Voting Station

Terry Venables

Please vote to see the next celebrity.

Soccer Player

The Resume

    (January 6, 1943-November 25, 2023)
    Born in Dagenham, Essex, England, United Kingdom
    Midfielder for Chelsea (1960-66), Tottenham Hotspur (1966-69), Queens Park Rangers (1969-74), and Crystal Palace (1974-75)
    Played internationally for England (1964)
    Managed Crystal Palace (1976-80, 1998-99), Queens Park Rangers (1980-84), Barcelona (1984-87), Tottenham Hotspur (1987-91), Middlesborough (2000-01), and Leeds United (2002-03)
    Managed the national teams of England (1994-96) and Australia (1996-98)
    Sportscaster for the BBC and ITV
    Co-creator of the board game ‘Terry Venables Invites You to Be… The Manager’ (1990)
    Recorded the single ‘If I Can Dream’ (2010)

Why he might be annoying:

    He and seven other Chelsea players were suspended for breaking curfew to have a night out on the town after a game against Liverpool (1965).
    Shortly after joining Tottenham Hotspur, he punched club legend Dave Mackay during training (1966).
    Alan Sugar won £100,000 in a libel suit over claims in Venables’ autobiography (1996).
    He called the British press ‘traitors’ after Paul Gascoigne and other English players were photographed drunk in a nightclub (1996).
    Despite leading England to the semi-finals of the European championship, his managerial contract was not extended due to concerns about his business activities.
    He was disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years for having mismanaged four companies, including Tottenham Hotspur, with allegations including bribery, manipulating accounts, and keeping money that was supposed to have been given to creditors (1998).

Why he might not be annoying:

    As manager of Crystal Palace, he had to pony up half the £1,500 signing fee for Rachid Harkouk from his own pocket (1976).
    He managed Barcelona to their first La Liga title in over a decade (1985) and their first European Cup finals appearance in fifteen years (1986).
    Gary Lineker called him ‘the best English coach we’ve had,’ adding, ‘He was charming, charismatic, witty but he was also tough — and that's what you needed to be. He understood football — he had an incredible football brain.’
    He and author Gordon Williams co-wrote ‘They Used to Play on Grass,’ which made the BBC’s ‘Big Read’ survey of best-loved novels.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 73 Votes: 34.25% Annoying