Latest news with #TerryVenables
BBC News
26-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
The symmetry between Spurs in the league and winning a trophy
Much has been made of Tottenham's contrasting form in the Premier League and Europa League this history suggests when Spurs lift a trophy, a dip in league performance often goes hand in the early 1990s, Spurs have not combined a strong league season with cup success. It has typically been one or the this season's league struggles, the last time Spurs finished in the bottom half of the Premier League was that memorable 2007-08 season with its February flourish of a League Cup win over Chelsea. Since then, they have racked up 16 consecutive seasons of solid to strong Premier League finishes, but without any silverware along the further back, the 1990-91 season offers a familiar pattern. Terry Venables' FA Cup-winning side were third in the table at the end of November. However, from the FA Cup fourth round onwards, they only managed one league win in their final 15 worse than the one win in 12 matches Ange Postecoglou's side recorded at the end of this season as their focus shifted to Europe.
Irish Examiner
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Terrace Talk: What Manchester City achieved has been remarkable. What comes next is anyone's guess
Manchester City versus Crystal Palace has often presented an opportunity for poignant goodbyes and Wembley 2025 will be no different. In November 1979, the opening fixture of the season pitted City and Palace together in a battle of wits between two tactical maestros, Malcolm Allison and Terry Venables. It also marked the end of an era, as Allison swept out the old and welcomed what he foresaw as a brave new world. Farewell it was to stalwarts Asa Hartford, Brian Kidd, Mike Channon, Dave Watson, Peter Barnes and Gary Owen, players who had been the bedrock of City's success in the 70s. This time it will be Kevin de Bruyne bidding goodbye before he is ready, after a full decade of the highest quality midfield work the Premier League era has witnessed. At least he gets a chance to go out on the biggest stage of all. Back in 1979, City's stars had been unceremoniously offloaded by Allison, who seemed in a rude hurry to reinvent. Morale was low but the fixture between the two sides produced an exchange between the respective managers that brought a smile to TV viewers. Having delivered unprecedented success between 1968-1970, Allison's second attempt was beginning to look like the wild tinkering of the chemist who has become befuddled by one too many gas leaks. Allison had arrived in South-east London to face his old Crystal Palace protégé Terry Venables with Barry Silkman, Michael Robinson and Steve Daley as his new-fangled experiments. Palace prevailed on this occasion, however, owing to a mistake by one of the few trusty old hands that had not yet been jettisoned, goalkeeper Joe Corrigan. Indeed, it was precisely Corrigan's hands that were the after-match focus, as Brian Moore brought the two managers together in the changing rooms for London Weekend Television's The Big Match. 'It was such a shame for Big Joe,' Allison proclaimed to his counterpart straight-faced. 'He's got such beautiful hands, he really has, but the ball just seemed to go straight through them.' Cue uproarious laughter from both managers. This latest Palace-City encounter will afford little opportunity for giggles. Too much rests on the outcome. For City the chance to capture a trophy in what has been a troubled season of hurried transition. For Palace, the opportunity to win the famous old pot for the first time. Two generations back, the much-heralded Team of the 80s were set to sweep all before them, Palace's brief flickering raw potential never really taking concrete form. Allison's earlier innovative coaching had already brought City victory against Leicester in the 1969 final. He would never reach such heights again. Venables too would jump ship to fulfil his own destiny, taking Barcelona to the European Cup Final (images show ballboy Guardiola dancing wide-eyed behind Barcelona's Cockney coach) and, later still, England to the semi-finals of Euro 1996. Their modern-day successors also possess a tactical trick or two, imbuing in their teams the kind of bright, crisp, tactically fresh football that has brought them to this great occasion. 'There is still hope for this grand old game,' wrote James Mossop in the Sunday Express of November 1979, 'as long as men such as Malcolm Allison and Terry Venables produce teams prepared to play with the kind of enthusiasm, skill and sportsmanship which delighted 30,000 people at Selhurst Park…' A far bigger audience awaits this year's protagonists at Wembley. Pep Guardiola, having revolutionised English football, has secured his legacy, as has his on-pitch lieutenant De Bruyne. Yet still, this feels like a fresh challenge for the Catalan that carries high risk. For the Belgian too, the risk of failure as farewell does not bear thinking about. City's decade of dominance is at the crossroads. Many giants have failed in the past at similar junctures. Stout hearts and cool heads are needed as the new build begins on the club's next generation. You get the impression Guardiola relishes the challenge. He would have appreciated the bravado, the bravery and the tactical guile of Big Mal and El Tel. They may be separated by two generations of football philosophising, but they are kindred spirits in the enlightened environment of pushing football boundaries to see what can be achieved. What has been achieved has been truly remarkable. What comes next is anyone's guess. It is these entwined histories of what was and what might have been that form football's fascinating mosaic of relationships and coincidences. May the next chapter be written in bold capital letters by Guardiola and Oliver Glasner at Wembley today.
