Terry Venables brought a million Barcelona fans onto the streets by winning a first LaLiga title in 11 years and was just a few kicks away from conquering Europe… and all after replacing Diego Maradona with Steve Archibald!

• Former England and Barcelona manager Venables has died at the age of 80
• ‘El Tel’ is fondly remembered in Catalonia for his successes in the mid-1980s
• He brought Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes over to the Nou Camp during spell 

The picture of Terry Venables being lifted shoulder high at the Camp Nou after Barcelona had reached the 1986 European Cup final remains one of the defining images of the Catalan club for two very important reasons.

Firstly it captures one of the most incredible games ever played at the old stadium when Barcelona overturned a 3-0 first leg defeat against Swedish side Gothenburg to win the semi-final, 3-0 on the night and, 5-4 on penalties.

And secondly because an impressionable young Barça ball-boy by the name of Josep Guardiola is in shot, looking up admirably at the England manager, clapping his hands above his head, his wide eyes and big smile the perfect illustration of the way the city felt that night.

Barcelona had still not won a European Cup in their history. Real Madrid already had six. But Venables had guided them to a final where they would be favourites against Steaua Bucharest.

The political situation in Rumania at the time meant that no Bucharest supporters were able to travel to the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Sevilla. It filled with 70,000 Barça fans ready to see their team make history on home soil.

An entranced Pep Guardiola (left) looks on as Terry Venables is carried from the pitch in triumph after Barcelona defeated IFK Gothenburg to reach the 1986 European Cup final

Venables is fondly remember at Barcelona having ended their league title drought in 1985

The Englishman came so close to winning Barcelona their first European Cup in the 1986 final 

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But Romanian keeper Helmuth Duckadam would prevent Venables from being the first coach to lift a European Cup with Barcelona by saving all four Barça penalties in the shoot-out that followed 120 minutes of stalemate.

That was Venables second season at the club and he stayed for one more before leaving the club in September 1987. He left having more than proved his worth to those that doubted he was the right man to replace Cesar Luis Menotti in 1984.

Venables was hired to replace the Argentine who, with Diego Maradona in his team, had failed to win the league the previous season. 

With both Menotti and Maradona gone there was skepticism over what Venables might be able to achieve. 

And it only increased when a relatively unknown Scot, Steve Archibald, emerged as man Venables had chosen to replace Maradona, instead of the board’s preferred option Hugo Sanchez.

Archibald proved his manager right, top-scoring with 15 league goals and wearing Maradona’s No 10 shirt as if it was not a problem. 

Backed by Bernd Schuster, who was brilliant in midfield, Barça won the league by 10 points. It was the first time they had finished first in Spain for 11 seasons.

‘The league was enormous,’ Archibald recalled of the moment the title was sealed with an away win at Valladolid. ‘It took five hours to get from the airport to the city centre with a million people on the streets.’

Venables faced the unenviable task of finding a replacement for Diego Maradona at Barca

Venables with his assistant Allan Harris and striker Steve Archibald at the Nou Camp in 1984

Venables would later bring British players Gary Lineker (left) and Mark Hughes to Barcelona

The delirium from winning that first league since 1974 was only cranked up an extra notch by the prospect of finally winning a first European Cup, but the penalty heartbreak in the final the following year was not the end of a man who had long since been dubbed El Tel back home.

Venables brought Gary Lineker to the club the following season and he scored 20 LaLiga goals in his first campaign, a record tally for an English player in Spain that still stands.

When Venables left at the start of the following season he walked away still hugely respected by supporters who had seen him bring order, physicality and directness to Menotti’s talented but directionless team.

He had left an English stamp on one of the most idiosyncratic clubs in the world without ever betraying its philosophy. He had also given them a first league title in over a decade. 

And but for that shoot-out in Seville he would have handed them their first European Cup too.

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