There’s only one PAUL GASCOIGNE

Forget Sancho and Sterling... we won’t ever produce such a talent again

CHRIS WADDLE wants everyone to enjoy the TV reruns of Italia ’90 because he says English football is not capable of producing another Gazza.

Waddle, a part of Bobby Robson’s team that gripped the nation 30 years ago, fears that maverick players of the past such as Paul Gascoigne, Rodney Marsh, Frank Worthington, Stan Bowles and Charlie George are now extinct.

An England side written off by the critics slowly came to the boil to leave the public transfixed in front of their TV sets.

It quickly transformed Gazza into a household name, especially following his tears in Turin after a gut-wrenching semi-final defeat to West Germany.

Waddle, capped 62 times by his country and now a Radio 5 Live pundit, believes that 1990 is as good as it gets when talking about worldclass English superstars.

“Gazza is our last great player. I don’t think we trust skilful players in this country,” he said.

“The level of football might be more efficient complete with sophisticated systems, but we lack the maverick players.

“We latch on to players, who we believe will excite, but, for me, they don’t come anywhere near the ball players of the past. You hear players being labelled ‘the new Gazza’. No one has come close.”

He sees Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho promoted as the next big thing and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling talked about in world-class terms and is left scratching his head in amazement.

“People go on about Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho, but one-on-one they don’t really go at you,” he said.

“Sancho may have more than he has shown so far in an England shirt, but I’m still waiting for an England player to deliver that wow factor.

“I don’t get that someone is going to pay £100million for him. Then there’s talk of James Maddison leaving Leicester for £80m and you think, ‘Where are they getting these prices from?’.

“People have been saying, ‘What would Peter Beardsley, John Barnes, Paul Gascoigne and Glenn Hoddle be worth now?’ It’s not a case of harking back to the good old days just for the sake of it, but it’s a fact that there were so many brilliant individuals who were given a licence to play and entertain.”

He believes in today’s squads the entertainers of the past would struggle to be picked regularly.

“Terry Venables and

Bobby Robson (left) allowed Gazza to play. Gazza was basically a schoolyard footballer,” added Waddle. “You couldn’t tell him two touches and get rid of the ball. Why do that? If he loses it, so what? “Sometimes he would have a bad game because he was trying things most footballers couldn’t pull off. You have to put a lot of trust in these sort of players. “I think the maverick skills are coached out of them. We used to produce so many players who could take people on with ease. Now we haven’t got one.

“We are obsessed with not losing the ball. We don’t want luxury players, instead we prefer grafters. Players who can get up and down the park, who run off the ball well. You miss players who excite you.”

Speaking about Italia ’90, Waddled added: “The media were predicting our stay at our Sardinia base would be a short one.

“Once we were in Sardinia we felt we had a team that could do well. I looked around and thought, ‘This is a ruddy good squad’.

“I think what changed things was switching during the tournament from 4-4-2 to three at the back and being flexible. I’d never seen England do this before.”

The team reached the semi-finals and only went out on penalties – Waddle and Stuart Pearce missing the crucial spot-kicks.

“People say the country fell in love with football again and our success led the way to the Premier League being formed two years later,” said Waddle.

“There was a buzz and it appeared that everyone in England was mad about football again.

“It’s just a pity that we are still waiting for the next Gazza.

“There’s no excuse – we have the best of everything now – for us not producing talented players whom other nations can rave about.”