Terry Venables was a tactical visionary – no wonder Pep Guardiola looked up to him

There was an image posted on Instagram following the death of Terry Venables. It shows a 15-year-old Pep Guardiola, then a ball-boy, looking up adoringly from the Camp Nou pitch at the then Barcelona coach sitting on the shoulders of one of his players following the 1986 European Cup semi-final victory over IFK Gothenburg.

The photograph was posted by Guardiola and it showed the importance of Venables to his career. Given the Manchester City manager is regarded as the greatest and most innovative coach of his generation, it is some tribute.

Of course, Guardiola is first and foremost a Barcelona fan. He also grew up in an era when English clubs dominated European football and so that became his reference point and probably helped lead to him wanting to coach in the Premier League one day. It is no surprise he has stayed at City longer than Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

If Johan Cruyff is remembered as the architect of the modern Barcelona, the first coach to win the European Cup, and Guardiola was his disciple who turned the club into serial winners, then Venables – El Tel – was the one who helped create the foundations for that dynasty.

His first season? He brought back the Spanish title for the first time in more than a decade. Second season? He took Barcelona to the European Cup final for the first time in a quarter of a century.

‘El Tel’ brought success back to Barcelona – Colorsport/Shutterstock

But it was not just that. Venables was an innovative and visionary coach and Guardiola witnessed that in his most formative years.

Venables training sessions have been described as being like laboratory experiments – with elaborate set-pieces and meticulous planning even when it came to throw-ins.

“He has fantastic tactical awareness,” Gareth Southgate once said and Venables’ profound influence on the current England manager is well-documented. “Every senior player in the group went away having learnt from him, which is an achievement.”

The key to it was not just Venables’ shrewd analytical brain, but allying this to treating the players well. For example, coaching sessions were not repeated. There was always something new to get them thinking and Venables would listen to feedback. He knew the value of good coaching on the outcome of a game and left little to chance. Venables even had his own system known as TTPP (Tactical, Technical, Pace, Personality) when assessing players.

Venables with his new British signings Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes at Barcelona in 1986 – Getty Images/Bob Thomas

The title of Venables autobiography – ‘Born to Manage’ – was therefore apt because his tactical acumen was evident from an early age. There is one well-cited example: in 1965 when Chelsea were drawn against AS Roma in the Fairs Cup they took a 4-1 lead into the second leg and manager Tommy Docherty wanted his team to play their normal attacking game.

Venables, the captain and midfielder but still just 22, disagreed and instructed Marvin Hinton to drop deeper and play as a sweeper. The game ended goalless and Chelsea went through.

By 24 Venables had his coaching badges; by 29 he was working as a coach under another progressive, Malcolm Allison, at Crystal Palace, whom Venables fashioned into the so-called ‘Team of the 80s’.

His influences were drawn from far and wide and, unsurprisingly, Venables was indebted to the Liverpool sides of the 1970s, copying their offside game as did George Graham – Venables’ friend – when he went to Arsenal. It showed he could be pragmatic and diligent also – and he was not adverse to some game-management – but his football was always ahead of the curve.

Thirty years ago Venable had Tony Adams bringing the ball out of defence while he changed formations to adapt to the opposition. Famously at Euro 96 England switched between a 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 and back again.

Gary Neville touched upon this as he described how, during the tournament, he had played as a conventional right-back against Switzerland, then on the right of a back-three against Scotland and even as a right-winger when England were in possession in the third group game against the Netherlands before being used as a right-wing back versus Spain.

“The ability that we had to change systems during matches and from game to game was incredible, it blew my mind,” Neville wrote on social media.

And it must be remembered that he took over England after they failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup under Graham Taylor and transformed a side ridiculed for their rudimentary tactics. It came at a time when the stock of English football was at a low, apparently lacking sophistication and adaptability. Venables showed this was a failure of coaching and not of the players.

Neville also discussed another aspect of Venables – and one that all great managers, such as Guardiola, share. While being fully supportive of the players he believed in, he was also ruthless when he needed to be.

It was a vital ingredient, along with his man-management, collegiate approach and tactical and technical ability that made him the father of many modern-day coaches.

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