Football: Venables the target of Goldberg's pounds 30m Palace revolutio n

ON WHAT was a remarkable day by any standards, let alone one that ended with an important FA Cup replay, Mark Goldberg yesterday concluded his pounds 30m takeover at Crystal Palace. The deal will lead to the replacement of Steve Coppell as the Palace manager, possibly by Terry Venables, to Juventus becoming the first Italian club to have a stake in a Premiership side, and - eventually - to the end of Ron Noades' 17-year reign at Selhurst Park.

For good measure Goldberg also authorised the signing of his first player, with Aston Villa's Sasa Curcic joining Palace for pounds 1m.

Goldberg, a 34-year-old Kent-based computer millionaire, finalised the takeover with Noades, the Palace chairman, in the morning. However, he will not officially take over until October, when his buy-out is technically completed. In the meantime Noades will continue as chairman, although he will have to agree major decisions such as signings in advance with his successor.

Goldberg later saw Coppell, who agreed to become Palace's new "development director of football", at a lunchtime meeting. Goldberg confirmed that he is hoping to recruit Venables, the former England coach, to become the club's new manager with talks between the two likely in the next week. Coppell will continue as manager until his replacement is found.

Juventus are taking up a 10 per cent stake in Palace, and are also providing technical expertise. Coppell has been charged with the responsibility of helping to link up with the Serie A side. "Steve will help implement the Juventus model at Crystal Palace and will travel around the world looking at different training techniques," Goldberg said.

"He will also be involved in implementing the new management infrastructure that we are looking to put into the club. Steve is important to me in terms of my future plans but we will be looking to replace him as manager shortly."

Once he has been replaced as manager, Coppell will work alongside a Juventus executive, based full-time at Selhurst Park, while Roberto Bettega, the Juventus vice president, is to be invited to become an executive director at Palace. The south London side could also sign Italian players on loan from Juve.

Goldberg explained: "Juventus will be technical directors for football. They have a formula which has been proven over many years to optimise the experience and expertise of the playing staff."

Goldberg has a grandiose five-year plan for Palace and envisages the club having become a force in Europe, playing in a redeveloped 40,000- capacity stadium at Selhurst Park and having transformed their training, management and medical facilities by that time.

Venables, who managed Palace from 1976 to 1980 before leaving for Queen's Park Rangers, is in Malaysia with the Australian national team and is not due to return to Britain until next Monday, yet is believed to be prepared to listen to offers from any Premiership club. Whether he will accept one from Palace remains to be seen.

Goldberg has put down a deposit of pounds 10m with the remaining pounds 20m paid upon completion in October to secure 85 per cent of the club's shares, will invest at least pounds 5m on new players over the next 18 months, as well as a similar amount on stadium redevelopment plans.

Despite Palace being in 19th place in the Premiership, Goldberg's declared aim is to establish them among the elite as they contemplate their third relegation in five years.

"I have a five-year plan to make Palace a club that can compete in Europe. Financially, I have allowed for the possibility that we could be in the First Division for two of those five years but I can't accept that we will not be able to turn around our fortunes this season and stay up," he explained.

Amid all the bombast, one dissenting was that of Laurie Dahl, editor of the Palace fanzine Echo, who warned: "I wouldn't like Venables back at the club, being one of those that remember the rape of the club that occurred when he left. He took half the team off to QPR, and it took us years to recover from that."