup Final and into the
UEFA Cup (quite an achievement!), won the Spanish League title - but
missed out on the European Cup, watching his Barcelona side lose on
penalties to Steaua Bucharest - but picking up the World Manager of
the Year award was some consolation in 1986. He also guided Spurs to
the 1991 FA Cup before falling out with Alan Sugar and taking over the
England job in 1994. I guess that's not much silverware on the
sideboard for such a long career, but he's got more than most and has
shown he still has the appetite and grasp of the game - of all the
talking heads on show during the World Cup Finals, Venables was the
one spouting more sense per sentence than all the rest.
With his best players being sold from under him, Venables did
nothing to endear him to the Leeds fans by leaving David Batty out in
the cold, and despite surprising early season victories over
Manchester United and Newcastle, he failed to communicate and organise
his players well enough to convert talent into goals. After further
sales and some fairly public comments about the way the board was
selling players behind his back it became clear that he wouldn't be
staying for a second year, but with a disastrous run of form at the
start of 2003, the final straw was the abysmal performance at Bramall
Lane that blew Leeds' remaining chance of Europe as Sheffield United
knocked Leeds out of a cup for the second time in one season. A final
dreadful capitulation at home to Boro was enough, and when Venables
confronted Peter Ridsdale over his future and the persistent rumours
of further player sales, he was told that his services were no longer
required.
Dave Tomlinson says: All the talk of Martin O'Neill and Steve
McLaren got us all hot and bothered about the new man and built up
expectations. The appointment of El Tel then looked a bit of a let
down, but I remember how hopeful I was that Venables would get the
England manager's job before Sven - this man is a wonderful manager
and inspired one of the best England sides of the modern era.
I hope that Venables can bring out the best in the squad and get them
playing for the team again - at least he'll bring some excitement and
colour.
Richard Allen says: you need to sorted out first you need to get 5
minutes you need to get more space you need to get to sorted to the
players and get follow the ball to keep six defeats. get going and get
move it
Lauren and Chris say: Batty! Batty! Batty! Batty! Batty! Terry time
to go.Terry Terry time to go!
luke says: venables out, batty in
mrs smith and mrs ogs says: we love you ell tel!!!! pride of leeds
along with alan smith and eirik bakke (avec his ladies of the night).
Claire says: As far as im concerned the biggest mistake Venables
has made was dropping Batty!! We need a solid presence in midfield and
Batty provided that. we are very short of players who would do
anything to play in a Leeds United shirt, Batty was one of the few, he
gave 100% of week. BRING BATTY BACK!!
Andrew Rea says: Venables isnt as bad as everyone thinks he is.
I'm forever Venables!!!!!!!
R.O.Fearn says: Does Terry still have his coaching academmy for
boys?
Fred A says: I can't communicate vividly the sense of despair that
I felt on hearing that we'd appointed Venables, a sentiment
instinctively shared amongst a few other supporters I know. Apart
from having a track record of financially screwing a number of clubs
he'd been at, the last thing the club needed was a bulls****ing
wide-boy personality in charge. Whilst I have to admit he was
undermined regards as Ferdinand and he chose to let go of Keane, we'd
qualified for the CL without these 2. He first set about ripping the
heart out of the midfield, alienating Batty, bringing in stooges from
his old boys network such as Okon and Barmby as replacements for
Dacourt (tho inconsistent he was a committed player and often
displayed true class). I for one moment don't believe that Venables
has any footballing knowledge that can be usefully applied to the
modern game (as I suspect pointed out by Dacourt), regardless of what
people say about the quality of his punditry (I never saw it myself).
He claimed that his tactical ideas were too complex for the players so
what is saying? That our bunch of Champions League semi-finalists had
transgressed into a bunch of retards? An effective manager is an
effective communicator but instead, in a mere six months, he
transformed us from CL to relegation contenders for an amount of money
that beggars belief (hold up your hand Risdale). Accordingly my
opinion of Venables has gone from mere contempt to total loathing.
Never again should this man be let near a football club, ever!
|