BBC News
18-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
On this day in 1987...
Thirty eight years ago Barcelona's Terry Venables, Gary Lineker, Mark Hughes and co were taught a tangerine lesson on the Nou Camp turf. Jim McLean's Dundee United didn't travel light, as they carried a 1-0 advantage from the first leg of their Uefa Cup quarter-final, thanks to Kevin Gallacher's astonishing early goal at was a Barca side who had been just a penalty shootout away from winning the previous season's European expected from a team peppered with Spain internationals, as well as the two Britons up top, they hit back at home in the first half through Ramon the heid, don't the clock ticked down closer towards the 90, the hardy band of United supporters in the far-from-full Nou Camp could be heard biting their John Clark tucked the ball into the back of the net. Again, as expected, a Barca onslaught Ian Ferguson poked in another four minutes later to start the party. Yet another incredible European challenge checked off. The reward? Another to add to the Monchengladbach were seen to though, and United's place in the final was that's where the story ends, right? Gothenburg never happened...
BBC News
16-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Tottenham 1-0 Manchester United: Did you know?
Tottenham are the first side to win three separate games against Manchester United in a single season in all competitions since Chelsea in 2012-13. Spurs have also completed a league double over the Red Devils for the first time since 1989-90 under Terry United have lost 12 of their 25 Premier League games this season, their most defeats from their first 25 matches of a league campaign since 1973-74 (13) – when they were last relegated from the top-flight.
New York Times
29-01-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
FCSB or Steaua Bucharest: Who are Manchester United's Europa League opponents?
Helmut Duckadam, the man who saved four penalties in the 1986 European Cup final, died last month. The celebrated Romanian goalkeeper was a hero in his homeland, but he broke Barcelona's hearts with his saves. The Catalans, managed by Terry Venables and featuring Bernd Schuster and Steve Archibald, were strong favourites to lift a first European Cup. The final was in Seville and, given Steaua Bucharest were behind the Iron Curtain in Cold War Europe, all but a handful in the 70,000-crowd supported Barcelona. Advertisement Duckadam shattered their dreams and, in the 38 years since Steaua's triumph, only one other team from Eastern Europe — Red Star Belgrade (now known as Crvena zvezda) — have won Europe's top competition. Steaua Bucharest still exist. They play in a smart new government-owned 30,000 seater stadium not far from where Duckadam lived in the western parts of the city. They have passionate fans and play in the second division. Yet Duckadam and many Romanians consider Steaua Bucharest to be FCSB — Manchester United's hosts on Thursday in the Europa League, a 53,000 sell-out with tickets going for 10 times their £10 ($12.40) face value. Welcome to a seemingly never-ending argument about who owns the history of Romania's most successful club. In Manchester, FC United of Manchester fans sing 'Two Uniteds but the soul is one', but in Bucharest it's the battle for that soul which has caused so much angst and numerous legal disputes. When Duckadam died, his body lay for 24 hours in the National Arena where United will play Thursday's fixture. Fans from both clubs went to honour him but, while the two clubs have mutual respect for a national hero, relations between them are all but non-existent and feelings acrimonious. So which is the real Steaua Bucharest? Google 'Steaua Bucharest' and you are sent to a page titled FCSB. 'This article is about the club officially named FCSB,' it reads. 'For the other team claiming to be the legal successor of the original Steaua Bucuresti and affiliated with the multi-sport club and the army, see CSA Steaua București (football). For other uses, see Steaua București (disambiguation).' Click on the latter link and you're sent to a page listing the many sports played by Steaua Bucharest. At the bottom, there's a link to 'FCSB, a football club formerly illegally named FC Steaua Bucuresti'. Advertisement The fixtures detailed on the FCSB page are from Romania's SuperLiga. The accompanying Wikipedia listing takes you to: 'Fotbal Club FCSB, formerly Fotbal Club Steaua Bucuresti and sometimes colloquially known simply as Steaua'. Wiki is open to misuse and their entry has been changed to: 'The team now known as Fotbal Club FCSB pretended to be Steaua. However, it was not.' Confused? You will be. So who exactly are Manchester United playing? Back in August 2016, in the Champions League qualification play-offs, Manchester City confronted a team of whom few had heard. On UEFA's official website the team was listed as 'FCSB', yet on the BBC the result was recorded as 'Steaua Bucharest 0 Manchester City 5'. It wasn't much of a story until a tweet went viral from that game, supposedly from the account of Romania's top division. 