Vinnie was not playing for laughs
BY ALAN MARSHALL VINNIE JONES has revealed his fear of being turned into a “laughing stock” led him to take drastic measures during his clash with Paul Gascoigne at Plough Lane in February 1998.
The former pros met up again more than 30 years after one of football’s most infamous incidents for a joint interview on talkSPORT last night.
Jones’ famous grab at Gascoigne’s testicles has gone down in the history of the game but the Wimbledon hardman has insisted it was motivated by nothing more than the anxiety to avoid embarrassment.
He said: “I thought: ‘I could be the laughing stock of this game. What if he scores four goals, what if he runs riot?’
“Something snapped in me... I stretched in the dressing room and I am building up and building up and I thought ‘when I see him, I’m going to kill him’.”
At the time Gascoigne was a teenage sensation earning rave reviews for his skills at Newcastle, in stark contrast to Jones, a former hod-carrier who was an integral part of Wimbledon’s notorious Crazy Gang.
Speaking with Rangers legend Gascoigne about the incident which was captured in newspaper photographs, Jones said: “We were fighting to get in and he started jostling as well and you said something about ‘how much are they paying you for this, are you getting £100 for this today?’
“That is when I reached down. I grabbed it and it was just spot on!
“There weren’t no fiddling about... I just grabbed it and didn’t let go.”