Gary Neville issues heartfelt message following Terry Venables' passing

Jacque Talbot

26 Nov 2023 11:00 CST
4 min read

Gary Neville has delivered a poignant message to his followers following the passing of Terry Venables.

The former England coach passed away aged 80 after a battle with a long-term illness. Venables is one of English football’s most iconic names, while he left his mark in Spain after winning the La Liga with Barcelona.

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Venables, known as El Tel after a spell there. He played over 500 league games for Chelsea, Tottenham, Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace from 1960-1974, but he is fondly remembered for his time as a coach.

Neville delivered a heartfelt message to commemorate his former coach. He said: “So sorry to hear the news of my very first England coach, Terry Venables, a man who gave me a chance to play for my country and became without a shadow of doubt my number one England coach in my whole career.

“There were three things that were important to me about Venables. The first is when we hear people that play for Pep Guardiola now say that he can call the outcome of a game in training a few days before the match arrives, Terry Venables had that very same capability, he’d come through the Barcelona system. In Euro 96 as a right back, I played as a conventional right back in the first match.

Very sorry to hear Terry Venables has passed away. He was a great man and a great manager and I will always be grateful for the belief he had to put me into his team at only 16 years of age.
RIP Terry ❤️ pic.twitter.com/cfKorLTScX
— James Milner (@JamesMilner) November 26, 2023

"I played as the right of a back three in parts of the second match against Scotland and in the third match against Holland, people probably won’t remember this, I played as a right winger when we were in possession through our goalkeeper and in the fourth match against Spain in the quarter final, played as a right wing-back. The ability that we had to change systems during matches and from game to game was incredible. It blew my mind and without a shadow of a doubt Terry Venables was the most technically gifted coach that I’d ever played under and England certainly needed more like him and it was a real sadness when he left at the end of Euro 96, I felt it never got as good again for England as it was under him.

“The second thing was that he was an unbelievable personality and character, larger than life. He was someone who was a players man, who looked after his players, stood up for his players in big situations like the pre-96 trip to Hong Kong and the dentist chair incident. He was someone who the players trusted and had great faith in and he always spoke openly and he was a personality and character that was far too big for the then rigid and stiff FA football association and that’s why they got rid of him after Euro 96 and why the relationship ended, because he was too big a personality for them.

So sorry to hear the news of my very first England coach, Terry Venables. A man who gave me a chance to play for my country and became without a shadow of doubt my number one England coach in my whole career.

There were three things that were important to me about Venables. The… pic.twitter.com/J7QWMcOvmp
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) November 26, 2023

“The third thing is what all great coaches need. He had an unbelievable ruthlessness and clinical side to him. We had brilliant leaders in that dressing room like Ince, Adams, Shearer, Platt, Gascoigne, Southgate and Seaman. He handled them all really strongly and they all knew who the boss was. There were many times where he would come in at half-time and call out one of the senior players and there were few England managers who could do that, because they didn’t have the players permanently they were never really authoritative enough with senior players and Terry had that quality and a standard.

“I sit here today thinking back to my special times with Terry and without a shadow of a doubt can say he is the most technically gifted British coach that I’ve ever seen and we’ve ever produced.”