There's only one Paul Gascoigne.
One Paul Gascoigne.
There's only one Paul Gascoigne.
Paul Gascoigne is the special one.
He's made a brilliant run.
Paul Gascoigne.
He was always
someone who I looked up to,
for the way he played football and, um,
and how good he was.
I still think to this day he was
the greatest England player.
Gascoigne.
He leaves two for dead.
Players in the middle... So close again.
Part of his genius,
part of his magnificence,
is the fact that he is so vulnerable.
Without that vulnerable side,
without that carefree side,
without all the things
that come with Gazza,
I don't think Paul Gascoigne
would have been the player that he was.
Is Gascoigne
going to have a crack?
He is, you know! What a play! Brilliant!
He's the best in the world.
Honestly, the best in the world.
I remember Walter Smith
coming in from training once,
and he grabbed us by the neck
and he wanted a word with us,
and he was fucking serious.
And he went, "I've just been to see
a psychiatrist about you,"
he says, "And there's nothing
I can do about it.
"Just leave you, you're a genius.
"Now get the fuck out of my sight."
That was hilarious,
you know, I went, Wow."
I was born in Gateshead.
I loved my childhood, you know,
even though we didn't have much as a family.
My mum worked really hard.
She had three or four jobs.
That's the way things were then, you know?
A lot of people lived
for the weekends, like, on a Saturday.
The atmosphere around Newcastle
when it's matchday is incredible.
You know, everyone's got a buzz,
because when Newcastle win,
it makes the weekend for everybody up there.
I mean, where I lived,
it must have been about eight miles away,
and you could hear even
the Gallowgate End singing, you know?
And also, when you hear the crowd,
I'll get my ball out in the street
and, as if I was playing there.
We used to play in the sheet,
where we ail had the gates at the house.
We would, like, say,
"That one's my goal, that gate, "
and we used to use a tennis balk.
And I loved it.
All the kids would be doing other things,
I would just be with this tennis ball non-stop.
I remember watching
a match once where Johann Cruyff
did a turn and I was like, "Wow."
And I just tried 10 remember how he did it
and went out and practised with a tennis ball.
When I was seven, it was my birthday
and my dad bought us
my first leather football.
And this thing never left my foot.
I took it to the park,
I took it to the school.
I hid it so the teachers couldn't see it.
Then after school I'd kick it about
with the guys.
And then I remember one day
I wanted to play football and
it was 7:00 at night and I'm in my room
and I've got this ball.
So I climbed out the back window
and down the drainpipe
and just kept on kicking it in the back garden.
And I just loved it.
From seven to 14 was Redheugh Boys Club
every night, you know,
this is every night for years.
And I absolutely loved it because
we'd go there, train, for, like,
40 minutes, or whatever, and then we got to
play on the Saturday or the Sunday
for the boys club and go away with them,
and just mixing with other guys
who were decent footballers, you know?
I just loved entertaining.
You know, there's no better feeling than just
trying to putting a smile on someone's face.
When I scored, I remember all the parents
cheering and all that, you know?
And that was a great feeling.
I've got the winner,
so I thought, well, you know,
how good it would be to do that
in front of, like, the Gallowgate End,
in St James' Park.
Growing up, Keith, who was my best mate,
I used to be at his an the time.
His mum, Maureen, was a lovely woman.
His dad, Harry, was sound, you know,
he always watched Keith play
and he used to have a car and he used to
take you to the matches and that.
I just felt like I had two families at that age.
You know, I was fortunate.
And me and him used to go
to Redheugh Boys Club,
and his little brother, Steven.
One day, his mum says,
"Look, Keith, take Steven."
And he was eight,
and you know how brothers are
and he went,
No, I'm not going if Steven's going."
And she went, "Paul, will you take Steven?"
I went, "Yeah, I'll look after him."
But I was only 10.
I was only 10.
So I'm taking Steven. Must have been
about 300 yards up the road, 200 yards.
And we went in the shop and
I said, "Quick, let's run,
and then we run out of the shop
and he was ahead of me by about a yard
and a car hit him.
It was horrific. He must have went
about 30 yards in the air,
about six foot off the air
and just stayed that level
and shoes come off, he was hit that hard.
I ran down the street,
knelt down on my knees,
and put him on my lap,
and I was just seeing his lips moving a bit,
and I want to talk, so I'm, like,
"Come on, Steven, you all right?"
And I seen his lips moving,
not knowing that was his last movement.
And I was stuck with this and I...
He passed away.
He didn't move, obviously,
and I was just, like, screaming.
"Help, Help," and this guy
wouldn't get out of the car.
And then I just seen
his mum coming, Maureen,
she come running over and I was like...
You know, I think that was my first funeral,
and it wasn't, wasn't nice.
I was only young and I didn't
I didn't know how to take it.
I remember Keith
coming upstairs and he went,
"Come on Paul. It's okay.
Give him a cuddle,"
and then pulling, lifting him out of the coffin,
and kissing him and saying sorry.
He got cremated,
and afterwards, like, Keith says,
"Come and stay with me for a while."
And I stayed in the room where the coffin was
for three days
and that wasn't too good.
You know, I just, I didn't even sleep.
Just wide awake. Just, you know,
keep looking all the time, thinking,
"That's where the coffin was."
And then after a few days,
I went back home, you know?
But she was affected for a long time,
Maureen, I know that.
You know, I remember her getting tablets
to make her sleep.
She couldn't sleep, you know.
I don't blame her. Losing her son.
Obviously Harry had to stay strong
because he was obviously the father.
But then sadly both of them
passed away, you know, with cancer.
Which I found out,
which was quite upsetting.
So I never really got to buy her
that kettle I owed her,
because I blew her kettle up.
When I put the kettle on
there was no water in.
So she always remembered,
"You owe me a kettle."
I remember afterwards,
I started developing twitches like...
Making stupid noises
and I couldn't get rid of flashing like that.
And then my mum took us to a psychiatrist
and he wanted to play with sand.
And I just went, "Mum, don't take us
back there any more. And she didn't.
Um, so I don't think I started
psychiatrists early.
But we used to laugh about it, my mum,
and my brothers and my sisters.
I wouldn't do it and then all of a sudden, like,
my sister would come by
and she went "Paul..."
And do that
and that would set us off again.
Mum, she's doing it again."
All the time I was playing when I was 14,
I was just waiting for Newcastle, really.
Fortunate for me, it happened, you know.
But I had to put in the work as well.
Ii wasn't easy.
Them days, we had to get in early.
Put the kit out for the professionals.
If they wanted a cup of tea, make the tea.
Then we'd have to clean the balls.
At that time, the manager was Arthur Cox.
Tough cookie.
He used to put the team sheet
up on the Friday,
who was playing on the Saturday.
And I touched the sheet.
And I went, "Look, it's a certain..."
I think it was Neil McDonald.
Because he was a good player
and he was young, and that.
