Jury out on Venables' coaching record

By Brian Glanville, World Soccer

Find out more about World Soccer magazine's online subscription offer.

TERRY VENABLES' appointment as new manager of Leeds United elicited the predictable chorus of passionate admirers.

I yield to none in my appreciation of Terry's many talents, not least as a writer. When the Scottish author Gordon Williams was assigned to broadening the horizons of Chelsea's youngsters and asked them to go away and write a short story, it was Terry alone who obliged with a tale which Williams compared with Damon Runyon, of whom Terry had never heard. The two later combined to write the Hazell detective and TV scripts.

But Terry's reach doesn't always outstretch his grasp. He came down heavily as a would-be tycoon at Spurs, easily outflanked by a real one in Alan Sugar, making a rod for his own back in the bizarre appointment of the many times bankrupt Eddie Ashby as a financial executive at White Hart Lane.

Terry's appearances in court were not well augured. He failed to get the better of Sugar and, worse still, was fiercely criticised by a judge for his own financial dealings, given a long ban as a company director

In his role as national coach he took England to the Euro '96 semi-final, lost on penalties against a weakened German team, but England notoriously rode their luck against Switzerland, Scotland and Spain, excelling only in their 4-1 win against a Dutch team driven by internal squabbling.

With Barcelona, Terry made a glorious start, thrashing Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, winning the title, eventually reaching one of the worst European Cup finals ever against Steua. Then things fell apart and by the end, he had the ever contentious Catalan Press against him, contending, vis-a-vis his tactics of 4-4-2 and offside that "Barcelona are not Queens Park Rangers."

IN SACKING David O'Leary before they had a valid successor lined up, Leeds United surely acted in haste and one hopes they won't be obliged to repent at leisure.

No O'Neill, Hiddink or McLaren. O'Leary did indeed make errors at Elland Road, should not have written that indiscreet book (but didn't Ferguson at Old Trafford do something of the same?) was unwise publicly to criticise certain of his players.

But were Leeds really such a failure under his tutelage? And couldn't things have been very different had it not been for the brutal thuggery of which that unfortunate Asian student was the victim? An episode which by the way, is by no means closed, now that his family are bringing private prosecutions.

HAVE Middlesbrough got a bargain in young Massimo Maccarone, for whom they've paid little Empoli, the Tuscan Serie B club 13 million Euros?

It gave Empoli a satisfyingly large profit on their gamble in narrowly outbidding Milan, Maccarone's original club, for their half share in the striker.

He has scored freely both in Serie B and for the Italy Under-21 side and procured that penalty for Italy at Elland Road, when he was brought down in the friendly game England lost to the azzurri.

It's been pointed out in Italy that the fee, however satisfying to Empoli, is more or less that which would be paid for a player of modest ambitions in the peninsula itself, while Claudio Gentile, the defender who in 1986 wanted the shirt off Diego Maradona's back, and is now Under-21 manager, is sceptical about the striker's heading ability.

Maccarone deserves all credit for the way he had defied the cavalier treatment so often endured by young hopefuls who join the major Italian clubs in boyhood, shipped around the peninsula from one lesser club to another, usually in the depths of Serie C1 and C2. But he never played a match in Serie A.

At least he could have Juninho, back yet again at Boro, to make bullets for him to fire.

WATCHING Fulham fail to exploit a myriad of chances made in the Intertoto game against modest FC Haka of Finland, learning that they were hoping to spend still more money on a goal scoring Dutch midfielder, you did wonder about them, their infinity of strikers (yet another new one in £2 million Argentine Facundo Sava) and Franco Baresi.

Never a manager, for all his great playing careers. Is he lined up as a possible successor to the greatly experienced Jean Tigana? Will he go on recommending crocked Italian veterans such as full back Benarrivo? And now that the Inland Revenue have colossally increased his tax bill, how long can Mohammed Fayed go on splashing out the money?

Brian Glanville is Britain's most celebrated football writer. He also writes a monthly column in World Soccer magazine.

His latest book, a fully updated edition of THE STORY OF THE WORLD CUP is available in all good bookshops. Readers of worldsoccer.com can buy this highly-acclaimed history of the World Cup and enjoy a 10% discount by clicking here.