'Here's the thing @ManCityfans!' it read. 'You support a club bought with oil money made illegally! You have no history! You just have money!' As it was an unofficial account the tweet was quickly forgotten having served its purpose online, but the point about history is an interesting one. 'Here's a simple explanation since it's very complex,' the former Romania international Florin Gardos, once of Southampton, tells The Athletic. 'The current owner of FCSB, Mr (Gigi) Becali, bought the club after 2000. In the late 1990s, clubs in Europe had to be owned by private owners. The club Steaua was originally owned by the Ministry of Defence. They had to sell it; he bought it. Then 16 years later, there was a court ruling saying that Mr Becali doesn't own the logo or the brand and that everything would have to go back to the Ministry of Defence. 'The Ministry of Defence owns Steaua and they created a senior club starting in the fourth league with amateurs. They rose to the second league and have been there for a few years. But because of the Romanian Sports Law rules, they can't be promoted since they're effectively owned by the government. Advertisement 'There has been a separation of fans. A lot of fans are with FCSB, including me, because there was a club which changed their name overnight but they were the same. FCSB is the biggest brand in Romanian football with the best average attendance and huge crowds for European games. 'When I played, there was a study which said they had 5million fans in Romania. Now the fans are a bit separated. Most are with FCSB but I work as a pundit and I'm not allowed to say 'Steaua' on television. I have to say 'FCSB' all the time, initials which don't mean anything on paper. And for the other club, it's 'Steaua'; they have the brand and the logo.' Could the two ever meet? 'They could play in a cup, but Steaua can't be promoted until they become a privately owned club. But I hear that people might be afraid to buy the 51 per cent (stake) because what happened to Becali could happen again. A lot of people don't think that public money should go on a professional team.' Gigi Becali is a 66-year-old Romanian businessman and nationalist politician who returned to politics last year. He has just been elected as a member of the Romanian Parliament for AUR, a conservative party with some controversial views on how the country should governed. Becali originally obtained 51 per cent of Steaua shares and added a further batch of 15 per cent before his wealth was impounded by the National Fiscal Authority (ANAF) in 2005. He appealed, won and avoided paying back taxes because he transferred the assets of Steaua Bucharest to a new company, FC Steaua Bucharest. Becali had bought the Steaua name of the club which was founded in 1947, but was not allowed to sell it or transfer it. The army also asked for $38million (£30.6m) for what they called the illegal use of the brand. They didn't get it. Romania's Ministry of Defence sued in 2011 claiming that the Army were the rightful owners of Steaua's logo, colours, name and honours. In 2017, judges made Becali's club change their name to FCSB. Becali was a member of the European Parliament for three years until 2012. Outspoken, controversial and lampooned in the Romanian media as an uneducated Silvio Berlusconi-type figure for his background as a shepherd, Becali is wealthy and powerful. He thrived after the fall of communism in the 1989 Romanian revolution and was on the Shareholders' Council at Steaua. Advertisement At least until 2020, FCSB's website stated: 'In 1998, the football team was separated from the Army's club, based on decisions of FIFA and UEFA, that stated that no club supported by the government should participate in professional competitions. Also, in 2003, the club became totally private.' On the website, the club referred to themselves as 'Steaua' throughout — referred because it is no longer online. FCSB are not allowed to say they are the owners of the historical record, yet UEFA recognises FCSB as the continuators of Steaua and credits them with winning the 1986 European Cup. A