And I went, "Neil's playing,"
and I touched the sheet,
and he nearly took my ear off.
He smacked us right across the ear.
And he went, "Don't touch that f-ing sheet
until you're on it."
So that's what it meant to be
a professional footballer
and I thought, "Shit, I'm in trouble."
Yeah, and I was panicking.
So I thought, I'll make him
a cup of tea and that.
Polished the cup and made it perfect for him,
and then I took it in with my hands
around the rim.
Went to give it to him
and he took my head off.
You know.
Don't f-ing touch the top of a cup
where I've got to drink from' my son."
And he'd just put his feet up
and lie back in his chair.
So I had to go make him another one
and I made sure it was all done perfect,
and, you know, I made sure
I never touched that sheet again.
What are we doing? Are we standing out here
or are we going inside, or what?
- Going in, I think.
- Haven't been in, yet
I was just in awe of the man,
with England in 1966.
And he comes to the club
and I wasn't really in the youth team.
I was sub in that.
I wasn't really getting that much of a game.
You know, after I finished training,
go home and had a light bottle of pop,
fish and chips, and a bag of Minstrels.
And he pulled us aside and he went,
"Can I have a word with you?
I was, like, "Oof."
I was shaking a bit and I went, "Yeah."
And he went, "Yeah, you're a good player."
I went, "Yeah, I am."
He says, "How long have you
got left on your contract?
I went...
I said, "Yeah, I've got a couple of years."
And he went,
No, you've two weeks, you fat bastard.
You better start losing weight."
You know, I would like to think
it was puppy fat at 17.
Sixteen and a half to be fair...
Yeah, I was sixteen and half and then,
I stopped the Minstrels,
I stopped with the Coke, bottles of Coke.
Yeah, and I got weighed every day.
It worked, you know.
I'd been hardly playing for the youth team.
Within a month
I was captain of the youth team.
I was captain of the reserves.
And took them onto...
We got to the Youth Cup final.
Jack Charlton, he went,
"What are you doing tomorrow?"
Sort of thing, this was a Friday night,
after the game.
And I went, "I'm just gonna go back.
Just chill out, you know."
And he went, "I would like you to play
for the first team tomorrow."
And that was my start of my career.
Once I started playing for Newcastle,
it was...
The feeling was,
the buzz was incredible, you know.
Playing for your hometown, and that.
And then eventually, you know,
one minute you were looking at
the Gallowgate and seeing
the fans roar and that,
and then eventually scoring
in front of them, you know.
The feeling was amazing. It was fantastic.
Like, "Wow," just thinking,
"I've scored, I've scored.
"I'll tell me Dad. I'll watch it
on Match of the Day, "you know.
Then you hear the fans singing your name,
you know.
It's unbelievable.
Well, it's goals like that which have made
Paul Gascoigne, or Gazza,
as they all know him, a real hero
to the people who stand
on these terraces at St James' Park.
He looks like the kind of footballer
who plays for the local Sunday pub team
until you see him play, that is.
The reason the supporters really
love Gazza is he's one of them,
T-shirt, anorak and jeans
and a diet of Mars bars and brown ale.
You won't find it in the coaching manuals,
but when you can score goals
like he scores, who cares?
The first time I heard the name
Paul Gascoigne,
was when he was in
his early days at Newcastle.
People in the game started talking
about this young man
that had something a little bit special.
He was a precocious young talent.
A kid that would do things,
that would take people on,
that would beat people,
and had an unbelievable natural talent.
I think it's about 35 years since
I seen a kid as good as what this lad is.
And I just cannot believe the skills
of him, he's got everything.
Everything. Sticks out a mile.
And he'll tell you so as well, you know.
- He's a class... Confident.
- He's a confident lad.
There's no holding him,
he's the best in the world.
Honestly. The best in the world.
The manager would say, "Right, then,
"you're lining up against John Fashanu,
big, strong in the air
"and tough, and all that.
"Peter Beardsley, you're up against,
you know, this...
"Andy Thorn, tough guy,
good in the air, boom-boom."
And he just went, "Gazza, good luck."
That was all he said.
I was, "What do you mean, 'Good luck?
He went, "You're playing against a guy,
that... He's quite hard. Vinnie Jones."
Coming out of the tunnel,
he just fucking looked at us.
He strains his neck like that,
and he went, Me and you, fat boy."
I went, Shit,"
you know, and we're walking through
the tunnel and I just looked at him again
and he went, "What are you fucking
looking at? Just me and you, fat boy!"
He says, "I cannot play football
and neither are you today."
They could say that
Vinnie Jones is marking Gascoigne.
And he followed us,
everywhere. This guy was, just, like, solid.
It wasn't like he... He was just solid.
And he wouldn't leave us.
An amazing dribble.
Goodness, me... Whoa!
As the game went on,
I just felt a bit more, like,
confident and that, and I went,
"I fucking didn't bother with this guy."
And he started backing up on us
and so I, sort of like, gave him a push
and that's when he squeezed me,
squeezed me balls.
He really squeezed them so hard.
and I was like...
Honestly, I thought I'd lost
my family allowance.
We're going in the dressing room
and some girls sent us some roses
and I went,
That's nice, I'll give them to Vinnie."
So I went and I says, "Can you give them
to Vinnie Jones, please, from me?"
I went back to the dressing room
and then the guy came back, a young kid,
he went, "That's from Vinnie."
He was sending us back a toilet brush,
he said to go fuck off.
That was my first experience
with Vinnie, you know.
He's been a good friend since, like, you know.
I'd played for Newcastle
for a year and a half then.
And, you know, my name was getting round.
Glenn Roeder said, "Look at Tottenham,
"Terry Venables wants to sign you
at the end of the season."
And I just thought, well,
Tottenham is a big, massive club.
So is Newcastle,
but they were buying players.
When I spoke to Terry Venables,
he says, "One thing I can promise you,
"if you come to this club
I will get you to play for England."
And, you know, the thought of playing
for England, wow.
And then, all of a sudden,
Man United come in.
I thought, "Ooh, Man United,
Sir Alex Ferguson, you know.
The experience of the guy is phenomenal.
So I spoke to Sir Alex and I says, "Yeah,
"I'm gonna sign for you."
And he went, "Brilliant."
He says, "So I can go on holiday now.
"I've got the player I want?
I says, "Yeah, you go away on holiday,
"I'm signing,
and really enjoy yourself."
He went, "Cheers, son."
So I'm on the way to Man United and then
Tottenham said,
"Look, I tell you what we'll do,
"we'll buy your parents a house."
I'm... "Fucking hell. A house."
I ring my dad up
and I said, "Dad, you know,
I want to sign for Man United
"but Spurs has offered to buy
you and mum a house."
And he went, "What the fuck
are you waiting for then?"
Which was brilliant. I went, "Okay,"
and then he went, "Can you get a car for us?"
So I went, Hold on, Dad."
So I went, "Terry, my dad wants a car."
