Source: Northern_Echo
Saturday Spotlight: Boro is again centre of the universe for Venus
When Mark Venus travelled across the Transporter Bridge with his father en route to Ayresome Park as a teenager, little did he know that three decades later he would be back as Boro's new assistant manager. Today, as Chief Football Writer Paul Fraser found out, Venus is intent on making a difference on Teesside.[LNB] HIS arrival might not have caught the attention quite like Tony Mowbray's return to Teesside, but in many respects the new manager's long-term assistant and confidante has embarked on his own homecoming in the last month.[LNB] Mark Venus never played for Middlesbrough, but he regularly wore the shirt. In fact, for many years he wore the pyjamas, highlighting the depth of his support for the club he finally finds himself employed by.[LNB] His love for Boro started at the age of eight. He would travel through to Ayresome Park from his childhood home in Seaton Carew with his father, Barry, on the bus, before walking across the Transporter Bridge.[LNB] We only went to the home games. We used to stand outside the main entrance, watch who was going in, the scouts, said Venus. I have an autograph book with Bruce Rioch's signature in it from when he was at Derby County.[LNB] I was a football fan, I loved it, I watched it all of the time and I still do. Disappointments stick in my mind more than anything else about supporting them.[LNB] I wasn't going to Ayresome through liquidation in 1986, I'm older than that. My time as a fan started off in the Jack Charlton era, even before the days of David Armstrong, Graeme Souness, Craig Johnston and Mark Proctor. It was the time of John Hickton, Stuart Boam, Tony McAndrew, John Craggs, Irving Nattrass. Then there were the Cochranes and the Ashcrofts, those type.[LNB] It was during his schoolboy days that he was handed an annual set of Boro pyjamas as a Christmas present from his parents, which he is half expecting to make a return this year from one of his brothers, Ian and Michael.[LNB] There have been plenty of highs and lows experienced at Middlesbrough since, but the memories of witnessing them lose to Manchester City in the semi-final of the League Cup and the like remains fresh in his mind.[LNB] As a supporter, it was always about getting so close, like losing to Man City 4-1 away after winning 1-0 at home in the cup, said Venus.[LNB] I was there when they lost to Leyton Orient in the cup after drawing at home. John Chiedozie scored for them.[LNB] I always wanted Boro to win a trophy, so the cup runs were the highlight. It just never happened. You'd build your hopes up and then you were flattened.[LNB] After forming part of successful school teams during his days at Golden Flatts Primary School and Dyke House Comprehensive in Hartlepool, Venus soon caught the eye of his local scout.[LNB] But after he was released by Hartlepool United manager Billy Horner in 1985, he was determined to ensure his footballing dream did not end there.[LNB] After writing a letter to Leicester City, I was handed a trial and I spent three years there, said Venus, who was also knocked back at that time for a trial at Middlesbrough because of the financial restrictions at Ayresome Park.[LNB] After a successful spell at Filbert Street, he then moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1987, where he was a key defender in the Molineux club's rise from bankruptcy.[LNB] He had ten years at Wolves, where he helped Graham Turner's team to the titles in the old Division Three and Four, and worked under Graham Taylor before he was sold by Mark McGhee to Ipswich in 1997.[LNB] While his playing days effectively came to an end after a spell at Cambridge United in 2004, the six years he enjoyed at Portman Road ultimately led to him becoming Mowbray's assistant at the Riverside Stadium.[LNB] Venus, 43, was part of the Ipswich defence marshalled by Mowbray before his retirement after the second tier's play-off final in 2000, when the legendary former Middlesbrough captain signed off his playing days with a goal in the 4-2 win over Barnsley at Wembley.[LNB] The partnership on the pitch might have reached its conclusion, but the Mowbray- Venus link-up was far from over.[LNB] Once he had helped Ipswich to fifth in the Premier League the following season, qualified for the UEFA Cup and picked up the club's player of the year award, Venus soon found himself at the end of the phone when Mowbray was handed his first managerial job at Hibernian.