week before 2020's Covid lockdowns, The Athletic went to see Duckadam and his wife at their home. He offered whiskey and we sat in the sunshine by a football and a pair of goalkeeper gloves bearing his initials and the No 86. He was wonderful company as he explained how the win in 1986 came a few weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, when domestic football was suspended, how Valentin, the son of (former communist dictator) Nicolae Ceausescu, fixed it for his team to train under floodlights amid electricity cuts, and how they knew little of Barcelona, bar watching a VHS video, smuggled to them by a journalist, of Venables' team beating Goteborg on penalties in the semi-final. Steaua wore a white kit with no badge which they'd been given the night before. Duckadam wore modern gloves for the first time in a game and guarded them so closely that he slept with them. Barcelona's players said nothing to him after the game, but when Steaua played City in the 2016 Champions League qualifier, their officials Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano told him that the people of Barcelona would never forgive him. Pep Guardiola confessed that he never thought Barca would lose that game. Yet the trophy which Duckadam's heroics secured was, according to him, held by the wrong club. 'I work for FCSB,' was how Duckadam explained his role as a club ambassador of a team who most Romanians recognise as Steaua Bucharest. But legally, they're not. 'It's not fair that the smaller team has the trophies which we won.' He didn't want to speak ill, but it was clearly a deeply emotive and divisive issue. Advertisement 'Duckadam was the only one from the players who won the European Cup to be of that view,' Adrian Popa, a current Steaua player and one of very few to have played for both clubs, tells The Athletic. 'He was a paid employee of FCSB. He worked for Becali, a very powerful and influential man in Romania. Most of his team-mates work at Steaua. 'It's clear and simple. The courts have decided who is Steaua Bucharest and who isn't. Steaua are the historical club that won the European Cup in '86 and FCSB, who I used to play for, are a company. They are two different entities. They pretend they are Steaua or that they continued the old club, but it's not true. The history and the name belong to Steaua Bucharest, who I now play for. 'We're not affected by them (FCSB). I play for Steaua Bucharest, the greatest-ever Romanian team — not FCSB. The judge has decided that the history and name is ours.' Asked to describe the relationship between the two clubs, Popa adds: 'There is no relationship. We can't call it a war but we can say that they don't respect court decisions. They are also very powerful in the media and all the structures. Steaua belongs to the country; it wasn't legal to buy.' 'Players and former players are divided, but respect each other,' says Gardos. 'And even worse, if I post something on social media about the subject, the fans who support the team from the second league swear and speak bad of me. Fifteen years ago, everyone was in the same stadium and I was loved. Now, the fans are separated and much more radical.' Both Gardos, who retired in 2023, and Popa are 36. 'At the moment, we don't have the right to progress to the top league because of the legislation in Romania (preventing state-owned clubs from playing in the top division),' says Popa. 'We are the only country in Europe with this kind of legislation. There would have to be changes if we are to be allowed to play in the first league. 'I would love to play against them (FCSB). There was a game in the third division during Covid so behind closed doors. Their second team and our first. They sent some of their first-team regulars. It was 1-1. 'I really hope that we get a chance to be promoted. We are in second place. If the law is changed, we can be promoted. It would be a dream for me to play in the first league with Steaua — I would play one game and then I would retire from football.' 'I started coming to Steaua (now FCSB) when I was eight and I later played for them (from 2012-17 when they were still called Steaua Bucharest),' adds Popa. 'I respect that I played my best moments in football with them, but this is life. For many years, I thought the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but when the decision from the court came it was clear to me who was who. 'FCSB have a lot of fans because when they play in the first league and play European games. Fans want to see Manchester United and not teams from the second league, that's normal. But we are Steaua.'
