If I Can Dream: The Life of Terry Venables

“One of the great football lives, reappraised in great depth and colour by a wonderful storyteller.” Oliver Kay, The Athletic

“One of Britain’s great sportswriters on one of British football’s most interesting characters.” Sam Wallace, The Daily Telegraph

In the summer of 1996, English football exploded into the public consciousness. ‘Football’s coming home’ echoed from car radios as the Three Lions came within a whisker of ending 30 years of hurt. At the centre of it all was manager Terry Venables, eventually denied glory in the most English fashion possible – by penalty shootout.

Three decades on, this lovingly-crafted biography chronicles Venables’s playing career, managerial successes (and failures) and fascinating life away from the pitch.

Aside from his England spell, the man dubbed ‘El Tel’ had quite the career. Stints at the likes of Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur saw him rub shoulders with Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker and briefly Diego Maradona. His playing career saw him win trophies with Chelsea and Tottenham.

Away from the field, he wrote detective novels, released several singles and pursued a string of business interests. Controversy was never far from the surface.

If I Can Dream features exclusive interviews with key figures in Venables’s life, giving fresh insight into a complex and charismatic character who left an indelible mark on the world of football.

Tim Rich is a sports journalist who has worked for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph. He has written 10 books, including collaborations with Ron Atkinson, Andrei Kanchelskis and latterly David Bernstein and David Pleat. Be Good, Love Brian, his story of Brian Clough adopting a teenage boy from Sunderland was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2022. On Days Like These, the life of the Manchester United goalkeeper, Les Sealey, compiled from tapes left behind 20 years after his death was longlisted for the 2023 award. Just One More Goal, his collaboration with David Pleat was shortlisted for autobiography of the year in the 2025 Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book of the Year Awards.