Chelsea pay tribute to Terry Venables in their matchday programme for Brighton clash following the death of their former player aged 80 last weekend

Chelsea have paid tribute to former player Terry Venables in their matchday program for Sunday's match at home to Brighton.

Venables, who started his playing career at Chelsea, died last weekend at the age of 80.

After joining Chelsea as a youth player in 1958, Venables played more than 200 senior games for the Blues, scoring 31 goals.

He won the League Cup with Chelsea in 1965 and also helped the club to promotion to the top flight of English football.

Chelsea placed a photo of Venables on the cover of their matchday program and reflected on the contribution he made to the club.

Chelsea paid tribute to Terry Venables in their matchday program for Sunday's match

Venables, who started his playing career at Chelsea, died last weekend at the age of 80

As reported by the official club website, Dominic Bliss wrote: 'Before El Tel, before the Three Lions, before any of the above, he was Venners and he was the jewel in the crown of a Chelsea youth set-up that produced a generation of household names. This was his first home to play football, and he never forgot it.”

Chelsea also republished an interview with Venables in which he spoke fondly of his time at Stamford Bridge and revealed he did not want to leave.

Venables said: 'I didn't want to leave Chelsea, I would always like to stay there because of the proximity to the players.

'We all got along so well then, it was great. There was hardly ever a bad word said between us and the players were very close. I think we would all have liked to have moved on, but that wasn't to be the case as is often the case, and things had to change. But I have wonderful memories. I think my best memory of football was playing for Chelsea.'

In an interview republished by Chelsea, Venables revealed he did not want to leave the club

Venables left for Tottenham in 1966 and also went on to play for QPR and Crystal Palace, while earning two caps for England.

During a long and varied managerial career, Venables was in charge of England, Barcelona and Tottenham.

Tributes were paid to Venables following his death last weekend.

Tottenham and Aston Villa players wore black armbands as a minute's applause took place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before kick-off.

Tottenham fans also sang Venables' name during the applause as a picture of him at Spurs was shown on the big screen in the stadium.

Tottenham and Aston Villa players held a minute's applause last weekend as they paid tribute to Venables

Spanish newspapers Sport (top) and Mundo Deportivo (bottom) both paid tribute to former Barcelona manager Venables on their back pages

Both newspapers start with the caption 'Adios, Mister', with Mundo Deportivo printing a photo of him wearing a Barcelona training kit

In a statement, Tottenham said: 'The Club is extremely saddened by the passing of former player and manager Terry Venables.

“Our deepest condolences go out to Terry's friends and family at this incredibly difficult time.”

Spanish newspapers also paid tribute to Venables, who won LaLiga with Barcelona in 1985.

Mundo Deportivo and Sport printed large photos of Venables on their back pages for their Monday editions, with both captioning the photos: 'Adios, sir'.

The images depicted him during his managerial time at Barcelona, ​​with Venables joining Barcelona in 1984, before leaving the Spanish giants to manage Tottenham in 1987.