GAZZA WAS SHEAR CLASS ON AND OFF FIELD
The Chronicle Est 1885 and incorporating the Evening World. Published by ncjMedia, 2nd Floor, INTU Eldon Square, Eldon Court, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7JB, and printed by Reach Printing Services (Teesside) Limited. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office
THEY are two of the finest players to have represented Newcastle and England – and both hail from Tyneside. Yet while Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne are iconic Geordies in footballing folklore, the only time they were teammates came while wearing the three lions of England.
Everyone who has met ‘Gazza’ has a story to tell – and Big Al is no exception.
And now, as part of a new book “Our Gazza: The Untold Tales” by John Richardson, Shearer has spoken of his times sharing a dressing room with Dunston’s most famous son, including Euro 96 and the infamous dentist’s chair incident in Hong Kong.
The book is a collection of stories and memories as told by the people who know him best. All reveal some hilarious and new stories of Gazza and reveal a different side to the legend.
Here, Newcastle goalscoring hero Shearer reveals just what it was like sharing a dressing room with Gazza.
IN an England dressing room after a game you would go to put your socks on while Gazza was sat in the corner with his body shaking frantically with laughter because he knew he had cut the ends off so you were about to pull them right up to your chin!
If he was not messing around with your socks he would put Deep Heat in your underpants.
He would burst out laughing as you dived into the showers to wash the stuff off.
It did not matter who you were, nobody was spared.
When I first joined up with England he was telling everyone he had booked this amazing holiday to South Africa.
I said to Gazza, what about apartheid? He said, no it was fine, he was staying in a hotel!
During Euro 96 we were often bombarded with him either singing Three Lions at the top of his voice or blasting it on his CD player. It could be the middle of the night or first thing in the morning – there was no let-up.
I don’t think the other hotel guests appreciated it either. Things were certainly lively with Gazza around.
Fortunately, I never had to share a room with him.
Unless there was a tournament I used to see him every two months, which was just about OK You had to feel sorry for the guys who were with him all the time.
I was an innocent bystander at the infamous dentist’s chair incident in Hong Kong in the build-up to Euro
96.
I saw it was becoming messy and I managed to slope off, even though I could not have imagined it escalating like it did.
When you look at the pictures now of what went on it is embarrassing. The s**t really did hit the fan but to Terry Venables’ credit he used it to his advantage.
Gazza knew how much Terry loved him and how well he had been looked after.
We all did really and we knew he had been let down by the antics in the Hong Kong bar.
We knew immediately afterwards we needed to perform at Euro 96 because we did not want to let the manager down again.
We knew as players he had protected us on many occasions and now we had to protect him. That meant doing well in Euro 96. I think we lived up to that. It was an amazing time for the country. There are still loads of things which stand out from the tournament but for me there were two big ones. There was Gazza’s goal against Scotland. Few people, if any, could have done that. It was a piece of pure magic.
There was also one of the goals when we beat Holland 4-1. Gazza to Teddy Sheringham to me and bang!
As a player we know he was exceptional. The most important thing for me as a forward is you want to know when you make a forward run the ball is going to arrive. Gazza had the ability to do that. If a forward does not get the ball then he stops running.
He was an incredible player and could do things with a ball only a few could dream of doing. ■ OUR Gazza – The Untold Tales by John Richardson, published by Reach Sport, is on sale now in hardback and ebook. Order for 20% off at £15.19 from reachsportshop.com (rrp £18.99).
Gazza was an incredible player who could do things with a ball only a few could dream of doing
Alan Shearer