PAUL GASCOIGNE
HIS DRINKING, HIS DEMONS AND THAT GOAL
TWENTY years have passed since that May afternoon, yet the i mages remain stunningly familiar. We are in the 79th minute of a European Championship match at Wembley and England lead Scotland by a single goal. David Seaman has just saved a Scottish penalty, and now he helps launch an English counter-attack. Enter Paul Gascoigne.
Moving on to a cushioned pass from Darren Anderton, he collects it in full stride, lifts it over the lunging challenge of Colin Hendry with his left foot and scampers through six nimble steps before meeting the dropping ball with a brutally conclusive right-foot volley.
He then flings himself flat on his back, arms stretching, mouth gaping, before being buried beneath the bodies of ecstatic colleagues. Poor Hendry stares on in head-shaking wonder. Truly, it is a goal for the ages.
Gascoigne makes a vague attempt to describe what was going through his mind at that moment but soon he shakes his head, sits back and smiles. Like so much of his football, so much of his life, it was pretty well unplanned. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
And for Gascoigne, that summer of ’96 was one of the good times. He smiles as he flicks through the names of the England players: ‘Dave Seaman, Pearcey, big Tony Adams, Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham... terrific players, good lads. And Terry Venables, he let us get on with it. He knew what it meant to me. I went to a health farm for eight days, preparing for that tournament.
‘I remember Terry saying he was gonna make me captain, but then he said, “I can’t, because there’s already enough pressure on you and I’ll just get stick for it”. I said, “It’s all right, when I play I’m always captain.”’
He goes into his tale: ‘First game, Switzerland. Bit of a let down. I’m not at me best, never really got into it. Terry took me off with 20 minutes to go. He said, “I had to do it, Gazza, I didn’t think your mind was on the game.”’
The Scots were next up, not that Gascoigne was worried. ‘I never used to watch teams I was playing against,’ he says. ‘I just knew my own ability. But the night before the Scotland game I couldn’t sleep and I thought, “Gaffer’s not gonna play me. I know it.” So I went and knocked on Terry’s door at half past 10 and I said, “Am I playing tomorrow?” and he went, “No”. And I had tears in me eyes and I said, “Why not? I know it didn’t go so well first game but give us another chance.” And he said, “No, I can’t.” And he kept this up for, like, half an hour, then he said, “Course you’re f****** playing. Get to bed!” He was brilliant.’
He is about to speak of that match, perhaps enlarge upon his goal, when we are joined by Sir Geoff Hurst, with whom he shares an agent. Gascoigne greets him like a fan. ‘Now, Geoff Hurst achieved something,’ he says. ‘Incredible. A hattrick in a World Cup final! I saw him on the telly the other day and he said that, when the game was all over, he couldn’t believe he’d done it. So he went back in the stadium and looked at the scoreboard and it said “Hurst 3”. I could understand that, it’s just what I’d have done. I’d have checked. Just to make sure. That won’t ever be done again. Ever.
‘And to do it at Wembley, of all places! I loved Wembley. It was a real pity they knocked down the old place. They should have kept it up so people could go and walk round the stadium and see what the lads did in 1966.’
When the fancy takes him, Gascoigne speaks of football with the bubbling enthusiasm of a young boy. It is the game which gave full rein to his glittering gifts. Had things worked out differently then he would be remembered as the great entertainer; the beguiling fantasist whose talent put a smile upon the face of his sport.
Tragically, events took a sombre turn. Many footballers drink, some to excess, but few have ever matched Gascoigne’s excesses.
He acquired the habit and it devoured him. His rise to fame had been conducted beneath the public spotlight and his decline was played out in the same unforgiving glare. It was the voracious drinking and its consequent calamities which created the feckless image he carries today. And that image has come to define him. An entire generation has grown up believing Gascoigne to be little more than a laddish warning or a crass headline.
The truth, of course, is more complex. On good days he is bright, quick, excellent company. And today is such a day, when he can cast off the accident-prone, tragicomic figure known as ‘Gazza’, and remember that he was, at his peak, a quite extraordinary footballer.