I was shitting myself and he went,
"Consider it done. "
So I'm driving up the motorway,
the phone goes again
I'm like, "No, it's family."
I went, "Yeah." It was my sister.
She went, "Paul, well,
if my mum's getting a house
"and my dad's getting a car,
I want a sunbed."
I went, "Hold on." So I ring,
"You know, the house is quite nice and that,
"and my sister's room is quite good.
"Is it okay if she can have a sunbed, please?"
And he went, "Okay, we'll get you
a sunbed for your sister."
And that was it, signed for Spurs.
The pressure was on.
Highest transferred player in the country,
2.2 million, you know, you look at it now,
some people get that a month.
But, for that moment, to go for two million,
the pressure was on.
Spurs coming
forward again.
This is Chris Waddle,
made a bit of space for himself.
Fine run by Gascoigne! Real chance!
Denied, he test his boot in the process.
But that is his first goal for Spurs,
and it was scored without a boot.
It was a sort of impudence.
Gascoigne... Wonderful!
He had great confidence.
You could see he played
for the love of the game.
Completely for the love of the game.
He didn't, obviously,
give it too much thought.
And he had this amazing strength,
upper body,
where he'd push people off.
Beautiful combination
from Gascoigne, and he's won out!
He excited you
on the pitch.
It mightn't have been the best of games
but he lifted everyone when he got the ball
and you could feel an anticipation.
Gascoigne taking
the ball on, and scoring superbly!
And did he enjoy that.
And you get fan mail.
The fan mail starts coming
thick and fast, you know.
I remember opening my first fan mail
and it was from Sir Alex Ferguson.
I said, "Ooh, shit."
He went, "I can't believe
what you've done, you stupid bastard."
Again, just, "You've turned
down the biggest club in the world."
He says, "You know, I turned down all
these Barcelonas, Madrids and AC Milan
"come to Man United,
You told me to go on my holiday
"and you sign for fucking Spurs.
It took him six years to get
speaking to us again.
I loved it at Spurs, you know.
The times I had there were fantastic.
The fun and the laughs we had, you know,
the team spirit was absolutely brilliant.
I mean, Terry Venables was
the only manager I could think of in this world
that could deal with us.
I remember halfway through the season,
the lads went, "I thought you do
crazy things, Gazza."
I went, "I am I do.
We'll do something tomorrow."
So I'm driving home and I pass a zoo.
And I just looked and I went,
That'd be interesting."
The guy's house was actually in the zoo.
I went to his house at 7:30 in the morning,
knocking on his door.
He went, "What do you want, Gazza?"
I went, "Can I borrow an ostrich?"
He fucking...
What do you want an ostrich for?"
I said, "I just need
to fucking borrow one."
Stick it in the back of the car.
Ostrich giving that with its long neck, man.
And I waited till the lads went out warming up
and I got the ostrich. I went, "Yeah, lads, look
at this new player Terry Venables signed,
"the gaffer's signed,"
and I threw it on the pitch.
And it was so funny because the lads
were doing side-to-side running
and this ostrich was doing the same behind.
I thought it was quite funny.
All the lads did
but the lads finish training at 1:00.
Have you ever tried
catching a fucking ostrich?
Honestly.
I caught this ostrich...
I got the ostrich back at around
5:00 in the afternoon.
I was knackered.
Well, the
training ground experience,
like anything else with Gazza, is always,
is always great fun.
A practical joker,
beyond the likes of which
I don't think I've ever seen,
before or after.
Didn't always know where the line was.
And would occasionally cross it.
Honestly, Gary Lineker has got
a woman's body.
It's so smooth and everything, honestly.
He could be, could have,
close to the body of a ladyboy.
We used to have
a guy coming along to training.
Nice chap. Do anything for you.
One day,
Gazza had brought in this campervan
and he'd gone and got
one of those parking cones.
He climbed up and he put it on the roof.
This chap comes out.
Gazza shouts to him,
he says, "Hey, just, do us a favour
"just nip up there
and get the cone off the roof.
"Somebody, somebody's put it
on the roof of my van."
So he went, "Yeah, sure."
So he goes and he climbs up
the ladder on the back
and he gets up.
And as he does so,
Gazza switches the thing on
and goes and drives out.
And now the fellow is hanging on this ladder,
on the back of this truck.
And he goes out of the gates at
the old training ground in Mill Hill.
Turns right
and there's a little mini roundabout
about 200 yards uphill.
He goes up this roundabout.
The fellow now is like Superman, horizontal,
hanging onto this ladder at the back.
It was the most dangerous but hilarious thing,
I think I've ever seen.
And he went around
the roundabout, screeched back.
Still somehow he hung on, thankfully.
Otherwise it could have been disastrous.
Screeched back into the car park. Parked it.
Everyone's crying with laughter,
and, as he pulls in, Terry Venables walks out
and he comes out and he goes,
"I don't wanna be seeing this really, do I?"
And he walked straight back in again.
I think if you just let someone
have their head completely,
it can go out of control
and you can blossom the person.
If you keep right on top of them, you stifle it.
It's the personality that he is.
I mean, he's a joy to have in the club.
The players like him.
You know, he's a kind fellow
and he's got a lot of heart and warmth.
Terry Venables was brilliant.
I think it was, yeah.
I think it was me 10th game.
And he says "Gaz, I need to see you."
He shouted it from his window
because his office is upstairs.
And I thought, "Shit, well,
I'm in trouble here. What have I done?"
And he says, "Sit down."
And he kept a serious face.
I'm going, "I haven't done anything wrong,
have I? I haven't?"
He went, "I've got some news for you."
And I was like, "Yeah?"
He went, "You've been picked
for England." Wow.
Feel like crying now, thinking about it.
I worked with Mr Robson,
and Mr Robson was really in love with Paul
and was permanently speaking
about his talent
and about the pleasure he had to coach
such a talented player.
He is a rare talent,
which we need to nurture and we need to
give him his head sometimes
and he needs just to be disciplined as well.
I don't think, going into 1990,
expectations were that high.
Obviously, England had underachieved
since '66, when we won the World Cup.
Inside the camp, I think we were,
you know, quietly confident.
You'd look around. You'd go, "We've actually
got a really good group of players here.
"We've got half a chance,
if things go our way.
In that World Cup,
there wasn't anybody that stood out,
basically, from the first game.
It was Cameroon versus Argentina,
with Maradona and that playing,
and Cameroon won, one-nil.
And you think, well, everybody's
got a chance here, you know.
The game against the Dutch
was the game that Gazza emerged
as being a genuinely world-class talent.
Gazza was brilliant. Unbelievably brilliant.
I remember him. He was chasing Ruud Gullit,
pulling his dreadlocks.
And he was winding Gullit up.
And he was going, "What? Who?
"Who is this kid? What's he doing?"
The one thing I used to love
about watching Paul play was
how he got the ball and he ran
at defenders with the ball and...
