Paul Gascoigne

[Mag-ic]

I must admit, I was on edge during the whole show, praying that he wouldn't fuck up.

 

He did fine - completely lucid, prone to rambling, but always funny with it and relatively sharp, considering.

 

Thought he was a goner six months ago. Definitely displaying shoots of recovery. Hope it lasts.

[Guest Stephen927]

I thought he looked canny. Doubtlessly, he'll be on a few meds to manage his depression. Good to see him back on form, IMO.

I watched him on gmtv a few weeks ago and he said all the medication he was taking had a big effect on his speech and he sounded pissed but evetually he would be ok once the side effects wore off, i say good luck to him .

 

Yeah this is true.

 

Obviously I don't know what goes on when the cameras aren't on him but so far it looks like he's made an encouraging start to his recovery, but you never know with Paul Gascoigne.

[kirkwdavis2001]

he's on MOTD2 now, he looks and sounds dreadful  :-[

[binnsy]

Even in his current condition he would do a better job in the middle of the park for us than Nolan & Butt!!!

[ElDiablo]

he's on MOTD2 now, he looks and sounds dreadful  :-[

 

Thought he looked well, and talked a fair bit of sense too, refreshing to have some opinions instead of usual cliched bullshit from the likes of Dixon, Lawrenson etc.

[olliemort]

he's on MOTD2 now, he looks and sounds dreadful  :-[

 

Thought he looked well, and talked a fair bit of sense too, refreshing to have some opinions instead of usual cliched bullshit from the likes of Dixon, Lawrenson etc.

What did he say abt us?

[pedro111]

I have to say that while he still looks bad, he was a million miles better than he has been in recent years.

 

[binnsy]

he's on MOTD2 now, he looks and sounds dreadful  :-[

 

Thought he looked well, and talked a fair bit of sense too, refreshing to have some opinions instead of usual cliched bullshit from the likes of Dixon, Lawrenson etc.

What did he say abt us?

 

That in the last 3 games we've played we've only played well in the last 25 mins of the games and need to play like that from the start,  that we look nervous and are scared to score the first goal but when we've ended up conceding first we have then relaxed a bit and started to play.

Thinks/hopes are home games will save us.

 

 

[Cronky]

he's on MOTD2 now, he looks and sounds dreadful  :-[

 

Thought he looked well, and talked a fair bit of sense too, refreshing to have some opinions instead of usual cliched bullshit from the likes of Dixon, Lawrenson etc.

What did he say abt us?

 

That in the last 3 games we've played we've only played well in the last 25 mins of the games and need to play like that from the start,  that we look nervous and are scared to score the first goal but when we've ended up conceding first we have then relaxed a bit and started to play.

Thinks/hopes are home games will save us.

 

 

 

He's right on all counts, to be fair.

[womblemaster]

last game of season for us,(post relegation) they should send the current team on holiday, and have a invited 11.  Just to show the current "crop of talent"  what a real team plays like.

 

MIxture of old timers and academy players, just to shure up the energy lvls.

 

at least would give the fans something to watch!

 

[Incognito]

Apparently he has signed to do I'm a celebrity...get me out of here.

 

Car crash telly if ever i saw it.

[ToonTastic]

Worst idea ever, hope he changes his mind.

[Dave]

The latest in a long, long line of spectacularly ill-advised decisions I'm afraid.

[Ketsbaia]

Gazza is the new manager of Garforth Town. WARNING: Its a long article!

 

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/991602/GAZZAS-BACK-IN-THE-GAME.html

 

GAZZA'S BACK IN THE GAME

 

THE radio presenter's voice was shaking. 'We've got Gazza? Put him on.' And so from there, on a storm-ridden July night, the world was given its latest update on the health of Paul Gascoigne. It did not look good. Gascoigne was going to see Raoul Moat, with a blanket and a chicken. Part of you laughed. Part of you cried. The greatest player of the last 30 years deserved better.

 

Simon Clifford, the man who brought Brazilian Soccer Schools to England, shed a tear and made a vow. To give Gascoigne another chance. He drove to Dunston without an address. He found Gascoigne's sister after tipping a car cleaner five quid. And from there the seeds were sewn for the latest chapter. Gascoigne had television work lined up. He was due to go on a remote island with Vinnie Jones where the pair were set to live off the land. "I said to Vin it could be like Brokeback Mountain," he laughs. "He said he would rip me bits off if I tried it!" But the allure of football struck every single one of his battered heart strings.

