Terry Venables goes to Leeds. Will he stick around to win anything?

no to ways about it - the appointment of tel is a mistake that has been forced on leeds by there self belief that o'neill would sign straight away, this is it for leeds i feel - see you in the 1st dave

More importantly, how will the share price react? I think El Tel should do well, but I have no reason for thinking that, other than his chirpy face which cheers me up so much.

hmmm, well known shyster and signer of pet players Mr Venables? Anderton to Leeds once he's sold Kewell to Serie A anyone? not sure how he'll get on with Ridsdale with his wheeler-dealer shenanigans though.

1. There is a sports section.

2. No, he won't win anything.

3. I like Venables a lot - I can't help it. As of today, I like Leeds at least twice as much as I ever have before.

Hmmmm I predict failure. I like El Tel but I suspect he's not the manager he once was. God bless O'Leary he's probably knitting in Jersey with his mother now or something.

he's holidaying in Italy with his family accprding to the weekend papers. I reckon he'll be managing abroad next.

The landlord in the Forest Gate calls O'Leary "the nun" which I found quite amusing, imagine it being bellowed by a Jim Royle looaklike while Liverpool are 4 up against Leeds with your brother who supports Leeds sitting beside you, disgusted.

Sport = Classic Sports = Dud.

Venables's record when managing high-qual players = pretty good.

Venables's record when managing dodgy players = not so good.

Venables's record when managing cash money = not so good.

Ridsdale's thinking surely = we need an equivalent of Bobby Robson.

Leeds has good players so that's a plus point - thopugh very big chance that Rio is going to get sold. SO if you keep Tel's hand out of the till they may do alright.

And the palyers have been very demoralised, this should lift them up a bit. I'm juust pleased to see Tel get a proper gig with a team which actually could do something (even his Spurs were only a good cup side).

Might he not be a 1-year appointment, in the belief that O'Neill will join them when his contract runs out next year?

they've denied that, which means its probably true

not really sure who else they could have gone for - not sure what was up with the mclaren business, what was going on there? mccarthy? no. curbishley? risky, but could have paid off (but maybe didn't have the 'weight' for high profile players?)

trapatoni put his hand in - damnit they should have gone with him - at least it would have looked cooler (gucci'd up looking like a don smoking tabs on the sidelines) than a local car dealer walking them out - godamnit he better win us the league

If Venables is really up for it then of course he is about the best appointment they could make (bar O'Neill) - as long as they can reign in his other activities. And I think Terry might relish the chalange of actually having a team to start off with that he knows (Fowler, Ferdinand was shockingly in his Euro 96 set-up - not to mention Viducka and Kewl from Australia). I would certainly say their odds on winning something have gone up from O'Leary's position.

Uh Pete you sure 18 year-old Rio Ferdinand made it into the Euro 96 squad just before being loaned out to Bournemouth? Sure you're not getting him confused with his twinkle-toed cousin Les?

AHem - wasn't Rio in the Under 21 set-up at the time - er - I'm just reporting second hand information I heard on 5 Live and passing it off as knowledge. He didn't get loaned to Portsmouth for a bit did he?

Maybe you're right: not sure.

The papers seem to be saying that Leeds need to recoup £20M from transfers. If I were Tegsy Venners I think I would sell Rio (and Bowyer, who apparently doesn't want to play for Leeds any longer) and give myself a bit of money to spend. Would obv prefer to sell RF to a club abroad though.

as a pompey supporter i can confirm that Rio Ferdinand never played on loan at Pompey, it was Bournemouth.

venables is a complete dick and if i was any club i would be wary of him. hes a total crook and he totally fucked palace over, taking advantage of a moronic chairman who let him write his own contracts...(dont want to think about how many millions we spent on enblem). robins a palace fan, what does he think of him?

i cant really see why anyone thinks hes much cop as a manager. without mentioning euro 96, name something ahem, 'world class' that hes acheived. i mean, venables over trappatoni? come on...

Ambrose: winning the Spanish title? Taking Barca to the European cup final. Not *too* bad...

Been a long time since he's achieved anything word class but then been a long time since he's had decent players.

Indeed Tel is still looked on with fondness by a lot of Barca fans, winning the championship in his first season there was probably his undoing as two second places (and getting beat by dour Steaua in the Euro final) weren't enough to keep his job any longer.

Bowyer to Liverpool for 9Milion apparently, I'm not sure how I feel about this......

who would have thought it - well me actually under my previous "born clippy" guise.

I presume Tel will just further his pundit career.

Des: What shoul Sir Alex do now, 2-0 down with 15 mins left.
Tel: Well he has to go for it, push on forlan, goiggs on the wing tuck scholes right up there behind van nistelrooy
Des: yeah, but what the fuck do you know.

Are Leeds going down?

we can only hope so

Will he become the new Republic of Ireland coach?

they would do well to steer clear of him. he talks a good game, but when the chips are down he WILL be exposed, like he always is when the charm can't help him.

case in point: australia-iran world cup playoff eight years ago - we smoked iran for an hour, but the team was stacked with players who weren't in their club sides at the time, so a hatful of chances were missed by several out-of-touch players. who then ran out of puff, but the first substitutions only came after the two iran goals levelled the match... for defenders. yes tel, you need to chase the game, you better send tony vidmar on. needless to say we didn't score again.

But he'd put smiles on the faces at Lansdowne Road!

and English pundits would all start saying "He's Terry O'Venables now!', and 'more popular than the Pope - or Sinead O'Connor!"