Terry Venables

Biography: Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables was born in Dagenham, often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England. He was the national team manager of England from 1994 to 1996 (leading the team to the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championships), and of Australia from 1997 to 1998. He has also managed several club sides including Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United in England, and Barcelona in Spain.

Venables attended Lennards Secondary School (now The Ockendon Maths And Computing College) In South Ockendon, Essex.

Venables left school in the summer of 1957 and signed for Chelsea as an apprentice. He became professional for them in 1960, after being left out of England?s Olympic squad. He emerged as the captain and one of the key players in the Chelsea side which challenged for honours in the 1960s, narrowly missing out on Football League and FA Cup success, and winning the League Cup in 1965, scoring in the final against Leicester City. But a fall-out with manager Tommy Docherty culminated in him and seven other players being sent home for breaking a pre-match curfew and ultimately led to his sale to Tottenham Hotspur for £80,000 in 1966. He had made 202 appearances for Chelsea and scored 26 goals.

He played 115 League games and scored 19 goals for Spurs, with the highlight being an FA Cup Final win over his old side in 1967. In June 1969, he transferred to Queens Park Rangers for £70,000 playing 179 games and scoring 19 goals, eventually in 1974 he transferred to Crystal Palace for the same fee, but only played 14 games for them before being appointed manager in June 1976.

As well as receiving two International Caps, Venables held the distinction of being the first footballer to play for England at all international levels (schoolboy, youth, amateur, Under-23, and for the full international team).

Having been signed as a player in 1974, appearing in only 14 games for Palace during the next two years provided Venables the opportunity to carve-out an increasingly important coaching role under Malcolm Allison. When Palace missed promotion from the Third Division for the second successive year in 1975/76, Malcolm Allison departed, and Venables was appointed manager in his place.

His first season as manager of Crystal Palace (1976/77) was a success, albeit with promotion only being achieved on Wednesday 11 May 1977 with a dramatic away win at promotion rivals Wrexham in Palace?s last game of the season. Palace wanted to win by two clear goals. With one minute remaining in the game, the score was 2-2, but Rachid Harkouk scored in the last minute and Jeff Bourne scored in injury time for Palace to win 4-2. As a consequence, Wrexham had to win their last game of the season the following Saturday, and failed. Looking back on the match 30 years later, Venables said: "It?s the most memorable game for me out of all the clubs and memories I have. It was just eery, amazing, just like it was meant to be. It was quite amazing."

Palace?s promotion-winning team had been built with typically astute key strategic signings and the youth players who had been coached by Venables.

Venables married Christine McCann on 4 April 196