If Terry Venables won two particular games in his first season at Barcelona, the Catalunyan locals would have hailed him a saint.
"People would stop me in the street and say 'as long as you beat Real Madrid that's a good season',” Venables said, in a previous interview with the BBC. Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola are the two names Barcelona supporters remember most.
The sight of the sharply dressed, well-groomed football legends, with a playing style to match, are what people think of first when they think about the iconic La Liga giants. Yet, football evangelists and hardcore Barcelona supporters will know, those two legends would not have enjoyed their success without the grinning Essex geezer dressed head to toe in yellow. After the former England manager sadly passed away at the age of 80 years old, Daily Star Sport looks at how he reshaped Barcelona's fortunes.
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Cruyff’s legacy is ingrained in the Catalan’s playing style, while the multiple trophy cabinets Guardiola filled ensured the now Manchester City manager's legend is cemented into the Nou Camp. However, those with far reaching memories in Barcelona will remember the success of Cruyff and Guardiola were built upon Venables’ foundations.
In the modern era, Barcelona are considered to be one of the few destination clubs in the world. Barring the likes of Real Madrid and perhaps Bayern Munich, every club in Europe is often considered to be a stepping stone on their way to the Nou Camp.
Yet, when Venables arrived at the club in 1984, the club were starved of success and drained of hope and ambition. Ten years had passed since their last league title.
What are your favourite memories from Terry Venables' life? Let us know in the comment section below
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“I'd say that we can win the league and they [Barcelona fans] would laugh in my face… There was a very negative outlook in Barcelona. They preferred to cry about losing rather than smile about winning. They thought everyone was against them."
Barcelona’s slim title hopes were lumped onto the shoulders of the mercurial Diego Maradona. Venables was eager to work with the legendary Argentine – heck, no eyebrows would be raised if the future England manager joined the club so he could manage Maradona.
Unfortunately for him, Maradona more or less passed him through the doorway on his way to Napoli. “Well as you can imagine, I was very excited to work with Diego,” he said. “But on my first day, I was told by the president that I had to sell him. He was broke. The best player in the world, out of money."
In 2014, Venables also said: “the season before, he [Maradona] had been injured and he had 16 friends from Argentina living with him, to keep him company in the evening and make sure he wasn't bored. He would pay for everything, sign cheques for their meals, you name it.”
As well as losing one of the best players in the world and a player Barcelona paid Boca Juniors a then world record $7.6m (£6m), they also lost a star who, despite illness and injuries, contributed 22 goals in 36 outings. The cavalry was none other than Scottish striker Steve Archibald, who arrived from Tottenham Hotspur.
At the time, it was seemingly a choice between him and Mexican hitman Hugo Sanchez, a player who had netted 26 goals for Atletico Madrid in the previous campaign and went on to spearhead Real Madrid to five successive league titles between 1985 and 1990. Nevertheless, instead of the clumsy, sunburnt Scot the club’s fan-base were probably expecting, Archibald helped himself to 15 La Liga goals.
In the eyes of the fans, Venables achieved his main target in his first La Liga match – he beat Real Madrid. They did so with a high tempo that was deployed by Cruyff and Guardiola over the next few decades.
Barcelona went on to win La Liga. His success was so great, he became known as 'El Tel'. They lifted the trophy 11 points ahead of second placed Atletico Madrid. Not bad for a manager who was managing Queens Park Rangers in the icy cold dugouts of Loftus Road.
Venables may have departed this world, but El Tel will live on forever at the Nou Camp.
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