Terry Venables’ colourful life outside football – from TV show to board game and private club sold for fortune

TERRY Venables was a larger-than-life footie legend — but also found time to write a TV detective series, release a board game and run a private members’ club and boutique hotel.

An accomplished singer, he also made it to 23 in the charts with Elvis Presley song If I Can Dream, backed by a choir and recorded for The Sun’s World Cup advert in 2010.

Last night Terry’s agent and long-time friend Jonathan Harris said: “The song is appropriate because he always took the view that, if you had dreams, you should pursue them to the best of your ability.

“He was an extraordinary man — charismatic, quick-witted, innovative and incredibly loyal.”

A long illness meant that one of his last contributions to public life was penning an open letter to Gareth Southgate and his team — published in The Sun — on the eve of the Covid-delayed Euro 2020 final.

He wrote: “Football is just like life. You have to give it your best shot. Take the best and survive the rest.”

Terry, whose death aged 80 was announced yesterday, came from humble beginnings.

He was born in bomb-blitzed Dagenham, East London, in 1943.

He was the only child of Royal Navy petty officer Fred Venables and Welsh wife Myrtle.

As a child he moved in with his nearby grandparents Ossie and Milly so that his parents could run a pub in Romford.

Terry later recalled: “My upbringing left me with an outlook on life of which I am proud.

“I know wealthy people who wouldn’t give a beggar a quid — but I was blessed with family who weren’t all successful but weren’t jealous if you were.

“And when I walked out with England, I carried their values with me because Dagenham prepared me for life.”

Midfielder Terry became an apprentice at Chelsea aged 15.

Two years later he entered a singing contest at Butlin’s in Clacton-on-Sea, but Chelsea did not allow him to compete in the final stages.

His playing career saw him make a combined 619 appearances for clubs including Chelsea, Spurs, QPR and Crystal Palace before hanging up his boots in 1974.

He wrote five novels. And, with Gordon Williams, he co-wrote the popular detective novels Hazell — later turned into a successful ITV series starring Nicholas Ball

Wheeler-dealer Terry opened a West End tailor’s shop with his then-Chelsea teammates George Graham and Ron “Chopper” Harris.

He married Christine McCann in 1966 and they had two daughters before splitting.

He met second wife Yvette Bazire in his father’s pub in Chingford in 1984 and she went with him when he went to manage Barcelona that year.

Yvette, who would be with him until his death, said in an interview in 1996: “I love children. But the one thing I would never do would be to jeopardise my relationship with Terry, and I do think that babies can alter the balance in a marriage.”

The couple ran Scribes West private members’ club in Kensington — where Terry mixed with an array of “colourful” characters — before selling it for close to £1million in 1997.

His managerial career had started at Crystal Palace in 1976 before embarking on a successful four-year stint with QPR in 1980.

At Barcelona he switched their formation to an English-style 4-4-2 and took the Catalan giants to the Spanish title in 1985 — their first since 1974.

They reached the European Cup final a year later.

He also sold Diego Maradona, replacing him with slightly less glamorous Scot Steve Archibald.

Explaining his unorthodox methods later, Terry said: “I wanted to bring the way we played at QPR to Barcelona.

“You can imagine what they thought about that.”

During his time at the Spanish giants, where he was given the nickname El Tel, youth players included future Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

Pep was 14 when Barca won the title and friends said he was keen even then to study Terry’s methods.

Terry returned to London to manage Spurs, leading them to the FA Cup in 1991 after bringing in stars including Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne.

Football is just like life. You have to give it your best shot. Take the best and survive the rest.

Terry Venables

Meanwhile he released a family board game called Terry Venables Invites You to Be . . . The Manager. Its box featured both those stars.

His business dealings came under the microscope but, despite questions in Parliament, he was made England manager in 1994 to public acclaim.

He is perhaps best remembered as the swashbuckling manager who took England to within a whisker of glory at Euro ’96.

He later recalled how, after beating arch-rivals Scotland 2-0, he and FA Director David Davies walked out into a Wembley Stadium empty apart from a group of police officers.

He said: “They threw their helmets into the air and started clapping. It showed me how it had gripped the nation.”

He described England’s run to the semi-finals — which included a 4-1 thumping of Holland — as “my most thrilling experience in football”.

After managing England, Venables went on to coach Australia before returning to boss Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Leeds.

His last job in football was a brief stint back with the England team in 2007, as assistant to new manager Steve McClaren before they were both sacked for failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

Terry and Yvette set up a boutique hotel and restaurant La Escondida in Alicante before he retired in 2019.

Hit by ill health, he lived a quiet life away from the public gaze alongside Yvette in a home in a gated community.