Rob Draper is a football writer and a QPR fan, this was his thread on Twitter ( X ) ...
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( I don't know if you don't have an account if you can read it, so I'll copy and paste what he wrote. )
….the back page was ‘Venables for Barça!’ That’s how we got news in those days, pre internet! I still smile when I recall I thought he might turn them down as QPR were in UEFA Cup! Loftus Rd or Camp Nou?
I remember thinking things would never be the same again - and in some ways, they never were. What I still don’t think is fully appreciated, because of his ill advised business dealings, is just how good + innovative he was as a coach…
- as
@GNev2
says the best technical English coach ever how he came to get that job… there’s a clip of Venables as player in early 70s talking about Cruyff’s football. No-one in England was talking about playing the Cruyff way in 70s. That was for other countries….
Before QPR, Venables has briefly done well at Crystal Palace. When he came to QPR they were in 2nd Div (Championship). In 1st season they reached FA Cup final, lost narrowly in replay 1-0 to Spurs but in 82-83 they won Div 2 easily. And tactically it was really interesting…
…QPR were booed off wherever they went! Venables had them pressing high up the pitch, playing a clinical offside trap. This was pure Cruyff principles, squeeze the pitch. No one was doing this in England. The high line that is de rigueur in PL now was used first by TV…
Fans then thought offside trap akin to cheating! Hence the boos. QPR won six away games 1-0 that season. Teams were bamboozled. Once QPR took lead they were virtually impregnable. No one had wit to think their way round this…
This is the origin of the ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ offside trap made famous by Full Monty ….. (remember ‘level’ was offside then which made it much more effective)…
...because youth team coach at QPR in 82 was TV’s great mate George Graham. Now GG wld take this a v different route, with direct football. But TV was all about passing, moving the ball on the pitch. No long balls…
. In 83-84 QPR were 5th in their first season in top flight, most coaches still baffled by TV’s style. His great sparring partner was the other great tactical coach of that Gen, Graham Taylor at Watford, with a wildly different more direct approach…
GT + TV had huge rivalry, Jose v Rafa of their day. They were both superbly gifted. This is where my life story intersects, a QPR fan born in Watford + at school there, these were my childhood football mentors. I was lucky by accident of birth + allegiance…
…Watford fans will tell you QPR were boring + there was an over-reliance on the offside trap. But TV’s teams could play. QPR had Tony Currie + Simon Stainrod as a false 9 before they were a thing…
….most people weren’t thinking like this in England. It’s what caused Barça to take a huge punt on an unknown English coach in 1985. But this wasn’t the Barça of today. They had won just 1 La Liga in 23 years (under Rinus Michels + Cruyff)…
... TV went there with no languages, spoke to crowd in Catalan, learned Spanish + won La Liga in his first season, qualifying for European Cup (Champs League). In those days, only champions qualified so this was Barça 1st time in tournament since 74-75…
Bear in mind Real Madrid had won 6 European Cups and Barça 0. It was the Holy Grail. That famous photo of Pep looking up at TV is from the 1985 European Cup semi, one of Barça most famous comebacks, winning on pens v Gothenburg after 3-0 win…
..the final was all set in Seville v Romania’s Steaua Bucharest. Stadium was full of expectant Barça fans. Yet it was a terrible final, 0-0 after 120mins. Steaua then won the worst pen shoot out of all time 2-0. Barça missed all 4 pens they took!
it was a bit of a sliding doors moment. Imagine if Barça had won that? Instead it would fall to Cruyff to lead them to first European Cup in 1992. But
@GaryLineker
@SteveArchibald8
will tell you TV revived pressing + running at a Barça that had grown lazy post Michels….
Imagine an English coach now, with only a couple of years experience in top flight, rocking up in La Liga and winning?! Kinda like Graham Potter getting the Barça job. Venables was extraordinary….
After that TV was at Gazza’s Spurs + Euro 96 England….it’s a huge shame + fork in road for English football that he walked away from Eng job in 96 cos FA failed to back him because of his injudicious business deals….
.But the curiosity that made him want to be much more than a football man, was what made him so good as a coach. He wasn’t prepared to be boxed in…..
He was a phenomenal talent. The patterns of play he coached are familiar now but were radical then. When I think of him, I think of Gazza bursting through, laying it off to Sheringham, who shapes to shoot, but pulls it back to Shearer, who scores…
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That was Terry Venables football. He was an extraordinary man, a great coach, a trailblazer. He gave you hope. And he made the people happy.
Just in case anyone doubts Venables was a brilliant coach, listen to his Barça players…… Lobo ‘unforgettable coach who brought high press to Spanish football + was the first to work with us on a system that funnelled opponents’ attacks into our centre halves’…
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Victor Muñoz: ‘He was an innovator in football concepts, in pressing opponents, which surprised La Liga + enabled us to end our La Liga drought’ Calderé ‘tactical innovator, key to La Liga 84-85 win’ Alexanco ‘He implemented a different kind of football with a lot of pressure’
An English coach at Barça who is still regarded as an ‘innovator’ English coaching is having a renaissance now I believe but for 20 years it’s been like dark ages Venables was the last of a kind in his era, a global influencer
The penalty save from Urruti that confirmed the 2-1 win for Barça v Valladolid in 1985 which meant Barça won La Liga under Venables It prompted the famous line from commentator Joaquim Maria Puyal ‘Urruti! I love you!!’
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Just been reminded that QPR away chant of the time was ‘Offside, offside’ Which sounds benign, a rare case of tactics being used to goad the opposition Yet imagine apoplexy + frustration of a home crowd watching their team continually run offside + having no idea what to do
