Venables inspired Southgate’s success as England manager, says Seaman

17 DEC 1995: ENGLAND MANAGER TERRY VENABLES RAISES HIS ARMS AND WAVES TO THE AUDIENCE AFTER THE 1996 EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE IN BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. Mandatory Credit: Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT

Venables managed Southgate at Euro 96, where the latter’s penalty miss saw England miss out on the final

Terry Venables inspired Gareth Southgate to make England one of the world’s top footballing nations again, says former Three Lions goalkeeper David Seaman.

Southgate has been praised for man-management and cultivating a strong team culture, traits which Seaman believes he got from Venables, who died at the weekend aged 80.

“Gareth will have learned a lot from Terry because Gareth very rarely loses it and that’s what Terry was like,” he said.

“He was always calm and confident and that’s what he’s learned from him – that you don’t have to be really loud on the sidelines. You’d just watch and learn.

“The way Terry treated Gareth, it just shows you the class of the manager and he was just a really special guy.”

Seaman, England’s No1 at Euro 96, highlighted manager Venables’ reaction after Southgate missed the decisive penalty in an emotional semi-final shootout against Germany.

“You didn’t feel that disappointed because he actually told us that we had achieved something special here,” he told Good Morning Britain.

“I know we had gone out in the semi-final but he wanted us to know we had really achieved something.

“We got England to the semi-final at Wembley and the most important thing he’d done was that the England fans started loving the England team again because of the way we played.”

Former Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona boss Venables restored belief in the England team at that tournament on home shores following predecessor Graham Taylor’s failed reign.

Similarly, Southgate took charge of the national team at a low ebb in 2016 and has since led them to a European Championship final and World Cup semi-final.

He is set to mastermind their bid to go one better than last time at Euro 2024 in Germany next summer, in what could be his last major tournament in charge.

Venables passed away on Saturday after a long illness, his family announced on Sunday. He has been hailed as a visionary and one of football’s best-loved characters.