Venables sets his sights on the title

The setting for Terry Venables' arrival at Elland Road was somehow appropriate; a function room decked out like a nightclub boasting a black-tented roof in which was embedded hundreds of lights. Welcome to Scribes North.

Scribes West, Venables' London nightclub, was one of a host of embellishments on the English game's most fascinating CV. Venables was never a great novelist, singer, or writer of television drama and at times he proved himself a poor businessman. What made him great was an understanding of football and yesterday, on the anniversary of Don Revie's birth, he took over as Leeds United's manager, aiming to deliver the kind of silverware they have not known since Revie's great sides bulldozed their way to glory.

His first victory would be to persuade Rio Ferdinand to stay, although Venables, who accepted a two-year contract on the understanding that £15m would have to be cut from the playing staff, appeared far less confident of holding on to Lee Bowyer, who is likely to join Liverpool.

Since Ferdinand is on holiday and Venables returns to Spain on Sunday and will miss the Chinese leg of Leeds' tour of the Far East and Australia, any discussions are likely to be on the phone. "I will speak to him at the first opportunity I get," said Venables. "We must do everything we can to keep him at the club. He has come on in leaps and bounds and I think an awful lot of credit for that has to go to Leeds United for laying out the money that they did at a time when a lot of people frowned on it."

As for Bowyer, Venables was more sanguine. "I have never had a problem with someone leaving at the end of their contract or with a year to go because that's their negotiating time. Lee Bowyer falls into that category. I will do everything to make him stay but whether that's possible I don't know."

The situation is not a new one for Venables. In 1984 he came to Barcelona knowing he would probably have to sell Diego Maradona. Venables said: "The president said the first decision you have to make is whether to sell or keep Maradona. I replied: 'Have you got any difficult ones?' We got £5m for him and bought Steve Archibald for £1m. Maradona had financial problems which could only be solved by selling him. It would have been a great thrill to manage him but we had to act. It worked because we won the league for the first time in 13 years [actually 11 years]."

Although it was a colossal achievement, this was the only major championship Venables has captured, and he admitted Leeds' potential to win a title was something which had attracted him north.

"There has been a feeling I haven't tested myself," Venables said. "I've never lost my hunger. Tottenham was a hefty experience but I had good ones with England; and Australia, when we did not lose a game and didn't qualify for the World Cup, was a strange experience.

"People say: 'If you were more single-minded you'd be where Alex Ferguson is'. But I would not change anything, I'm a different type of person to Fergie. I get my enjoyment from working with different types of people.

"I don't really think I've had the opportunity to win the league in England. The only time I felt I had a squad which could actually win the league was at Tottenham in the year I left [1993]. When I came there, Gough, Hoddle and Ardiles had all gone and we nearly got relegated in my first season. That's how tough it was."

Venables said he would keep David O'Leary's backroom staff and had discussed Leeds with their former manager, George Graham, over lunch before he was interviewed. Now he appears refreshed by the challenge. "I found when I was out of work before I got the England job that I had more time to think," he said.

He would not comment on what he would define as success, although Venables knows silverware is the only benchmark. When he won La Liga with Barcelona, he released a version of 'My Way' sung in Catalan; should he do the same with Leeds his rendition of 'Ilkley Moor Bar T'at' should be in the club shops faster than the El Tel shirts.