Terry Venables could be tempted to leave Middlesbrough at the end of the season and return to Spain with ambitious Valencia.

Venables is wanted by last year's European Cup finalists to take over from current coach Hector Cuper, who is expected to leave for Serie A.

The former England coach is top of a three-man short list drawn up by Valencia president Pedro Cortes and released by the club yesterday.

Cuper is likely to move to either Inter or Lazio after a successful spell in charge of Valencia, who are currently third in the Primera Liga and again making progress in the Champions League.

And Venables, who established a reputation in Spain with Barcelona, is the man they want as a replacement.

The Boro coach has a contract at the Riverside until the end of the season but refused to throw any light on his future when he said this week: "Nothing has been decided. We are just going to see where this season takes us."

The 57-year-old has always been highly rated in Spain after winning the championship and reaching the European Cup final during his three years with

Barcelona and then going on to success with England in Euro 96.

He owns property and has business interests there and speaks fluent Spanish

And his successful return to club football with Boro has alerted the wealthy Spanish club.

Boro have lost only one out of 12 league games since Venables took over and are desperate for him to stay.

Multi-millionaire chairman Steve Gibson wants him to sign a two-year contract and help build the club into a Premiership force in partnership with manager Bryan Robson.

But Venables has options inside and outside football, with ITV offering a £250,000 contract as Match of the Day's senior analyst next sason.

And, having enjoyed the experience of club football at coaching level again, he could also be attracted by the opporutnity to return to Spain with a wealthy club heavily involved in European competition.

Meanwhile, Boro have returned to Charlton with an inquiry for striker Matt Svensson. They failed with a bid for the Swede when he was at Crystal Palace and he moved to Charlton for £600,000.

Svensson is the latest target, with Venables admitting: "We're really trying to bring someone in."

Boro have still not resolved their problem with Bradford City over the Dean Windass move. The two clubs are still in negotiation over the terms of the £1m deal.

l Aston Villa manager John Gregory has revealed his ''surprise'' at on-song Paul Merson's exclusion from Sven-Goran Eriksson's first England squad.

Gregory believes thatformer Middlesbrough star Merson has been the most consistent midfield player in the Premiership during the current campaign and admitted Eriksson had spoken to him about the former Arsenal star.

But he still failed to get the call-up on his home Villa Park ground for the friendly international with Spain and Gregory believes that was ''a big blow'' to the reformed drinking, gambling and drugs addict.

Gregory said: ''I know Paul well enough to know that in the back of his mind he was always hoping that he might actually get into that squad.