A man synonymous with Tottenham Hotspur, it's a year to the day since we learned of the sad passing of our former player, manager, chief executive and fan Terry Venables .

A well loved and respected figure in the football world, Terry enjoyed a career in the game than spanned nearly half a century and took him from the pitch to the dugout onto the boardroom and back again.

It goes without saying that Terry left his mark on the game. While he was a League Cup and FA Cup winner as a player, the latter coming in Lilywhite in 1967, it was as a coach he made his name.

Taking Crystal Palace from the third tier to the top flight in his first managerial job in the 1970s, he took QPR into Europe for the the first time in their history in the 1980s before guiding Barcelona to the European Cup Final in 1986.

In 1987, he became our manager and led us to our latest FA Cup triumph in his final campaign in the hot seat in 1991. He was then appointed our chief executive that summer.

It is in his endeavours with the England national team that he will be most fondly remembered by the nation though as he was the figure head of the Three Lions at Euro 96 - a summer where, while football almost 'came home', the country fell back in love with the beautiful game once more.

While Terry's coaching brought about an England team that excited with fast, flowing football, his infectious personality and man management of the group encouraged the nation to reconnect with our national team.

And it is that approach to not just football but life which those that knew Terry best feel, above all else, he should be remembered for.

Here is their portrait of the late, great Terry Venables.

Phil Beal

A centre-half who played in our famous Lilywhite shirt for more than a decade during the glory, glory years of the 1960s and 1970s, and who was our 10th highest appearance maker up until March, 2023, when Harry Kane edged past his tally of 420 games, Phil Beal was a team-mate of Terry's here between 1966 and 1969.

Here are his memories of his former team-mate

"I hold Terry in such high esteem. In fact, we were so pally during our time as team-mates, we went on family holidays together - that’s how pally we were. If there was anywhere to go, me and Terry would always go. Football or holidays; we were always close.
As a player, I think it’s fair to say that he didn’t quite achieve what everyone hoped at Spurs, even though we won the FA Cup in 1967. Technically, he was very good. I go back to when we played Chelsea and Terry was there, we were always careful with him. For me, it’s all about the coaching with Terry."
"When he left us as a player and went to Crystal Palace, I watched him coach. He was brilliant. We sat down and had a meal afterwards, and he told me, ‘when I sit down and have a meal, there might be a lot of people with me, and a lot of them might talk a lot of nonsense, but there’s always one thing I’ll pick up and take on board’, so, he listened to everyone, always open to ideas, always looking to better himself.
Another time, we were out for a meal with George Graham, Rodney Marsh, Alan Harris… what does Terry do? He gets out all the salt and pepper pots and starts talking tactics! And everyone listened to him, as well. As a coach and a manager, players had so much respect for him. Just look at what people like Gary Lineker, Teddy Sheringham, Alan Shearer, Gareth Southgate have said about him. They all looked up to him and learned a lot from him. I have never heard anyone say a bad word about Terry."
"He loved a sing song, he was a comedian as well. I’ve some great stories. We were always into a bit of mischief. I remember we went to Athens on an end-of-season tour (May, 1968), and we could see the famous Acropolis from our hotel window. Anyway, the team organised a visit to the Acropolis, but me and Terry didn’t really want to go – we wanted to go to the beach! Eddie Baily, Bill Nicholson’s assistant, asked us, ‘why aren’t you two going to the Acropolis?’ and Terry said, ‘well, I can see it from the hotel window!’. That was him.
He always had a laugh, a smile. We were really good pals, we just clicked. He’ll be missed,. It’s a sad loss."

Clive Allen

A prolific centre forward who registered a Club record 49 goals in a single season for us in the 1986/87 campaign, Clive Allen lined up for us between 1984 and 1988 and later returned as a coach - he is now a regular guest on our live and on-demand shows.

Clive knew Terry from the age of five after his dad Les had signed the former midfielder from us in 1969. He later went on to play for late manager for four different sides.

Here are his memories of his friend,Terry...

"I go way back with Terry. My dad, Les, signed him for QPR from Spurs (in 1969), so I knew him from five years old. I’ve a photo of myself with Terry on the pitch at Loftus Road, he was captain of QPR, I was six. The families also go back to Dagenham - the Allens and Venables families. 
Terry took me to Crystal Palace in the swap deal with Kenny Sansom in 1980. That was the first time I played for him, then he went to QPR three months later. "
"He then took me to QPR a year later. I had three years with him at QPR, winning the old Second Division, reaching the FA Cup Final in 1982 and we then qualified for Europe, which QPR had never done before.
I also played for him for England Under-21s. In the last six months of my time at Spurs, he came back from Barcelona, so I worked with him again before I went to Bordeaux. So, I’ve known him a long, long time."
"He was a brilliant coach in the way he saw the game, the way he influenced players and the way he got his teams to play. I played on the plastic pitch at QPR for three years and the team he constructed there were all ball-playing footballers, not just defenders, midfielders, forwards, but players who could all deal with the football and pass the ball well, long and short.
He’ll go down as one of the most innovative coaches ever. He was visionary, he really was."

Gary Mabbutt

A steadfast centre-back who captained the Club for 11 years, which included the years under Terry Venables' leadership and our 1991 FA Cup Final triumph over Nottingham Forest.

Here are his memories of his former manager...

