Venables: The Autobiography

by Terry Venables, Neil Hanson

Book by Venables, Terry, Hanson, Neil

Genres: Biography, Football

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 1994

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Terence Frederick Venables, often referred to as El Tel, was an English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for England.

As a manager, Venables won the Second Division championship with Crystal Palace in 1979.
- Wikipedia

Reviews

[Julia Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Venables first came to my attention in the long hot summer of 1996. That was the year it seemed football was coming home as England hosted the Euro cup and the team consisted of great players like Stuart Pierce (who once lived opposite me) Gary Linerker (before he became witty) and of course, Gazza. Not to mention Paul Scholes, etc and the fact that we had a goal keeper who could actually hold onto the ball.

I soon discovered Terry wasn't all about football. I vaguely remember old black & white match of the day & the cheeky chappie on the field, waggling his eyebrows comically at the cameras & my dad would say to me ... 'clever bloke that one.' He is also a co-author of what was at the time of the late 70s a successful tv series, "Hazel." I began to read his life story and discovered a man who felt that nothing was impossible. Anything he put his mind to, he managed to achieve. In this book, I began to understand why.

Written in a chatty informal style, this book isn't just for fans of football. I finished it with an even higher regard for the man, who perhaps reveals more than he intended as to what made him such a great coach & manager. Terry Venables's autobiography confirms that to get the best from anyone or any aspect of your life, you first need to understand the subject throughly. Nice one son!

ps. regarding the recording career - don't give up the day job.

[Russio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentially either a rather pained exorcism of allegations of wrong-doing at his time at Spurs or a tissue of lies told by a crook. Who knows eh? Terry piles polemic upon fact to try to convince you of the former, making you suspect the latter. He acknowledges the existence of a co-writer, who clearly knows words like "tumult" which does little for his believability. The stuff about QPR is brief but positive; the stuff about Barcelona interesting. The rest is largely dull and the publication date of 1995 means that the best was yet to come...still, you've got to love him, eh. Well, when you put him up against Alan Sugar you have!