It’s a sequence of coaching roles that when written almost feels like a mistake. From Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and England … to the Socceroos. From La Liga and FA Cup titles, European Cup finals and the semi-finals of the European Championships … to Oceania World Cup qualification. But that was the coaching journey Terry Venables, who died overnight aged 80, trod between 1984 and 1998.
It wasn’t the Socceroos of today that he took over, either, not a team coming off the back of an appearance in the round of 16 in their fifth-straight appearance on football’s biggest stage. In 1996 Australia’s men had only been to a single World Cup in their history, which was more than 20 years before the time of Venables’ arrival, with the Socceroos’ place in the global and domestic pecking order hovering between derisive dismissal and complete anonymity.
