Terry Venables, who died on November 25 at the age of 80, was the first coach to enjoy some stability on the Blaugrana bench during the long presidency of Josep Lluís Núñez. The first year of the English coach at the Camp Nou broke styles and left the League rivals without a response, with a constant lead from the first day, 0-3 at the Bernabéu, until winning the title on the thirtieth, in Valladolid . Venables himself explained his contribution to Spanish football like this: “I took charge of the team that Menotti left, which was already pressing, but only in defense. In England we pressed with the forwards to steal the ball from the rival defense. It was difficult to adapt, but it worked out first.”
As a footballer, Venables started out at Chelsea, with whom he even played at the Camp Nou. It happened in the semifinals of the 1966 Fairs Cup. On April 27 of that year, Chelsea left the Blaugrana field defeated (2-0, goals from Fusté and Zaldúa). In those days, Barcelona used to host their international rivals in a hotel in Castelldefels, where the footballers spent the hours lying in the sun. Fusté remembered having to mark, more than once, a rival player “redder than a shrimp” who implored him, above all, not to put his hand on his back. Venables, aged 23, played as a left wing midfielder, but he no longer lined up in the second leg, at Stamford Bridge, or in the play-off match, which decided the tie for Roque Olsen’s team. In that Chelsea, the Harris brothers, Allan (central defender) and Ron (a relentless scorer) were permanent fixtures. Terry Venables and Allan Harris forged a solid friendship that led them both to the Camp Nou bench in 1984. Subsequently, Allan Harris was on the verge of taking charge of Espanyol, which had just been relegated to the Second Division in 1989, but a critical reaction from the fans managed to get him relieved of his position before making his debut.
In the 1983-84 season, Menotti’s Barça was surpassed by Clemente’s Athletic Club, both in the League and in the historic Cup final that ended with fistfights. The Argentine coach decided to end his stage and for the first time since he became president in 1978, Núñez came across a coach who did not leave the position by decision of the board but by his own discretion.
In Barcelona, ??given the style that Athletic had imposed and that in Europe the biggest problems appeared against representatives of the English league (among the latest disappointments stood out a Super Cup against Aston Villa and a quarter-final of the Cup Winners’ Cup against Manchester United ), it was decided to look for a coach in England. And at the time of the election three candidates were considered: Alex Ferguson, Bobby Robson and, as a third option, Terry Venables. Ferguson had achieved spectacular results at Aberdeen, especially in the 1983 Cup Winners’ Cup when he left Bayern in the gutter and won the title against none other than Real Madrid of the Stielike, Camacho, Juanito, Santillana… Robson had impressed with the Ipswich Town, a very hard-working and efficient team that played at the Camp Nou in the UEFA Cup (1977) and the Cup Winners’ Cup (1979). Venables, who was always “Mr. Terry” for Núñez, was still making his way and was the third option. In a marathon series of meetings in London, vice presidents Joan Gaspart and Nicolau Casaus tested potential candidates one after another on the same day. And they returned to Barcelona with Venables’ ok. “Ferguson was determined to become manager of Manchester, it was his priority, and Robson only had the English team in mind,” Gaspart recalled recently.
The new English coach surprised with his optimistic and carefree personality. Thus, in one of his first meals with senior club leaders, when he arrived at the cafes he asked: “What’s the matter, we don’t smoke here?”, and Casaus quickly offered him one of his classic cigars. Venables waved him off, bent down slightly and pulled his sock out of the sock. He used to hide it carefully for these occasions.
The rest of the story is known. The exhibition of pressing in the 1984-85 League, with key players like Rojo and Calderé (“everything was already agreed upon to go to Zaragoza, but Venables arrived…”). The enormous disappointment of Sevilla in 1986, the confrontation with Schuster in the 1986-87 season and the dismissal after only four league games at the start of the next, to give way on an interim basis to Luis Aragonés and then to Cruyff. Surely Venables’ big mistake was preferring Steve Archibald over Hugo Sánchez, who had already signed a contract, with the usual clauses (medical review and board approval). It was explained to the Mexican that the board said no, but it was Venables who decided. The Scot gave a good performance in his first year, and in the same Valladolid locker room, in the middle of the League celebration, Venables approached Gaspart: “What, was I right or not?” Then injuries reduced the Scot’s contribution and Hugo Sánchez, who moved to Real Madrid in 1985, won the Pichichi four times and was the true secret of the Quinta del Buitre and its five consecutive league titles.