Nowadays you mightnt getaway with it
but he'd always protect himself
with his arms.
It's a great art to be able to do, and,
you know, to not let the defenders near you.
Gascoigne.
This is brilliant stuff from Gascoigne.
He was aggressive.
Very physical.
At the same time, very technical.
Fantastic characteristics that you need
to be a top football player.
Scifo went for it
and I sort of, like, tackled him,
but what happened was I
brought me other foot across
and sort of like tried to give him a whack,
a little bit, as well, and the referee's seen it.
The Belgians unhappy
with that, and Gascoigne gets a yellow card.
I forgot about the yellow card.
A couple of minutes left, I got booked.
I just wanted to give my all,
like all the players we had.
Give it all for England, you know.
It's a battle
against the clock here, for sure.
I was thinking what to do with the ball,
whether I was just going
to just try to whack it towards the keeper.
But then Bobby Robson, I could hear him,
and I dare not look at him,
and I can hear him screaming,
"Just chip it in. Chip it in."
You know, and...
Eventually, like, we got
Butcher forward and then,
then I did the worst pass in the world.
I chipped it to David Platt
and made him a player. Devastated.
Then I...
Gascoigne's free kick.
And Platt! David Platt has scored for England.
It was the explosion of different emotions.
It wasn't just the joy of the fact that
this was a last-minute, stunning winner.
It was also the fact that,
we haven't got to take penalties.
England, through
to the quarter-finals,
and Gascoigne's reaction says it all.
Afterwards, it was brilliant,
because afterwards, after the game,
we're all in the dressing room,
and diving in the bath
and doing somersaults
and everything, you know.
We were over the moon to get
through that one.
The atmosphere in the dressing room
was incredible.
Incredible because we were under
a lot of pressure in that game, you know.
Gascoigne calling for it.
Here's Stuart Pearce
looking long to the far post.
And David Platt!
We took the lead,
David Platt.
And then they scored two goals.
And it's one-one.
Cameroon, they're in the lead!
Whilst we knew they were a good side,
if we'd have come home, losing to Cameroon,
you know, they would have been
the first African side to make
the semi-finals of the World Cup,
we'd have been ridiculed.
You know, then
there's the little ball knocked into me.
I turn, got brought down. Penalty.
And Lineker scores!
And it's all square at two-two.
Often the only way you'd have a chance
of getting the ball off Gazza
was actually if he knew you had
no alternative but to give it
to him straight back, a little one-two.
Unless he was completely knackered.
Then you've got a chance as well.
A la extra time. Against Cameroon.
Quarter finals of the World Cup.
England much more
on top now.
This is Gascoigne.
That's a great ball to Lineker.
He's got away!
And he's brought down.
Another penalty, surely.
That pass there, which he was capable of
all the time but didn't do very often,
was because he couldn't run any more.
Straight down the middle!
England are back in the lead.
We were in a World Cup semi-final.
You know, we had done better
than any other team had ever done,
for England, apart from on our own shores.
Gascoigne has done
so much to pull England into the semi-finals.
And no one appreciates that more
than his manager, Bobby Robson.
England's footballers are preparing
for their most important game
since winning the World Cup in 1966.
They fly to Turin later today
for Wednesdays semi-final
against West Germany.
The night before the game,
the semi-final, was all, like...
I was rooming with Chris Waddle.
It was half past 10:00
and I was with Chris and I went,
"I can't sleep. I'm going for a walk."
So I was out for a walk and I just
heard some guys playing tennis.
So, it was two Americans, I went,
"Can I join in lads? I'll challenge you."
So I was working my nuts off
to beat these two Americans
and I hear, "Gazza."
And I just see Sir Bobby Robson.
I've ran. I've ran to my room.
About five minutes later
there's smashing at the door.
Sir Bobby Robson. Banging like mad.
"Open the door. Open the door.
Chris, where's Gazza?"
And so I looked at Chris, I went,
"Tell him I'm sleeping."
He went, "He's sleeping, gaffer."
He went, "Sleeping?
He's just been playing tennis."
And Chris looked at us and I went...
And that was it.
A little letter come through the door.
"I'll see you in the morning."
So I didn't sleep well that night
because I thought he was going to drop us.
Bobby Robson wanted
a team meeting, with all the players.
But he was late for the meeting.
He was always, he was always a bit late
and whilst he was late,
I, I put on this board
I put, "Even money, he mentions the war."
Then I put the sheet back down
and Bobby comes in
and he addresses, we're all sitting there.
And he goes,
"We beat them in the war."
It was his first words and it was just...
And then there was this uproar,
uproar, in the whole room
and Bobby's going,
"What's going on? What? What?"
So, I said, "You might wanna turn?"
So he turned it over and he went,
"You bugger."
The teams,
just about to appear
and the atmosphere here in Turin
is absolutely wonderful.
Huge support for both sides.
Huge anticipation.
The only thing you hear is just this
unbelievable noise, you know.
And the longer you're in the tunnel,
the worse it gets.
Try not listening. Put a deaf ear to it,
you know, because all you think is, like,
"Win this, and you're in the final
of the World Cup."
Which England haven't done since 1966,
you know.
I just seen the way the players had
passion in them there, you know?
They just stood up. Three Lions.
We were singing the national anthem,
and it was incredible.
The adrenaline was unbelievable.
I think that was one of my best games
for England.
Nearly scored in the first five minutes.
Gascoigne!
And he's close.
A bright start for England.
We were so... I didn't realise that we were
actually much the better side on that day.
Stuart Pearce.
It's a challenge,
and that's a free kick to West Germany.
England wall.
And this is Brehme.
And it was deected,
and over Peter Shilton.
Unlucky.
Parker.
Lineker forward, but somewhat outnumbered.
But he's stolen it!
And it's one-one,
and England's players and fans alike go wild.
Wonderful comeback.
That smile says it all.
What about that hug?
And then, obviously, the famous...
The second yellow card.
Gascoigne,
shrugging off a challenge.
And then losing it a bit and
stretching for it and that could be trouble!
And, honestly, if I look at it,
back at it, I honestly don't think
I even touched the guy.
He's took the ball and my foot, that's actually
supposed to have kicked him,
was behind his heel.
You know, I didn't seem to have made
any contact whatsoever.
And he's rolling all over
as if I'd, like, done him in badly.
The scream might have pissed me off
more than anything.
'Cause he screamed like a baby
and he's like...
So I tried to put my fingers in his mouth
and try and shut him up, and...
But obviously he's carried on squealing.
When I get kicked, I take it as a compliment.
That means they're worried
about us, you know.
I could never bring myself to rolling all over,
you know.
Especially where I'm from and that.
It's a yellow card
for Paul Gascoigne.
He's already had one in this tournament,
and his face tells the story.
He knows that if England get to the final,
he will not be a part of it.
