Former England goalkeeper David Seaman paid tribute to “great guy” Terry Venables following his death at the age of 80.
Seaman was England’s number one goalkeeper when England made the semi-final of Euro 1996 as the side were knocked out on penalties by Germany.
The 60-year-old remembered the moment he was made England number one.
Seaman told Good Morning Britain: “First of all it was a really sad day yesterday and when I started seeing the clips and all the tributes coming in, all I could remember was the smile on his face. He always had a smile on his face even when he was angry if I’m honest.
“He was just a great guy, he was brilliant at man to man management.
“He was just brilliant and with Euro 96 everything just got better and better and I’ll never forget the day before Euro 96 and he came up to me when he just got the job, looked me straight in the eyes and said you’re my England number one and the confidence I gained from that was just brilliant and something I’ll never forget.”
Gareth Southgate missed the all-important penalty in that semi-final shoot-out loss to Germany, something Southgate would experience as manager in 2022, when England lost on penalties in the final to Italy.
He was just a great guy, he was brilliant at man to man management
David Seaman
Seaman recalled memories during his time under Venables and drew comparisons with the current England boss, insisting Southgate has learned a lot from El Tel.
He continued: “You didn’t feel that disappointed because he actually told us that we had achieved something special here.
“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. He was just a really nice guy.
“Gareth will have learned a lot from Terry because Gareth very rarely loses it and that’s what Terry was like. 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.”