Ridsdale's game of risk with the Tel variety show

Leeds chairman ushers in the Venables era, rules out Rio move to Old Trafford and may soon welcome McManaman

You could not have imagined them even thinking of asking the same favour of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger or Gérard Houllier. But there has always been something about Terry Venables that endears him to more than football aficionados. And so, as he clambered into the back of a four-wheel-drive, alongside chairman Peter Ridsdale, to depart Elland Road after his introduction to the media and the faithful who gathered to approve his succession to David O'Leary, a baby was eagerly thrust into his arms by its mother.

Never one to be fazed by such requests, he posed amiably for a photograph. You half-expected the football coach and occasional crooner, born nearly 60 years in Dagenham, to belt out a chorus of "Wot a picture. Stick it in yer family album".

Instead he sat quietly next to his new chairman, the pair resembling a rather self-conscious just-married couple, smiling genially for the crowds, and perhaps wondering just what trials lay ahead.

Even for those of us who have witnessed Venables in a variety of settings, including before the bar of the High Court and setting them up in the bar of his west London club, that phrase – Leeds manager, Terry Venables – does take a bit of getting used to.

"To some degree, today is a new beginning," said Ridsdale, who is conscious that he has acquired more than a mere football coach. "Hopefully Terry can create a feelgood factor and therefore we all benefit from it."

Though charisma may not win football matches, it does charge supporters with a new-found optimism and, perhaps just as pertinently from Leeds' perspective, produce a resurgence of faith in players, particularly high-profile personnel like Rio Ferdinand. If there is a man who can convince Ferdinand that his immediate future is at Leeds it is the former England coach who, six years ago, so impressed the then 17-year-old by inviting him to join up with his Euro 96 squad purely for the experience.

Meanwhile Ridsdale has placed the strongest emphasis yet on his insistence that the England centre-back will not be crossing the Pennines. And certainly not to Old Trafford. "He's got four years left on his contract and there's a clause that says he can't go to a Premiership or Nationwide club," said Ridsdale. "Because the transfer fee at that time was deemed to be so high, we put a minimum transfer fee in and that figure does not even kick in until next June."

Ridsdale added: "He's going nowhere, other than running out there [he gestures towards the pitch] on 17 August to play for Leeds United. If he comes back from holiday and says something different we'll have to deal with it. But the one thing I will say to Rio, and which I've stated to Terry and he's comforted by, and I've also stated to Rio's agent, is that this club has no intention of selling Rio Ferdinand. Were it to do so, it has no intention of doing so to Manchester United football club."

The Leeds board back that stance, despite last week's assertion by Wenger that the transfer market may have peaked. "I was told in November 2000 that I was mad paying £18 million [for Rio] because the transfer market was about to collapse," said Ridsdale. "Today, I'm told I'm about to receive a bid from anywhere between £25 and £35 million for Rio. I can't tell you about the future, but in the last 18 months, world-class players' values have increased."

The decision to decline any such offer is a major one for any chairman, as is that to enlist the services of a man whose club management has been limited since his acrimonious departure from Tottenham in 1991. Ridsdale, who surprised many by appointing O'Leary four years ago, a move that it must be said proved initially successful, is aware that his own reputation – and indeed his position – are exposed to account.

"There are two sets of people who will decide whether I'm employed or not," he said. "The first are the shareholders. The second are the supporters. Whether Terry works out, I know, just as everybody else does, that I am accountable. Somebody else will decide my future."

However, there is a degree of rationale behind Venables' appointment. If the new manager summons the maximum from this talented squad, and the club prosper, it will be a testament to the chairman's judgement. Should Venables fail by the high standards Ridsdale demands, the club will have at least provided itself with ample opportunity to investigate fully other candidates, including presumably Martin O'Neill, whose Celtic contract expires in a year.

Nobody can accuse Venables of shirking a challenge, whether at Barcelona, Tottenham – where he was manager and chief executive – Middlesbrough, whom he assisted to avoid relegation when they were in desperate straits, and, of course, the ultimate test, England. Even the man himself appears faintly surprised that he has returned to the Premiership fold at such a level. Prior to the World Cup, he was asked what kind of offer it would take to tempt him back into football management. "I don't think there is one," he said. "I have enjoyed it and all good things come to an end. It is very, very unlikely." How wrong you can be.

Behind those laughing eyes, a calculating brain will have determined that if he is successful in his stewardship of Leeds, then he would be a prime contender again for the England job should Sven Goran Eriksson call it a day for any reason. Venables, who claims he will benefit from analysing Premiership sides for ITV, insisted that he will be prepared to take risks with his newly acquired team. "When I say that, I don't mean that you should go in and do something so different that the players can't cope. You might have to start off steady, but as the time goes by you risk a bit more if you're successful."

Potentially, even with the accepted condition that he must sell to recoup the club £15m – and Lee Bowyer at £9m to Liverpool is set to be the first to go – there is still a rich crop of players from which to harvest. There must be a chance that he will add to the squad, too, when finances permit, with Real Madrid's Steve McManaman a possible acquisition. But will that squad and his acknowledged expertise be sufficient to examine the pre-eminence of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool?

"Those three look in pole position," he said. "It's up to us to remove that stranglehold. It's not going to be easy, we know that, but I just think we're capable of doing it. That's what makes me interested in taking the job.

"The thing that has always been in the back of my mind was that I was rarely in the Premier League. I wanted to put myself under pressure. Last season [at ITV] it was safe. I could criticise everyone else and that was fine. But then I had to make a decision. I asked myself, 'Are you going to be brave enough to do this?' "

We have the answer and it promises an intriguing season ahead as the character who loves to sing Frank Sinatra classics does it his way, even though some will view it as pouring Ol' Blue Eyes on troubled waters.