All I kept thinking about with the card
was if I get to the final, I'm missing it
And I worked so hard to get to
where I was, you know,
semi-final of the World Cup and...
Then obviously the crying.
After a couple of minutes,
I just thought to myself,
give me all in the last 20 minutes
and get the lads to the final.
You know, if you have
a look at that last 20 minutes
I really worked my nuts off.
It'll be England's
first-ever penalty shoot-out,
and what a time for it to come.
A place in the World Cup final at stake.
At that stage, at the end of the game,
Gazza then goes,
"That's my World Cup over.
"That's, so, you know, that's it.
"Whatever happens now,
I'm not going to be playing again."
When Sir Bobby
come up on the pitch,
you know, he hugged us and he went,
"Look at you, you've done me proud,
you've done your country proud,
'you've done your family proud,
your club proud, your manager proud. "
And it was really nice of him to say that
you know, and come up to us.
But I just didn't feel right to take a penalty.
Between him and Bobby Robson,
they decided that
perhaps it was best that he wouldn't take one.
I wish he had.
The overriding feeling that you get
from scoring a penalty in a shootout
is one of relief.
You know, "Well, it ain't gonna be my fault."
Which is a terrible thing to say but, you know,
we're human beings and, you know,
the one thing you would never wanna do
is be the person that misses
the penalty that will be shown forever more.
You know, you don't shed tears on
a football pitch if you don't care
about playing for your country.
It was incredible, really.
If I'm sitting here now, saying to my children
or explaining about Paul Gascoigne,
I'd say he's probably
the most exciting English player
I've seen and certainly the best.
There was loads of tears
in the dressing room.
I've never seen anything like it, you know,
and we're all sitting there in tears
and waiting for Sir Bobby.
And he went, "Look here, guys,
you've done me so proud.
You know, well go out and we'll have,
we'll enjoy ourselves tonight."
Then he was welling up and everyone,
when the players, I suppose,
when they seen him welling up,
you know, everyone joined in with him.
I mean, it was...
I would never have that feeling again.
You know, I have had great
feelings in my career but that,
that certain moment where it was that close.
I mean, a penalty kick.
Twelve yards away from getting to the final.
We're on the plane and when it come
to land, Gary Lineker come up to us.
And he went, "Paul, be careful,"
And I didn't have a clue
what he was on about.
Be careful for what? You know.
I think it lifted him from being
a great footballer
to, almost, a national treasure,
a great personality.
It was the moment that a nation cried
with an English footballer.
We want Gazza!
We want Gazza. We want Gazza.
I don't think I'll ever
witness anything like that again.
You know, when you're getting
a crowd like that singing your name
and I've had it at Wembley, when
there's been 80,000, but 120,000..
I remember Peter Beardsley
coming up to us on the bus
and he went, "This is for you, you know?
This is for you." And it was like, wow.
It's one of them things where you
just couldn't take it in, you know?
One was just playing for England
in the World Cup.
Er, but actually taking it all in, it was hard.
And when I got home, my dad had organised
a party back at the working men's club,
and had a party in there.
Which was brilliant, being back
in the hometown, you know.
And I always remember...
There's a...
There's a bit the next day, after the party, I...
I went up to the...
Local park and it was empty.
And I just stood there myself
and just thought, "This is where I come from."
Stood there for an hour, you know.
it was a touching feeling to say,
"I come from this town
and I played in the World Cup."
There I was, years ago, just a young kid
running about with a tennis ball
and come back.
Twenty-two heroes out there,
and I was one of them.
The tears that owed
on that summer night in Italy
have swollen since then into a flood
of national adulation.
Paul Gascoigne is Gazza.
Gazza is at the centre of Gazzamania.
Fame and the trappings of fame,
on and off the football field, are his life now.
Do any of youse girls wanna do it
in News of the World?
You gotta come to bed with us.
It's one of them things
I don't think you could ever get used to,
even to this day.
Just everything was coming thick and fast
and even the money.
The holidays, and taking the family
to Disney World. Things I'd only dreamed of.
But sometimes it was, like, 7:00 at night,
I'm sitting outside in the summer
having a beer or whatever
and there are old ladies coming up
and prodding us on the chest,
"What are you doing'?
"Go home. It's 7:00 at night, it's bedtime."
Yeah, so I couldn't do anything.
I couldn't move anywhere.
It was just becoming daft.
How could I handle it?
I couldn't really handle it.
I was living on my own in London.
Love you, Gazza!
- Love you, Gazza!
- All right.
I'm sure!
Look, I was gonna say to you.
You're in a position that most young men
would say is a dream.
Erm, but from my perspective,
having experienced a tiny piece
of the kind of attention you're getting,
it could turn out to be a nightmare,
you know?
Could be, but I'm trying my best
not to let it turn out that way.
The same newspapers
that are building you to the skies,
and hyping you up
are also trying to give you advice.
Say things, "Will this young man
be able to handle all that attention?"
Yeah, they're building me right up.
It's unbelievable
and I can't believe what's happening.
Like I say, they're at the end of my road,
they're outside my house
with cameras, and everything.
It's really... It's frightening, really,
because all I wanna do
is just live my own life.
It's when I found out how bad
the press can be.
Once you're famous, people think it's great.
It's not.
There's only one way to go then
and it's down,
and the press try their hardest
to put you down.
They were writing anything. Just anything
they could, and most of it was lies.
I started drinking,
which was the easy way out of it.
It's just, you know, how can you...
You know, it's just one of them...
Well, how can you adjust to that?
I did a piece in the News of the World
saying it was okay for people with asthma
to do sports,
and it was a big spread
in the News of the World,
as long as you used this asthma thing.
My cousin, my dads brother's son,
he was only 12 or something like that.
I remember him ringing us up and saying,
"Uncle Paul, this thing I've just read
in the News of the World.
"I've got asthma,
is it okay if I go play football?"
And I went, "Yeah, as long
as you use it properly.
And he went out and I got a call
20 minutes later, he died.
That was really hard to take.
And then I found out
he went and played football
but he didn't take his asthma thing.
It didn't make things any better.
But I think if I hadn't have done
that piece in the News of the World
and he hadn't seen it, maybe,
I think, he'd have been all right, you know?
And then I was having sleepless nights again.
A couple of ticks come back.
That's the only time I started realising that
the 90 minutes on the football field was me.
I was alone and in the zone,
and no one could touch us.
If I had problems, then I went on the pitch
for 90 minutes and they went.
But after the game finished, then they come.
Never be left alone with your own thoughts.
That can be dangerous.
The Spurs and England footballer
Paul Gascoigne
is reported to be on the verge
of joining the Italian club Lazio.
Talks are taking place in Rome
between representatives of the two clubs
and if the deal goes through,
Gascoigne's expected to become
the richest player in the world.
I always knew in the bottom of my heart
I always wanted to play in an FA Cup final.
All I ever wanted to do
was walk up them stairs being a winner.
Yeah, I really wanted to do that, you know?