 

Clifford, in his role as owner of non-league Garforth Town, has offered Gascoigne the chance to be his first-team manager. All plans were dropped. "I broke the speed limit about 10 times just to get home to my dad so I could tell him I might have another job in football," recalls Gascoigne. How not to empathise on some level with that sort of raw emotion, the desire to make your old man proud. Still. Fast forward a week and I am sat with Gascoigne outside a fashionable eatery in Jesmond, a leafy Tyneside suburb. He remains iconic. Traffic slows, workmen hang out of vans, heads turn, everyone waves. Every wave is returned.

 

Gascoigne, now 43, smiles as he lights another cigarette. Another tumultuous period of his life has just closed. Prior to the infamous radio call he had been involved in a car crash that nearly killed him. Perhaps unsurprisingly he entered rehab. "It was a bad time for me," he adds. "I'd been sober for six months, then I went to watch an England game and 15 minutes later I'm in a car crash. The girl was driving and the car went out of control and hit a wall. All I can remember is the car hitting the wall. They said I had died in the ambulance. I am lucky to be alive. The first thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital bed the next day. That was a shock. I asked my dad if I looked alright and he took a photo of me on his mobile. He showed it to me and I was stunned. I had black eyes and a broken nose. I kept on getting flash backs of hitting the wall and that wasn't good so I went to rehabilitation and most of it was to talk about the crash. It was down in Bournemouth at a really nice place. You live in houses with a group of friends and you went in every morning to talk about your problems. It was all about getting emotions out. I've already talked about things that happened in my life when I was younger. This was a case of the crash and getting a couple of things polished up. I went there before things went bad or serious with myself. I recognise the signs and I have to try and not make the same mistakes. I nipped it in the bud quickly. The Moat thing? I was not well at the time, you can tell that by the interview. I did see someone who wasn't well and I wanted to fix it. I have some blips where I don't think. But I'm feeling good in myself at the minute. A lot of exciting things have come up lately."

 

Gascoigne's life swings quicker than his bipolarity. He took bread to a siege. After he had his nose fixed in hospital, his dad's puppy bit it. He recalls a story from his Lazio days where Dino Zoff ordered him down to a team dinner in a posh hotel, unaware he was in the shower. At the second instruction, Gascoigne walked through a five star lobby without a stitch of clothes on, dripping wet and promptly sat next to his manager and ate spaghetti Bolognese. You are encouraged to smile, largely because the man himself is still doing that, his life has been a tragicomedy for so long and he knows it.

 

Today, sat in a suit, Gascoigne is lean. Cappuccinos slip down his neck and he munches away on a bowl of salad. He still has restless, nervous energy fizzing through his body, but he insists management could give him the focus he desperately craves. His excitement at his potential new position has cost him sleep. His last managerial post was with Kettering - where he lost twice in nine games - and he is not scarred from the acrimonious ending. "It went really well there. The chairman tried to blame it on the drink but it was totally untrue. He stopped me coaching and he wanted to become manager." Still, Gascoigne owes much to Clifford for offering him a route back into a game that had largely turned its back on him.

 

"Everyone says they love Paul but nobody does anything about it," said Clifford. "This is not a publicity stunt. When we signed Socrates and Careca, that was. I want Paul to be an inspiration to someone who might have depression or problems in their lives. He's walked through hell but he has kept on walking. People look at the issues in his life. Because Paul had difficulties with bipolar disorder or alcohol doesn't mean he doesn't have something to offer the world. Everyone will get a lift from him. I wanted a bit of fairy dust and I just thought he deserved a chance. I don't see it as a gamble. I think he will thrive on the responsibility. I'm not interested in what he has and hasn't done, it's what he can do that interests me. I think he needs to be busy and have focus. People can criticise me for employing him but I look at England players who don't have his problems and aren't self-medicated and they are the ones abusing their position. He is the best player of our lifetime and he has only had one chance in management. It doesn't bother me if people criticise me. I am turning all my businesses into a charity in November. If Garforth become more successful it will mean more money for people I want to help, not for me."

