England’s Euro 96 squad was full of leaders but we all looked up to Terry
When you’re talking about great managers, when you’re talking about great men, for me you’re talking about Terry Venables. Nobody else comes close. In terms of tactics, in terms of coaching, on the training pitch, as a man manager, just the guy that he was, there’s no comparison.
Terry signed me for Tottenham as a 20-year-old. I didn’t want to leave Portsmouth, but once I’d met him, that was it. I remember I asked how much the club had paid for me. He said £2m and I said: “What?” I was shocked and I think he picked up on that, because he said to me: “That’s what we think of you. You’re going to be a hell of a player and you’re already on your way.”
He had trust in me from day one, he had zero doubts. I went on to have an incredible year and it was because of him. When he left the following summer I was absolutely devastated. I remember speaking to a newspaper about it and they had to tone the language down. “We’re just going to say you’re very upset,” was how they put it. It was so frustrating.
But from that point he got the England job, which was the one he deserved, and he gave me my debut in his first match, against Denmark in 1994. I remember the morning of the game, we had a meeting before going out to training and Terry named the team. He said: “We’re going to go on the bus soon but we’ve got 10, 15 minutes. So if anyone needs to make a phone call to their family then now’s the time.”
I don’t know for certain, but I think he had me in mind with that. That night was probably one of the best games in my career. Terry just cared and players felt that. He always made you feel great. In the year leading up to the Euros I was struggling with injury but he would take time to talk to me about it and encouraged me to work with the England physio Dave Butler. I used to do my treatment at Spurs then spend hours working with Dave and by the time the Euros came around I was ready to participate in what was one of the best summers of my life.
That team was full of leaders, from Tony Adams and Alan Shearer to Paul Ince and Stuart Pearce, but everyone looked up to Terry. They all knew he was the boss. We all listened so intently to everything he would say and when he did things on the training pitch, people got it. He would be changing approaches from game to game, changing systems, but everyone understood.
And he loved coaching. He loved making players better. He loved winning games of football. And he loved seeing players with a smile on their face. He had a stern side too, of course, but the thing was he was always right, and players knew that and accepted it.
We started the tournament poorly, a 1-1 draw against Switzerland. There were a lot of us who thought we were going to get dropped. Then we had a meeting and he said: “I don’t have to tell you that wasn’t good enough. We don’t want it to happen again, but I trust you guys: it’s going to be the same again next week.”
Right there and then you just felt so much better. You get back on the training pitch and you want to go out and win the game. The Scotland match wasn’t an amazing game or anything like that but once we got that second goal, it just changed the whole mood within the stadium, within the country, within that changing room.
The Netherlands match, I’ve never known a game like it. You forget you’ve been running around. You can’t get tired. And then with half an hour to go you’re 4-0 up against the Dutch and the whole stadium is singing “football’s coming home”. I think that was the night that summed up what Terry was all about. Yes, he had a vision. And that night was incredibly special.
The performance in the semi-final was great, as good as against the Netherlands in my opinion, but the result was a double blow. Losing the match took a long time to come back from. There’s no doubt about it. But it was also Terry’s last match and there was a real disappointment that he wouldn’t be taking us on to the World Cup.
The thing was that you saw none of that in him. In the dressing room that night, the father figure just came out again, because that was how he was and how he treated people. Even in the hardest moments, he still always found the right thing to say. Like I said, yes, he was a great coach. But my word, was he a great man.