We managed to
get through the FA Cup,
mainly because of Gazza,
to be perfectly honest.
He almost single-handedly, sort of,
thrust us through to the semi-final.
I mean, there are various derbies
around the world.
They're all hugely significant
and mean so much
to the supporters of those clubs.
It's the game that really counts,
and in North London, it's no different
Arsenal were unbelievably strong
at that stage.
They were running away with the league,
everyone thought they were
gonna do the double
and we went into that game
as huge underdogs.
Paul Gascoigne,
out of the keys for Tottenham
and he's really up for it.
Back to Gascoigne.
One way, and then the other.
Neatly done.
And a late challenge brings a free kick.
When you're actually
lining up for a free kick like that,
I'm thinking what to do with it
when all of a sudden, Gary Lineker,
he comes up and he just said, "Have a go."
I went, "Okay," and he ran past.
Is Gascoigne going
to have a crack? He is, you know.
What a goal! Brilliant!
The FA Cup springs mad, magical moments.
I think that's what makes it so special.
To get it over the wall and into
the top comer from so far out is...
It's nearly impossible, really.
You've probably practised that,
that week, 30, 40 times,
and maybe score one
from the same situation.
But it's when it happens in a game,
it's just pure excitement.
It's an unbelievable goal
and still probably one of the best
FA Cup goals to this day.
It's Tottenham Hotspur's day,
to the delight of Gary Mabbutt,
and what an inspiration
this man has been to them
with that wonderful free kick.
They'll be back for the final.
I'm now away to get my suit measured. Yes!
What about
your start to the game?
It wasn't bad, was it?
I must go.
I think all young lads from England
will dream about winning the FA Cup.
It's something which I still dream of,
to be honest, I've never won the FA Cup
and it's such a historic trophy.
Really, it was my first final.
Missed, obviously, the World Cup final.
In the times at Newcastle, I never got
to any final So, this was my first final.
You try and take in as much as you can
because you never know when
you'll play in another one.
We all lining up and we're seeing
Lady Diana come on the pitch
and she came up to us and I went,
"Can I have a kiss, please?"
And she put her hand out, she got
a bit embarrassed, and I kissed her hand.
And a couple of the lads were laughing.
It was the first time I played a match
with a hard-on. It was unbelievable.
Forest,
attacking down the left.
Gascoigne tries to turn...
That's an awful challenge.
The tackle, I've come, I've went through
the ball and I've lifted my leg high.
He didn't even book us, the ref,
Really sometimes in hindsight
I wish I'd have been sent off for that.
Forest coming forward
again, trying to find a bit of space.
Gascoigne coming across...
That's a dreadful challenge!
And he looks to be in agony.
I'm off balance and I've just tried
to put a massive tackle in.
That was it, knee just went
and I just went down and I knew I was out.
Terry Venables,
understandably concerned.
And Gascoigne is carried off.
His Cup final is over.
John Sheridan come into the physio bit
at Wembley.
He had tears in his eyes
and when you see somebody
that cares for you so much and seeing
tears in his eyes, it was like, "Shit."
"So how long am I going to be out for?
Three weeks?" He went, "No." I went, "Shit."
I went, "Three months?" He went, "Nah."
I went, "Six months, then?"
He went, "No, you're going to be
out a year." I burst down crying.
To know that you've done
something really serious,
to be in a hospital room
watching your team lift the FA Cup.
I...
I can't begin to imagine the emotions
that were going through his head.
That was it. Once I seen
Gary Mabbutt walk up the steps...
Lifting up the trophy.
That destroyed us, that,
because that's an I wanted to do.
If I could have done that, it's just, like,
l wouldnt be bothered if
I played another match.
I wouldn't have been bothered.
And to miss out on that...
It was unbelievable.
And I went, "Could I have a sleeping tablet?"
So I'd go to sleep.
And they went, "Just wait a bit,"
and I didn't know what was happening.
Then, all of a sudden,
about two and a half hours after the game,
the door smashed in.
It was Gary Mabbutt with the FA Cup.
The team come in. Some of the players
were with their wives and that.
I was like, my eyes must have been
red as fuck, just crying.
And...
And then they went, "All right, Gaz,
we gotta go back to the party."
I was, like, to the surgeon, "Please just
plaster me up and let us go to the party."
He went, "Paul,
it's either the party or your career."
You think, "Am I going
to be the player I was?"
And I just wanted to get back playing again.
I had to. I had a big move on.
Spurs were making money from us.
I had an opportunity in playing abroad.
And that's all I knew, football,
I mean, two and two comes to five.
No, that was all I knew, football.
When you're in a room, when you're
working on the machines and all that,
and you're seeing the lads out in the field
kicking the ball about and having fun,
it destroys you a little bit
and sometimes it felt a bit lonely.
It wasn't too good.
Just me and the physio, you know?
Constantly training.
Because when you're injured, you
have to train twice as hard as other players
to get back to match fitness.
It was on the Friday and Terry Venables said,
Paul, you can join in with the team now,
on Monday. And I was so excited.
I went up to Newcastle to celebrate
with the family.
I'm training on Monday with the team.
We're in a nightclub when a guy
went past us deliberately and nudged us.
And he went, Are you Paul Gascoigne?"
I went, "Yeah,"
and he banged us right in the chin
and I fell on my kneecap.
I went to the hospital and I said,
"There's something wrong with my knee."
You know, when you press your kneecap?
I pressed my kneecap in, it wasn't there.
I had no kneecap.
I had to sit on the settee for three months,
just with my leg solid straight.
If I had any chance of making it again.
So I had to wait another six months
Gazza. Gazza, welcome.
I've never seen anything like that.
It was crazy.
Nineteen bodyguards, either side of us.
They couldn't stop them back
and they were throwing scarves at you,
trying to squash you.
It was really scary.
They're obsessed with football, full stop.
lt is one football country, that.
It's incredible.
It was the highest paid transfer made in Italy
and they made a massive thing of it.
Once you're idolised by the fans,
it's non-stop.
Back in England you'd get maybe
20 or 30 watching training.
In Italy, they surrounded the pitch.
Surrounded.
You couldn't do anything about it.
And if you did,
if the team played bad,
they would shake the fence. Go off it.
They'd really go off it.
And some of the players I could see,
they all had good wages
but they all had little banger cars.
And I'm like,
Why you got little cars like that?"
Because I realised when you played bad,
you'd drive past them
and they'd smash, and bang,
and kick your car and everything.
Yeah, it's like that. It's intense,
The players put the panics up us.
They're going, "Shit, Paul,
"if I lose this, I won't be able
to go out for weeks."
That's what it was like.
Come to the kick-off and it was like,
then I got nervous.
It was the first time really, in a game,
when I got nervous. Got to win this game."
And then, obviously, the game kicked off
and we're getting beat one-nil.
Then we got, obviously, the free kick.