‘The outstanding player of his generation, beyond a doubt,’ insists Hurst. And certainly Gascoigne had power, balance, touch and vision, along with an enormous heart and an insatiable appetite for the game. But things just happened to him. And never more than in that remarkable Euro 96 tournament.
GASCOIGNE says: ‘The only match we were really worried about was the Dutch game. But we played them at their own game, passing and that. Everyone thought we’d get beat but we got four goals, we just kind of clicked [England won 4-1].
‘It was our high spot. People started making comparisons between us and the 1966 team. Me, I’m not too sure, I think the ‘66 side would have beaten us. They were so strong where they had to be. See, when Geoff played, there were guys like Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles who were happy to do the graft. Nowadays you get everyone wanting to get the ball and play it sideways, whereas those old players would just want to win the ball, get stuck in and give it to the front men, like Geoff.’
By now, Gascoigne is back to the match which never leaves him. England had beaten Spain, very fortunately, on penalties in the quarter-final, and now for Germany. It was a game which, quite unjustly, would be used in evidence against Gazza in any assessment of his career. And it hinged on his miss, in extra-time and with the teams playing to the ‘golden goal’ rule, which meant that the first goal would determine the result. Alan Shearer struck a low cross from the right, Gascoigne was waiting at the far post, and...
‘I paused for maybe half a second because I thought their keeper was gonna get a touch, and when you hesitate, it’s gone. I can honestly say that if it was Geoff or Shearer or Gary Lineker, they would have scored. Every time I look at it, I swear.
‘Funny, I don’t think about the goal, I think about my celebrations, what I would have done, you know. I’d have just kept running, round and round and round the track.’
Hurst was in the Wembley crowd that day. ‘So unlucky,’ he says. ‘They were that close to getting through. It was a real good side, that ’96 team. One of England’s best.’
England went out on penalties and Gascoigne took it personally. Yet he had enjoyed playing for Venables, with England and with Spurs, where Gazza’s talent blossomed, along with a reputation for manic eccentricity.
‘I remember I’d been there a couple of weeks,’ he says, ‘and the players started to wind me up.
I watch football but if it’s c***, I’ll turn over, especially when I see a player on 150 grand a week who couldn’t trap a bag of cement...
“Gazza, we heard you were crazy, but now you’re no fun.” So I went home and I’m thinking, “What can I do?” Anyway, I passed this zoo, and I thought, “Ah, a zoo!” ‘So next morning, eight o’clock, I went to the zoo and I knocked at the door, and I said, “Can I borrow an ostrich, please?” And this feller said, “All right. But I want it back.” And I’ve got my first new car, a black Mercedes, and I’m well excited. So naturally I put my No8 shirt on the ostrich, stuffed it in the back of the car, and drove to the training ground. And as I’m driving people are giving me the thumbs up, you know? And I’m thinking, “Oh, they recognise me.” And I’m smiling back. I’d forgot the f****** ostrich, and he’s going mad on the back seat. 'So I waited till the lads started training, and I brought out this ostrich and I went, “Gaffer, I’ve got this new player for you. He’s quick as f***!” And the ostrich ran on the pitch. It was funny until the lads finished training at half past 12 and I finished at 5.30, trying to catch the b******! Didn’t get it until it was worn out. I went back to the zoo and said, “Cheers mate. Can I borrow an anaconda tomorrow, please?” He just went, “Gazza, get away.”’
Like so many of his stories, you sense it has expanded with the telling. No matter, he earns the reaction he was seeking. Hurst heaves with laughter. ‘Can you imagine Alf Ramsey if he’d turned up with an ostrich? Imagine Alf’s face!’ he says.
The manager who seemed to understand Gascoigne best of all was fellow North-Easterner Sir Bobby Robson. He realised that most of Gazza’s problems stemmed from his hyperactivity, and when he was bored, he searched for distraction. ‘I remember going to Albania with England,’ says Gascoigne. ‘It was bad. We were there for two days before the game, and I was bored. And I looked out the hotel window and there was chickens in the yard, about 50 yards away. So I was throwing bars of soap out the window, trying to hit these chickens, and Sir Bobby comes in. And he says, “What you doing?”
‘I said, “I’m trying to hit these chickens with my bars of soap, gaffer. I’m bored.”