"Terry was the best-ever if in a scenario where we had a game plan, gone out to start the game and the opponents had changed their team or system. He could spot that immediately and do what we had to do to compensate for that. He’d soon get his messages in, he’d see the situation and sort it out. Where most managers would wait until half-time, Terry could see things in minutes and change it straight away."
"Terry made you feel like you were special, that’s what he loved doing and that’s how he got the best out of his players. He’d often go against the system. For example, if we’d lost 2-0 at home against, say, Manchester United, he would say, ‘right guys, tonight, we’re all at my club, karaoke party, I’m starting the singing, we’ll have a few drinks and get on with it’, so we’d all go down to his club in London for the night."
"He was very much friends with the players, but then again, when he walked into a room, he still had that presence about him, that charisma, that special character. As a person, you just had to like him. He was a likeable character. He always had a smile on his face, even in training, even if things had gone wrong in games, he always had a smile or a cheeky comment to make, something that would make us laugh. He was always bubbly, always seemed to be on top of the world.
"He had that magnetism that drew you in. He was that larger-than-life character as a manager and a coach. I have to say he was the best manager I worked with in terms of man-management of players, getting players prepared and ready for matches, getting the best out of players – that’s what Terry did best."

David Howells

A midfielder who rose through our ranks before going on to play for ur first team, David spent 13 seasons as a professional with us, which included Terry's spell as manager, and was an FA Cup winner with us in 1991.

Here are his memories of his former coach, Terry...

"I credit Terry with a lot in my career. Hopefully, he made me a better person as well because he was that type of manager; someone who would try to help you live a better life. If he thought you were down, he would always have the right words to say, he had a brilliant mind, funny… but you knew he was the boss.
Terry was very calm, always. I don’t ever remember him shouting. He was always quite concise, especially at half-time, when you don’t have long to get messages across, so it would be two or three important points that he would make and it would always make them clear, so we’d all understand exactly what the message was."
"We all say it, all the players who played under Terry, without exception, in my experience, say he was the best and the reason he was the best was that he had everything a manager needed, empathy. But also… he told me when he first came to the club and I was a young player, drifting a bit, if I’m being honest, I could have gone on and had a career somewhere else rather than Tottenham Hotspur, and Terry told me in no uncertain terms, ‘it doesn’t bother me whether you stay here or not, because there would be other good players who play for this club. You’ve got a chance to be a player at this club, but you need to pull your finger out a bit, you need to do more'. For me, that was the message that kicked me on."
"I’ll be forever grateful to Terry for everything he did. It was just that character, I spent a lot of time off the pitch with him as well, used to go to his club down in Kensington on a Saturday – if we’d won – and that’s unheard of, really, for players to go and spend time socially with a manager, and get that balance right. We all loved him, his character, the way he carried himself.
He had a tremendous aura around him, when Terry walked into a room, all the heads turned, you’d hear, ‘Terry’s here’ and he had that respect from everyone, players, coaches, supporters. It was an absolute privilege and I feel very lucky to have spent time as a player under Terry Venables. It was immense."

Darren Anderton

A creative midfielder signed for the Club during Terry's spell in the boardroom, Darren's England career took off when Venables was appointed as the national team manager and played a key role in the Three Lions' indelible Euro 96 campaign.

Here are his memories of his former manager...

"Everything in my career is down to him, really. He had a huge impact on my life and career, even when I was struggling.
I remember we played Everton at home (September, 1992), I kept getting dragged off and that happened in this game, we were 1-0 down, I came in to have a bath – 10 minutes later, Terry walked in, asked if I was alright, I probably wasn’t, but he said, ‘look, you’re doing absolutely fine... you’ll be a top, top player. Gazza came in, he struggled a bit, Chris Waddle, you’ll be fine... you’re 20 years of age, we bought you for the future, this is all a bonus’. Then there was a roar as our goal went in, we’d equalised, but he didn’t flinch. He carried on. He cared. That’s the person he was."
"Euro 96 is the big thing for me. That squad had so many big names, big characters. Terry was full of life – but they all knew Terry was boss, and they all looked up to him. When Terry spoke, there was silence. Everyone was transfixed by him, everyone listened and took it on board, because he was always right. Just look at the performance against Holland. But even after the first match against Switzerland where we were terrible, he didn’t panic, he still believed in what he believed in.
I remember going back in on the Monday after Switzerland and with the Scotland game coming up the next weekend. Myself and many of the others all probably felt, ‘wow, I’m in trouble, I might not play next week’, because we were so bad, but he just said, ‘look, this is football, this happens, I believe in you, I believe in what we’re here to do and we’ll carry on and put it right against Scotland’. He could have gone the other way and panicked, made changes, the media were hounding us, but he did what was right."
"My wife was saying to me, that’s what you want in life. The way I’m talking about him, the way everyone is talking about him. That’s the way you want your life to be, and he lived his to the fullest. He was an incredible human being, socially, caring, coaching-wise.
He was full of life. When you were struggling, he was there for you. Everyone talks about him being a great coach, great tactician, great manager but most importantly, he was a great man."

“It is a great club and I have some wonderful memories as both a player and a manager. I grew up supporting Spurs and cut out pictures of their players and stuck them in a big scrapbook, which I still have to this day. Two of my favourites were Johnny Brooks and Danny Blanchflower...

“Spurs have always represented everything that is good about football; their teams have always tried to play football the right way, to pass and move the ball. Arthur Rowe started it, Bill Nicholson brilliantly carried it on, and, in my own way, I tried to continue it when I was manager there years later.”

Terry Venables

TopBuilt with Shorthand