And I went over to take the free kick
and Beppe Signori says,
"No, you get in the box." I went,
"No, I don't score many goals with my head."
I said, "You get in the box." And he went,
"Well, I'm only fucking five foot."
So I was like, "Okay, I'll go in the box."
And by the time I got in the box,
he was ready to take it.
It was incredible. It was like, wow.
You think you just won the war.
I could have lived on that goal
for a few years over there. It was brilliant.
I scored the first goal in a Roma derby,
105,000 people there.
It was a phenomenal feeling.
Really was, it was incredible.
- Gazza!
- I love you. You are my God.
- You are my God.
- Thank you.
You are my God.
"You are my God."
I played against Maradona once in Seville.
And I turned up for the game. I went, "Diego.
I said, "I can't even really play,
but I'm a bit drunk."
He went, "Gazza, so am I."
It was funny as fuck.
We started the game and I got the ball
and I'd beat five players
and smashed it into the bottom corner.
I always remember afterwards, I went,
Do the press conference, please'
"I'm in trouble."
And he went down, "So am I."
And I think we both got fined
about 40,000 each.
In Italy, we trained twice a day.
It was phenomenal. So hot.
Their warm-up was like
our training session in England.
For instance, if you get beat one-nil,
the president would come in and say,
It was crap today.
"I'm sorry, but you won't be
going home tonight after the game.
You'll be getting straight on the bus
and shooting off for three days.
And he'd take you and he'd have
a training camp and run you.
We played this little five-a-side game
and I let the guy go past us and he scored.
And Dino Zoff went mad on
a couple of players and I went, "Hold on.
"Are we playing serious here?"
I said, "You want to play serious?"
I went, "Okay, then."
And Nesta, he was a young kid
and the ball come
and I went for a crunching tackle
and I missed and I hit his calf.
My leg was on the ground and when
he picked up my calf to have a look at it,
the calf and my foot and my ankle
stayed on the ground
and my calf came forward about an inch.
The worst thing is,
they didn't have any stretcher.
So they had to get four guys carrying us.
So when one was walking forwards,
the other one was waiting,
so my leg just felt like it was pulling.
I was out for a year.
I don't think there's any question
that the injuries that Gazza sustained
impacted his life both on the pitch
and off the pitch.
And the more time you spend injured,
the more time there is to get
depressed about matters
and perhaps to turn to drink or drugs
or whatever it is that does it for you
in those circumstances.
Especially his personality,
with his affection for the game
and his love of playing,
I think it had a real negative effect on him.
So I missed about
two years, really, in playing out there,
so I never got the chance to really,
before I moved on to Rangers,
to really show the fans
what I really could do, you know?
There's only one Paul Gascoigne.
One Paul Gascoigne.
There's only one Paul Gascoigne.
That time at Rangers was phenomenal.
Really, really unbelievable.
Because I had the press saying,
"He won't do it up here.
"He won't achieve anything up here.
He wouldn't this and that."
Unfortunately for the press,
we won the league, won the cup,
won the other cup.
So I didn't do too bad that year.
- The Celtic's crap...
- Rangers are the best.
Rangers are the crappest.
It's more hatred up there, its horrific.
You got the Protestants against the Catholics.
I've never witnessed anything like that.
The first match we had was, like,
a friendly against Steaua Bucharest
and I just remember the fans singing,
doing The Sash,
and one of the players said to us,
"This is The Sash,
this what it sort of means."
I didn't really take any notice
and I just remember scoring
and I just thought it was a thing to the...
The fans.
And then the next day
when I pick up the paper,
and the front page, "Gazza does The Sash,"
and then when I read what it was all about,
it was like, "My God."
The Protestants are allowed
to walk down this Catholic road
and it's been going on for years
and there always seems to be
people killed every year doing it.
And there's always riots
and bombs and everything
and I never really took any notice of anything.
And then I was just opening the mail
and I looked at it and it went,
"Hi, my name's such and such,
I'm from the IRA
"and I'm gonna kill you." Yeah.
It had his name, his address,
his two mobile numbers.
And I went, "Well, this guy is serious."
So I showed Walter Smith and he went,
"Oof, better get the police."
So two police come, undercover,
and they went, "Give us a look at that.
We'll go and see him for you.
And they ew over.
So I'm waiting for their return.
I'm shitting a brick I'm going,
Fucking hell, what am I gonna do?"
I waited three days
and then they come to my house.
And they went, "Right, we've seen the guy.
He is serious. He is gonna kill you."
Fucking hell.
So I went, "What are you gonna do about it?"
He went, Well, we can't do anything
until he actually flies over
"and we're not gonna sit and wait
at the airport, Paul,
"because it might take months.
So I'm like, "Oof."
And he went, "Here's a thing."
And it was like a little round thing,
about that big and I went, "Well, what's that?"
He says, Open."
Pulled it like that, and he went,
That's to look under your car for bombs."
So I'm like, "Shit, and then he went,
"Can you ring up your family
"and tell them all to board the house up."
Fucking beam the windows up and all,
in case they shoot through
the windows and all that.
For the first four or five games, I panicked.
You just wonder if someone's in the crowd.
You know, he can be anywhere.
He doesn't have to be on a football pitch.
He can be hanging outside your house.
It lasted for six months.
And then eventually
I got the letter from this guy
and he went, "Right,
"you haven't done it for a while.
If you honestly do that again, I will kill you."
And then it was okay.
Now I could relax.
England are assured
of a really tough draw already.
Now, would this be England in with Scotland?
It is. England against Scotland.
Scotland is not an international team.
Scotland. It's a mix of sheep shaggers.
Scotland have got a better
international record.
We've qualified for five World Cups.
All right? That's what we've done.
And what have you done?
You've only played five...
You've only played five games.
No! Not my pants.
The flak I took off of players three months
prior to the tournament was horrendous.
"We're gonna whop you one.
Stick it right up you."
I was getting that every single day.
And I'm saying, "We'll see."
Then I says, "You've gotta remember
I know how seven of youse play."
We had a little bit of a break,
the season finished with a break
before the championships.
We went to Hong Kong.
It was just like... I think it was like bonding.
We did a little bit of training.
It was a bit relaxing for a few days.
There was my birthday as well,
so it was like, okay.
And then Terry Venables says,
"Look, you go out for the night.
"Make sure you're back before 12:00."
And then we went out.
We went to this club.
It was like a theme bar thing.
And just looked over to see
what everyone was doing.
And it was like a dentist chair thing.
And you sat on it and then the guy
come behind you, a couple of guys,
and he pressed the pedal and it went back.
And obviously, if you open your mouth,
they pour cocktails down it.
I give it a go. I didn't get any fillings done.
But I got a few cocktails down my neck
and then Sol went,
and Teddy Sheringham went,
Steve McManaman, everyone.
There were about six who had a go, you know.
The press got a hold of it. Someone had took
a photo on their mobile phone,
and then obviously sold the photo.
