Terry Venables was one of most fascinating and interesting people that I’ve ever met.

Venables was infectious with his very positive approach to football. Venables put football on the front page in Australia as before that we had a lot of trouble even getting on the back page.

Yes he was an attacking coach and he was exciting. But you know what I liked about him most? He was a winner. When he was the England coach he played 22 games they won 11, drew one, and lost only two. One of the two they lost was that penalty shootout against Germany in the semi-final of the 1996 European Championships that was played in England.

I remember when I signed him as coach of Australia and how Graham Arnold and Robbie Slater and the excitement the other players felt because they knew their careers were immediately enhanced. Their prospects grew when they got one of the world’s most famous coaches in charge.

Bear in mind it wasn’t just his success with England or the English Premier League, he also coached Barcelona. What is often forgotten was one of the first things that he did as manager of Barcelona (which) was to sell Maradona to Napoli. Wow!