It took Barça eleven years to win a League title after the historic and iconic success of the team led by Johan Cruyff from the pitch. He achieved it at the command of Terry Venables in the 1984-85 campaign, an unknown English coach who replaced César Luis Menotti and radically closed the Maradona era, which had concluded with the embarrassing episode of the Copa del Rey final against Athletic.
Terence Frederick Venables (Dagerton, London, January 6, 1943) died this Saturday, at the age of 80 after a long illness, according to the family.
“We are totally devastated for the loss of a wonderful husband and father who passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness. “We ask that we be given privacy at this incredibly sad time to allow us to mourn the loss of this lovely man we were so lucky to have had in our lives,” the text read.
First tribute
Tottenham Hotspur was the first club to react to the news. Not in vain, Venables was considered one of his legends, since he was a Cup champion as a player and coach with the London club. The first planned tribute act was a minute of silence (and applause) before starting this Sunday’s duel against Aston Villa.
Not only was Venables a Tottenham legend. He was also coach of Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United at club level, and coach of England (93-96) and Australia (96-98). He entered the British Hall of Fame in 2007.
Only one signing: Archibald
Venables deserve to be too a Barça legend, where it appeared by surprise at a time, under the presidency of Josep Lluís Núñez, in which stars were signed at the stroke of a checkbook. His letter of introduction was to be the coach of QPR, a modest London club, which he led to the first Cup final in its history, which it lost to Tottenham, and which he promoted from the Second Division, and previously from Crystal Palace. , which he promoted twice in category.
Núñez gave Venables, who signed with his assistant Allan Harris, a squad with Bernd Schuster as an icon, Maradona having already transferred to Naples, and the star signing, the only one, and at his own request, of Steve Archibald Tottenham’s Scottish forward, while the club was managing the hiring of Hugo Sánchez.
The best moment
The true calling card was the 0-3 with which Barça opened the championship at the Bernabéu. Archibald scored a goal; Real Madrid player Ángel made it 0-1 and Ramon Maria Calderé sealed the great victory. “It was the best moment I had in the best period of my life,” recognized Venables on one of his visits to Barcelona almost 20 years later.
Barça galloped in that League of 34 games, of which he only lost two. When each victory was only worth two points, they were ten points ahead of Atlético and were proclaimed champions in Valladolid (1-2) with five games remaining despite a penalty invented by Sánchez Arminio in the 87th minute and stopped by Urruticoechea. The line-up was sung at once: Urruti; Gerardo, Migueli, Alesanco, Julio Alberto; Victor, Schuster, Calderé; Carrasco, Archibald and Rojo. With relevant contributions from Marcos Alonso, Esteban Vigo and Paco Clos.
The drama of Seville
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Venables experienced the worst moment a year later, with the European Cup final lost in Seville against Steaua Bucharest and on penalties. A bad finish to the League (one victory in the last seven rounds) that meant the loss of the title was camouflaged with European qualification for the decisive match.
The traumatic defeat (0-0 in 120 minutes, 0-2 on penalties) devastated Venables and meant another change of course. Schuster and Archibald were left aside and Mark Hughes and Gary Lineker, the star of the recently concluded World Cup-86. Archibald replaced Hughes midway through the campaign and Schuster was recalled the following year (87-88), where Venables only lasted four games (three losses) and was replaced by Luis Aragonés.