Trevor Steven: Terry Venables was ahead of his time. Everybody loved him

Terry Venables was one of those rare people who had an aura about him. He was a personality, a cheeky chappie. He wrote novels. He was a flamboyant character. He had mystique.

The showbiz side sometimes distracted from his absolutely top-level football credentials. As a coach, he was a progressive thinker and ahead of his time in many ways.

Venables wasn’t wedded to philosophies of days gone by. You would never hear people criticise him for being too defensive.

He loved the artistry of football. He understood the graft but always leaned towards entertaining. Barcelona were a brilliant fit for him in that respect. 

Everyone wanted a piece of Venables but he could handle it. He was an empathetic person and everybody loved him. He could also handle big players. 

If you ask Paul Gascoigne, Venables and Walter Smith, our boss at Rangers, were the two managers who really understood him and knew how to work with him. Gazza absolutely loved El Tel.

I never played for him – I was struggling with injuries when he became England manager – but he is someone I would have loved to have played for.

When he was doing some punditry at the 1990 World Cup he said some nice things about me and I haven’t forgotten. It meant something.

The high point of his career was leading out the England team at Wembley for Euro 96. They got so close; it would have been the icing on the cake for him.

He was very symbolic of the 70s, 80s and 90s and his passing marks the end of an era. It’s another sad day for English football, of which there have been too many lately.

Trevor Steven is a former England footballer who played at two World Cups and two European Championships. @TrevorSteven63.