Terry Venables

Venables progressed from representing his county to earning caps for England Schoolboys, attracting interest from Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Manchester United.

Chelsea

Venables left school in the summer of 1958 and signed for Chelsea as an apprentice at the age of 15. He later said that he joined Chelsea as he felt he had a better chance of breaking into the first team at Stamford Bridge and also because the club offered his father a job as a part-time scout. He denied West Ham's youth coach Malcolm Allison's claim he had only joined Chelsea for financial reasons. He delayed becoming a professional player so he could try for a place on the Great Britain squad for the 1960 Summer Olympics, turning professional after learning that he would not be selected for the squad. He won the FA Youth Cup with Chelsea in consecutive seasons, as they beat Preston North End in 1960 and Everton in 1961. He made his much-anticipated senior debut in a 4–2 defeat to West Ham United on 6th February 1960, with newspapers billing him as "the new Duncan Edwards". Tommy Docherty joined Chelsea as player-coach in September 1961 and went on to replace Ted Drake as manager the following month. Docherty proved to be a successful manager at the club, promoting younger players who became known as "Docherty's Diamonds" and was a highly-influential coach in Venables' career, but the pair had a difficult relationship and Venables believed Docherty to be tactically limited.…

As well as receiving two international caps, Venables held the distinction of being the only footballer to play for England at schoolboy, youth, amateur, Under-23, and for the full international team; as the amateur team was disbanded in 1974 no player was ever able to match his record. He was named by Alf Ramsey on the list of 33 "possibles" for the 1966 FIFA World Cup, having won two caps in 1964 – a 2–2 draw with Belgium and a 1–1 draw with the Netherlands, but did not make it into the final squad of 22.

Crystal Palace

Venables worked as Malcolm Allison's coach for the 1975–76 season, when Palace reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup; however they lost the semi-final tie with Southampton and their subsequent league form suffered as they slipped back to fifth-place. Venables succeeded Allison as manager in June 1976. It proved to be a busy month for Venables, as he turned down the surprise offer to walk out on Palace to succeed Bertie Mee as Arsenal manager and also had a para-sailing accident in Mallorca which required 40 stitches. As Crystal Palace manager, Venables built a young team of mostly youth team players and free transfer signings which the media dubbed the "Team of the Eighties". Star winger Peter Taylor was sold on to Spurs for £200,000, but most of this sum went on balancing the club's books. Venables spent £1,500 to sign striker Rachid Harkouk from Feltham, coming up with half of this sum out of his own funds on the understanding that he would receive 50% of any future transfer fee for the player. By March 1977, the board found enough money for Venables to purchase Jeff Bourne from Derby County for £30,000, and Bourne ended the 1976–77 campaign with nine goals in 15 games to help Palace to secure the third and final automatic promotion place. His team adjusted well to the Second Division and finished in ninth-place in 1977–78, before going on to win promotion as champions in 1978–79. They secured the title with a final day victory over Burnley in a…

Terence Frederick Venables was born at 313 Valence Avenue, Dagenham, Essex on 6 January 1943, the only child of Fred and Myrtle Venables. His father was a Navy petty officer who originally came from Barking. His mother was Welsh, from Clydach Vale. When he was 13, his parents moved to run a pub in Romford, Essex, sending him to live with his maternal grandparents Ossie and Milly, who fostered his love of football.