Continued from part one
At St. James’s Park, Venison was under the guidance of former Liverpool players Kevin Keegan and his assistant Terry McDermott as they brought Newcastle up into the newly formed Premier League. He was later joined by another former Liverpool player, Peter Beardsley, who was also transferred out by Souness (first of all to Everton before moving to Newcastle two years later). Keegan transformed Venison from a full back to a holding midfielder, and in this role he began to be noticed at higher levels of the game. It came as a surprise to many, and certainly to Barry himself, when Terry Venables called him up shortly after his 30th birthday to play for England in a friendly against the USA. That was to be the first of only two caps for his country, but he remembers both appearances at Wembley saying that his most memorable moment as a player was, “Walking out to a full house at Wembley with three lions on my chest.”
He made a total of 130 appearances for the Magpies, and then was on the move again in the summer of 1995. Now that he was in the later stages of his career, he decided to try his luck overseas and was signed by Graeme Souness (who had previously sent him out of Liverpool) at Turkish club Galatasaray. That was a short lived part of his career, and after only 8 appearances in 5 months, he returned to England to finish his playing days by spending a couple of seasons with Southampton. Amazingly, or perhaps not with the rapid inflation of transfer fees, his move to the South Coast cost The Saints a whopping £850,000. A serious back injury brought his playing days to an end in October of 1996, after only managing to make a total of 29 appearances.
Venison in action against Liverpool at Anfield, for Newcastle.
It wasn’t a surprise when Barry Venison surfaced as a pundit for Sky Sports (as had so many retired players before him), first of all on several different shows and then as a regular on the Sunday live matches. He then went on to appear on ITV, co – hosting the program “On The Ball” with Gabby Logan. There was no problem with his knowledge of the game, and he was recognised as an articulate and eloquent analyst. But, viewers were often distracted by his hairstyles and his clothing, which were politely described as “garish and flamboyant.” According to one fashion critic, “He made his television debut in a silver waistcoat, and sporting a mop of straggly bleached hair.” The critic went on to say, “The English press didn’t know what was good fashion and what was ‘Venison fashion’ and they needed to be told. The maligned Barry Venison himself self-effacingly admitted to being in the dark about this; when questioned about why he’d chosen to look so awful for his television debut, he admitted ‘I was not trying to look silly on purpose, it was purely down to my bad taste.’ ” And this was well after the creamy-white Armani suit fiasco at the 1996 FA Cup final! He did in fact take on a much more conservative appearance later, with darker clothes, a much shorter hairstyle, and thick-rimmed glasses.
The man who was often described as being capable of wearing three different haircuts at the same time, and was advised that he should wear a crash helmet to hide his hair, was a permanent fixture with ITV for five years. Barry Venison may have made some serious faux pas on the fashion front, but for me I’ll always be able to have more of a laugh at what he sometimes said rather than what he was wearing. Just a few of the comments that he made (obviously without thinking first) were:
“The Croatians don’t play well without the ball.”
“PSV have got a lot of pace up front. They’re capable of exposing themselves.”
“Romania are more Portuguese than German.”
“The Newcastle back three, back four, back five, have been at sixes and sevens.”
“I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock.”
Barry covered the 2000 European Championships, as well as the 1998 and 2002 World Cups for ITV. It was revealed some time later that he had also been offered, but had rejected, the lead reporter role in a TV series called “Mullet Hunter”. He went on to be a Camp Director for Brad Friedel’s Premier Soccer Acadamies, and also started up the internet business Bid4sport while he was still playing. Bid4sport auctions off memorabilia that has been signed by celebrities in sports, film, and television, with thousands of pounds being donated to children’s charities.
In 2004, he emigrated to Redondo Beach, California, where he is apparently enjoying life as a property developer in Orange County, and has taken on the stereotypical “California Lifestyle.” According to one reporter who met him recently, “He looks more like 23 than 43, and has a deep brown tan and is covered in tattoos. He’s been teetotal for about five years, and gets up at 6am every day and does yoga. Then he waxes up his surfboard and heads out to catch some waves.” He also has other business interests, and has recently worked the US Tennis Association summer tour for Hawk-Eye Innovations, which is a ball-tracking technology that essentially tells if the ball is in or out of play.
Barry Venison may not have been included in the list of “100 Players Who Shook The Kop”, but he did make it onto The Liverpool Way’s “10 Players Who Shook The Kop (With Laughter).”
Even though he may be a legend mainly for his wild hairstyles and his questionable fashion sense, it should always be remembered that Barry Venison’s contribution to Liverpool’s great trophy winning sides that dominated the late 1980’s has never been in doubt.
Keith Perkins
Previous Forgotten Heroes here
Written by Keith Perkins
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