Venables joins former England club

LONDON (AP) -- Terry Venables' arrival at Leeds United means that five former England managers will be rivals in the Premier League in the upcoming season.

Two of them, Venables and Manchester City's Kevin Keegan, meet on the opening day.

Venables, who has signed a two-year contract at Elland Road at age 59, also will be up against Newcastle United's Bobby Robson, Tottenham's Glenn Hoddle and Graham Taylor's Aston Villa.

Like Venables, all four will be under pressure to achieve long overdue success.

Manchester City gained promotion to the top flight, while the other four clubs finished in the top nine last season. All five hope to be involved to compete with defending champion Arsenal, title favorite Manchester United and Liverpool in the championship race.

Newcastle finished fourth to edge Leeds and gain a qualifying place in the Champions Cup. Villa placed eighth and Spurs ninth.

Venables inherits a talented but reportedly divided squad, with World Cup star Rio Ferdinand being linked with a big money move to Manchester United and attacking midfielder Lee Bowyer on the transfer list.

Last season Bowyer and defensive teammate Jonathan Woodgate were at the heart of a criminal trial stemming from the brutal beating of an Asian student. Both were cleared of the most serious charges.

Leeds, which last won the league title in 1992, fired David O'Leary two weeks ago in a surprise move. With the kick-off of the season less than six weeks away, Venables has the tough task of lifting the squad's morale.

O'Leary was fired because he didn't win any trophies in his four years in charge, despite taking Leeds to the semifinal of both the Champions and UEFA Cup competitions. The team also failed to make it to Europe's premier event in the coming season.

Leeds owner Peter Ridsdale said, however, he believed that Venables would revive the team's fortunes in the same way as 67-year-old Robson had lifted Newcastle, which was flirting with relegation when he took over in 1999.

"If you want to draw a comparison with our appointment of Terry, then the best would be Bobby Robson," Ridsdale said. "He went to Newcastle and look what he's done. He's transformed that club.

"Players respect Terry, coaches admire him and I firmly believe that we have got the very best."

O'Leary warned, however, that Venables had to hang on to the team's top players.

"All Terry has to do now is win something," he said. "He's been left a top four club with very talented young players and he needs to win some silverware. I just hope he manages to keep the players he needs."

Ridsdale maintained that he had no plans to sell Ferdinand, who emerged as one of the top defenders at the World Cup.

"I don't think that Terry's appointment has tipped the balance because it was already in our favor," Ridsdale said. "Rio is a Leeds United player who is not for sale.

"This was simply the first opportunity I have had to discuss Rio with his agent since the speculation began. I won't know Rio's views until I have spoken to him personally but his agent was extremely complimentary about Terry Venables and also said he understood that Rio would be impressed."

While Venables has two years to come up with trophies, there is pressure on his former England counterparts, too, because of a lack of recent success.

Having lifted Newcastle to fourth place, Robson also has to capture a long-awaited trophy. The Magpies haven't won the league title since 1927 or the FA Cup since '55. Their one triumph was the European Fairs Cup (now UEFA Cup) in 1969.

Tottenham's last league title was in 1963, while Spurs won the FA Cup in 1991 and its last European triumph was in 1984. Aston Villa last won the league in 1981 and followed it up with a Champions Cup triumph the following season. It was FA Cup runner-up in 2000 but had League Cup triumphs in '94 and '96.

Manchester City, so long in the shadow of neighbor United, dropped down to division two in 1998. Having resigned from the England job, Keegan took over at the start of last season and did well to get the club back to the top flight.

But City, soon to move from Maine Road to the stadium being used for this month's Commonwealth Games, is another club starved of recent success.

The last of its two league titles was in 1968 and it won the FA Cup the following season. A year after that, it gained its lone European title in the Cup Winners Cup and the club gained two League Cup triumphs in 1970 and '76.

 

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