That was unbelievable what the press wrote,
for one night out.
And I get hammered for it.
The headlines was like,
"Kick him out of the tournament,"
you know, "He's not right. Not ready."
Well, I just had a full season winning
medals and trophies at Glasgow Rangers.
All I had to do was just wait
till I start playing football again.
Back on the football pitch. Where I felt safe.
Was in the Euro. At Wembley.
England against Scotland.
And I took my wife to the game.
Which, normally, we don't do often.
My wife was pregnant of our first child
and she was pregnant
of something like six months.
And, um, and...
She was so upset with me because...
Because I made her walk so much
to get into Wembley.
But I think I couldn't have a...
A better game of football.
And Paul, in that match, was magnificent,
and he scored one of the goals
that belongs to...
To his fantastic history.
Forward to Paul Gascoigne,
who made a brilliant run.
And that's superb!
What a goal!
I still think to this day it's the most
iconic England goal of all time.
I think his vision, his creativity,
the composure, the skill.
Finishing it the way he did and then
the celebration as well,
I think it's all rolled into a fantastic goal.
Before the game, I said
to the guys, I went, "Listen, whoever scores,
"get on your back and pretend
you're doing the dentist chair.
"Someone get the Lucozade bottles
and squeeze it in you."
You know, just to wind up the press,
have a go back at them and that.
It was ironic that I scored it.
So it was perfect.
I think it was a case of Paul
just proving them wrong, which was a doddle.
It was just unfortunate
that it was Lucozade and not gin.
Because I would have played better then.
Who said to me that I never
had a laugh when I was drinking?
I've had great times when I've been
drinking with the guys.
Having a game of dominos and pool
and stuff like that.
It was when sometimes I sit alone
and I have a drink,
and then, that was when
I can be dark and depressing.
I just had bad little blips
where I'm not Paul any more.
I'm not Gazza. I'm not Paul Gascoigne.
I'm just, like...
I'm just alone.
Which I sometimes don't like.
I have been close to death twice,
I must admit.
But I managed to pull through
and it's an illness I have and...
I've probably got it for the rest of my life.
It's whether I accept it or not.
Sometimes I find it hard
and sometimes I find it really easy.
I know how to stay sober
and I know how to relapse.
I'm good at both, really.
Good evening.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal
started as one bad apple,
a rogue journalist or maybe two,
who'd taken their supposed
investigations a little too far.
Today, the dam broke.
A few years ago and something
happened with my phone a lot.
I remember calling my dad up
and we'll get cut off.
And my dad says
there's something wrong with his phone.
"Well, there's something up,"
and I said, "I wonder if I'm getting tapped."
Then I remember speaking to my mum once,
and it come out in the papers.
And so I went to my mum saying,
"What the fuck are you doing?
Why are you speaking to the papers?
"Mum, you're the only one I've told,
I've not talked to anybody."
And she got upset and she went,
"I haven't." I says, "You have."
I says, "Mum you are the only I've just
said it to. I didn't speak to her for a week.
And then I spoke to my dad
and then that come out in the papers.
So I went off...
Well, I didn't go off with my dad.
I just never went off on him.
I just went, "Dad, have you spoke
to the papers? Are you selling a story on us?"
And it was embarrassing for me to do that
and then I started drinking.
Drinking too much.
And then, I started getting paranoid.
I didn't speak to my family for a few months.
I didn't speak to anybody.
I just started drinking.
And that's the time when I took coke,
and this was about 11 years ago
and I was doing that.
And then I went to the spy shop
and I bought gadgets.
A lot of money's worth.
So I kept on ringing my family
and then I started speaking to the family
and I says, "My phone is getting hacked."
Someone's listening to
my conversations,"
and my family went, There's something
wrong with you. You're paranoid."
What I started doing was texting myself.
So I'd text myself and say,
"Listen, you C-U-N-T.
"I know what you're doing, you bastard.
"I'm gonna get the police on you."
And then all of a sudden
I'd make a call and it'd be free.
And then a couple of weeks later
it would start again.
I stayed indoors. Went to a hotel.
Got out of the house because
I thought my house phone
was getting hacked. I went into a hotel.
I started drinking in the hotel
for five weeks or six weeks.
My family come to me then.
They seen the way I was, the state I was in.
They wouldn't come. They were saying,
"You drink too much"
And the family weren't answering
the fucking door to us.
They were shutting the curtains,
in case I turned up.
Then I got sectioned, my sister sectioned us.
"He's crazy. The guy's went crazy."
And, to be fair, I think she saved my life.
And then I rang Scotland Yard police.
I went, "This is my number.
"Listen to every phone call I make
for the next six month."
And then bang, got 'em.
You know, to get found that I was right,
it was a great feeling.
You know, it was unbelie...
I don't think I deserved to go through that.
And nobody does. Nobody.
I mean, look at the damage it did
to Princess Diana. Where is she now?
I didn't want the damages.
I didn't want a payment from them.
I just wanted to go to court and tell the judge
exactly how much they've damaged me.
There's no question that Gazza is
one of the most-loved people in our country.
Yes, he's made his mistakes,
but who doesn't?
I think what made him so special
was the lack of fear in his game.
That he would try anything,
he would never be scared
that something would go wrong.
And probably more than anything else,
the love of showing off
the abilities that he had
and I think that's what lifts him apart.
In terms of overall, all-round player,
then I think none of them
can compare to Paul Gascoigne.
I trained with him a few times
when I was young and playing for Everton
and that was a great honour for me.
You could see the talent was incredible,
and it was great to watch up close
and try and learn from the greatest player
that England have had.
There was the one time at the...
He come in the dressing room
when we were in there, the youth team,
and he asked if any of the players
were going out later on that night.
So I was the only one who said I was.
So he gave me 40 to go out.
Again, it shows his character. What he is.
And I don't think there's any other player
in the Everton dressing room at the time
who would've come in and even
spoke to us as a group of young players.
I'll have to give him that 40 back.
He was what he was as a player.
He is what he is as a man.
200 miles per hour,
and when you go so fast, it's dangerous.
Obviously, his career could be even better
if he was supported in a different way.
The clubs, they are much more ready
to support players
and to bring players in the right direction.
But, in the end of the day,
I like always to think
that he enjoyed
every moment of his career.
So, I don't know,
if it was better to be even a better player
but don't enjoy so much
or to be what he was as a player
but enjoy career as much as you do.
I loved the buzz of going out
and hearing the roar
and they've singing your name, you know?
Give them a goal in the top corner
and you get the lads jumping around you,
and they're buzzing and shaking your hand
and It's just one big fairy tale
which eventually comes to an end.
Me and my life, I would
probably like to be remembered
for being the Paul Gascoigne
that people have met throughout my life.
I'd like to think the people around us,
I'd made them proud,
made myself proud, and everybody else
that was involved with my life, proud.
My mum and dad, especially.
Yes.
- Thank you.
- Cheers.