 

And finally, from Gascoigne the manager. "I feel strong right now. For me personally it's a big challenge. It's whether the players want to join me in that challenge. I never knew when I'd get back into football. I want to take the club forward and I want the players to develop. I will give commitment to the club. Going to a club like this does not bother me one bit. I love this type of football. It is not flash and the players won't be flash. I will get the same publicity at Garforth as if I was at a Premier League club and I don't want the players to get carried away with it. I am excited. I can't wait to get in and get started but of course I will be nervous. I will take a little bit from each manager I've worked with and I want the players to play with a smile on their faces. The spotlight has never really been turned off for me. I just hope people concentrate on results rather than the other shitty stuff. Is it my last chance? It's up to me."

 

Football, collectively, should wish him well.

 

[Dave]

Old news tbh.

[Keefaz]

Aye, good luck, you mental bastard.

[madras]

Aye, good luck, you mental b******.

dave ?

[Interpolic]

Gazza's going to die soon, there's no two ways about it.  It's very reminiscent of the way George Best went on before he died.

 

Gazza's off his fucking rocker and it's really pretty depressing.

[madras]

first team talk....." i've got a dressing gown. some chicken., a can of lager and a fishing rod.....lets do them !"

[Interpolic]

first team talk....." i've got a dressing gown. some chicken., a can of lager and a fishing rod.....lets do them !"

 

It's a laugh and a half like, isn't it.

[merlin]

Gazza was the best young player I've ever seen ; when he was 17, JC gave him his debut against Spurs and he straight away forced their keeper into a great save from a direct free kick, bent round the wall.

He had been part of our FA Youth Cup winning side that year(1985), the first time we won the trophy since 1962 when Bob Moncur and David Craig were in the team.

 

His cockiness and ability on the ball were obvious from day one and he went on to being a great player.

He was miles better than Beckham because he had everything - except a steady brain..!

Had he been under the control of Fergie or Cloughie instead of Venables, I reckon he would have been the best England player for generations. Like many ultra-talented players(Best etc), he never really made the best of his career and was haunted by drink and a bad marriage and those things jaundiced people's opinion of him. The tackle he made on that Forest player in the FA Cup Final took the edge off his game after he tore his cruciate ligament.

 

I wish him well in his latest venture - he had no malice about him and as SBR said, he was just 'as daft as a brush..'

 

Sadly, one cannot imagine him living to a ripe old age but he was a great talent who will always be remembered fondly on Tyneside.

[madras]

first team talk....." i've got a dressing gown. some chicken., a can of lager and a fishing rod.....lets do them !"

 

It's a laugh and a half like, isn't it.

yes.....yes it is.

[biggs]

Gazza was the best young player I've ever seen ; when he was 17, JC gave him his debut against Spurs and he straight away forced their keeper into a great save from a direct free kick, bent round the wall.

He had been part of our FA Youth Cup winning side that year(1985), the first time we won the trophy since 1962 when Bob Moncur and David Craig were in the team.

 

His cockiness and ability on the ball were obvious from day one and he went on to being a great player.

He was miles better than Beckham because he had everything - except a steady brain..!

Had he been under the control of Fergie or Cloughie instead of Venables, I reckon he would have been the best England player for generations. Like many ultra-talented players(Best etc), he never really made the best of his career and was haunted by drink and a bad marriage and those things jaundiced people's opinion of him. The tackle he made on that Forest player in the FA Cup Final took the edge off his game after he tore his cruciate ligament.

 

I wish him well in his latest venture - he had no malice about him and as SBR said, he was just 'as daft as a brush..'

 

Sadly, one cannot imagine him living to a ripe old age but he was a great talent who will always be remembered fondly on Tyneside.

Well said and i agree i remember him fondly and some  talents touched by the hand of god have a self destruct button such as Maradona ,Best and more i cannot think of ,Gazzas bipolar was never really recognised or if it was never acted on so imho opinion things could have worked out differently for him ,i for one wish him good health and a return to a normal life as possible .

[lovejoy]

Good luck to him. Hope he does very well.

[Guest gggg]

He won't last a month.