[LNB] Six-and-a-half years later, after successful spells at both Easter Road and West Brom, before the frustrations of eight months in charge at Celtic, they remain in tandem.[LNB] He might prefer to keep a low profile, as he has throughout more than two decades in football, but his influence in the dressing room should not be underestimated.[LNB] Mowbray may well have the final decision, but Venus has been the ying to his ally's yang, with those who have worked with the pair claiming the younger man's fiery passion complements the boss' cool approach.[LNB] Either way, it was a partnership built on professional foundations, rather than friendship.[LNB] I was not his big pal in the dressing room at Ipswich,[LNB] said Venus, who has his A and B coaching badges and is working towards the coveted UEFA Pro Licence.[LNB] I have always had an opinion on football and so has Tony. I think that's how this has come to work.[LNB] He must have liked what I had said. He invited me to work with him and I am eternally grateful for that chance. I am my own man and hopefully that is for the benefit of the club.[LNB] I don't know how it works.[LNB] We are our own people, but we want the same from our football team. We want the same things from our players, even if how we get there is a little different.[LNB] Sometimes Tony can be evolution and I can be a bit revolution. It marries together OK. We have the same ideals in how we want to play football and we want to get to the same end point.[LNB] It's more for others to form opinions of ourselves. I would like to think I have strong opinions on teams, on footballers.[LNB] I like to think I show my opinions to the gaffer. The bottom line is we are hungry to do well.[LNB] Venus provides a sounding board for Mowbray, and viceversa, and there have been plenty of ideas exchanged during the first month of the pair's latest job.[LNB] Neither of them were desperate to find a quick return to football, but they felt excited by the challenge of reviving a club struggling in the Championship.[LNB] We were not falling over ourselves to get back into football, said Venus.[LNB] But this is a big club, it has done things in the last ten years. It has had investment, it has a lovely stadium.[LNB] Take away the results on the pitch, you would struggle to find a better club to join, and that goes for most of the Premier League.[LNB] What you have to work to, though, is the end line. Where that is, nobody knows, but you just have to try to do the best you possibly can. You have to look at the size of the club, what it has to offer.[LNB] If it was a club with a similar stature, similar facilities, but not Middlesbrough, that would probably have appealed to us.[LNB] You have to come back somewhere.[LNB] Venus' proud parents, Barry and Olwen, are happy to have their son back in the region he visited only sporadically during the 25 years since his chance arrived at Leicester.[LNB] And it does feel different to the times he has joined Mowbray at Hibernian, West Brom and Celtic.[LNB] It's great for me because every Christmas I used to get a pair of Middlesbrough pyjamas off my mam and dad, said Venus.[LNB] It feels weird because now I'm putting on a Middlesbrough training kit, at my age. I would like to think it is great for Tony and for me.[LNB] He played for them and I supported them.[LNB] If we can achieve anything for this club, in the right league and with its size, it is the perfect club for us really.[LNB] We are going to work damn hard to turn this place around.[LNB] My dad was always a Boro fan. I have a chance to make a name at this football club. It is a big challenge. It is not a small job and let's not shy away from the size of the task in front of us.[LNB] Not even a victory over Millwall at the Riverside Stadium would lift Middlesbrough to within touching distance of the playoff zone this afternoon.[LNB] Promotion will mean everything to Venus, Mowbray and their families, whenever it is achieved.[LNB] That may not be this season, despite hopes that it will be, and there is a drive to be realistic, rather than optimistic, at the moment.[LNB] We are going the right way to get out of the league, he said, referring to being level on points with third from bottom Bristol City, rather than closing the nine-point gap to sixth.[LNB] You have to be fair and honest. Let's not run away from where we are.[LNB] There's no time-scale on it from my view. Over a period of time we would like to see improvement and I'm confident that is what we will see.[LNB]