‘And he looked down and he went, “Can you really hit them chickens?”, all serious, like. And I said, “Yeah.” And I threw my soap, and he said, “Mind your arm, don’t hurt it. Oh! You nearly hit that one!” And I thought, “This is the England manager, watching me throwing soap at chickens.” Then he said, “Come in now, son. You’ve got a match tomorrow.” That was Sir Bobby.’
In truth, Robson was sorely tried by young Gazza, notably when the player rode a pedalo out to sea just two days before a World Cup game. But the manager thought he was worth the trouble.
Hurst understands. ‘ He could drive people mad, but he always played as if he enjoyed his sport. And sport is meant to be enjoyed, isn’t it? And a player like Gazza does such a lot for team spirit. It’s great to have a joker in the pack. We didn’t really have anyone like that. Alf never had a funny side. I can’t imagine how he would have handled Gazza. But yeah, he’d have been in our squad... for a little while.’
THE stories roll out. Occasionally, tears of laughter come to Gascoigne’s eyes as he tells another tale. He loved it all: the playing, the nonsense, ‘the lads’. But slowly, as the body yielded to injury and the onset of fierce drinking, the good days ebbed away. The man who had played for some of the greatest clubs in Europe was now compelled to lower his sights.
‘I went to Boston,’ he says. ‘That was a nightmare. I was sitting in me Dad’s and we’d had a couple of drinks, then the phone goes, and a fellow says, “Hi Paul, d’you wanna sign for Boston?” And I put me hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and I said, “Right, Dad, get your case packed, flip-flops, the lot. We’re going to Boston.”
‘They gave me the directions and they told me to get off the train at such and such. And I said, “Oh s***, Dad, I think there’s another Boston.” I didn’t know about this one in Lincolnshire. Their chairman was a clever lad. He says, “Well Gazza, it’ll be a nice few grand a week. Any crowd over 2,500, you’ll get the money.” So I thought, “They’ll get a full house if I play and I’ll get decent wages.” So I signed. Then I found it only held 2,250. So I shook the chairman’s hand. I said, “That’s class, that is.” I suppose I’m mad.’
Unlike Hurst, who has had a fulfilling business career, Gascoigne was unprepared for retirement. ‘We all loved playing,’ says Hurst, ‘but it was such a big part of Gazza’s life — the jokes, camaraderie — that he probably misses it more than most.
‘For 20 years, that was all I knew,’ says Gazza. ‘Kenny Dalglish asked me what I would do when I finished. And I said, “I’ve got a few years left. I’ll be all right.’ Then, before you know it, your career’s over and you’ve not planned anything. That’s maybe why I took to drink heavily. Just to pass the day.’
Some say things might have been different had he decided against the move to Tottenham, that the capital held too many temptations. He scoffs at the notion.
‘Listen, I could have gone to Man United, but I didn’t think I’d get a regular game, and I just wanted to play. They say that Man U would have kept me under control, but Wayne Rooney’s been in trouble, Rio Ferdinand’s been in trouble, Ryan Giggs has been in trouble, and Eric Cantona two-footed a bloke in the crowd! Maybe their control wasn’t all that tight after all?’
So how would he fare today? ‘I’d be playing where Rooney plays,’ he says. ‘Except I think Rooney’s playing too deep. I normally just followed the ball, trying to be like 20 yards from where it was, so I could decide what I’d do with it when it came to me.’
Hurst is in no doubt: ‘You’d build the team round him.’
Gascoigne is not enthralled by the modern game. ‘I watch it for 15 minutes, but if it’s c***, I’ll turn it over. Especially when I see a player on 150 grand a week who couldn’t trap a bag of cement.’
Yet he finds features to admire in the England team: ‘Walker, the right back; good engine, decent skills. There’s Vardy; sharp, quick. And they’ve got a fair number of talented Spurs players. Something to build on.’
He nods, reflectively. ‘But they don’t have anyone who’s scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. And none of them has ever borrowed an ostrich, eh?’
And he laughs at all the madness, all the nonsense, and all the marvellous memories.
So I went to the zoo and asked for an ostrich to take to training. I said: 'Gaffer, I’ve got a new player for you. He’s f****** quick!’ He was a b****** to catch!