For those who didn’t live through this halcyon period of Gascoigne’s life it is difficult to convey quite how popular a figure he became. An eccentric personality – which as it transpired may in fact have been an early warning sign of future struggles – allied to Gazza’s unique talent and swashbuckling approach on the pitch made him arguably the country’s most popular man. It would be unthinkable now for a Spurs player to be feted wherever he went, but that is exactly the profile Gascoigne could savour.
As evidence of Gazza’s widespread appeal, consider that the vast majority of football neutrals the land over – with the exception of Arsenal followers – willed Tottenham towards their F.A. Cup triumph in 1991. Rarely can one man have contributed so much to a team’s success.
Gascoigne scored twice in a 4-2 fourth round home win against Oxford United, both goals in a 2-1 win at Fratton Park against Portsmouth (one of those strikes on the South Coast was memorably described by the BBC commentator Barry Davies as a ‘Gazza humdinger’), and the quarter-final winner against Notts County.
In a Wembley semi-final against Arsenal it took Gazza only five minutes to score one of the best free-kicks ever struck at the famous stadium, or indeed anywhere, to beat David Seaman from 35-yards. The solo display that followed was pure Gascoigne as he dictated every second of Spurs’ 3-1 win.
The final of the competition, itself a wonderful match won by the Londoners, is best remembered for one of the saddest moments in sport. Hyped up to a state in which he could barely control his emotions or actions, Gazza committed two awful early challenges, the second of which on Nottingham Forest’s Gary Charles left the Spurs’ talisman with torn cruciate ligaments in his right knee. In that awful moment, the rare light that sparked in Gascoigne’s play was permanently switched off with the player nine days short of his 24th birthday.
A year away from the game followed before Gazza completed a protracted move to Italy’s then all-powerful Serie A with Lazio. The Rome side’s supporters never saw the true Gascoigne, but it is a measure of his captivating nature that when he returned to the Olympic Stadium last year as a guest at a European fixture against Spurs, Gazza was greeted with the reverence of a club legend. Gascoigne remains an idolised figure after only 43 appearances in 3 years at the biancocolesti, largely thanks to his happy knack of being able to delve into his extraordinary repertoire when required, and scoring a last gasp equaliser in a match against bitter rivals Roma.
There was still time for Gazza to enjoy a renaissance period. He was a key feature for England in the 1996 European Championships held in his homeland, yet at 29 years-old, regardless of still being in possession of gifts of which mere mortals could only dream, the indications were apparent that a life led incompatible with that of a top sportsman was taking its toll. Most tellingly, Gazza was centimetres from reaching an Alan Shearer delivery and winning the semi-final against his old nemesis, Germany. In the sixteen-and-a-half years since everybody who witnessed that moment must have considered at some point whether a primed Gazza would have nicked England into their first major final for 30 years.
During that summer Gazza actually scored one of the great international goals against Scotland, and played his part in arguably his country’s most notable performance of modern times, a 4-1 dismantling of Holland. Still, such were the standards this sublimely brilliant playmaker had set thoughts of what might have been lingered.
In 1996 Gazza was in the midst of three years playing for Rangers in Scotland. Against distinctly inferior opponents the trophies and personal awards flowed, as Gazza, and the Dane Brian Laudrup, ran amok. No matter, as he burst with his vitality and breath-taking confidence onto the English football scene few would have countenanced Gascoigne spending such pivotal years of his career in the footballing backwater north of the border.
When he came back to England to play for Middlesbrough and then Everton, Gazza was well short of his Euro ’96 form, but more pertinently a shell of the man who had wowed the football world eight years earlier.
There were still flickers of the old aptitude. While on Merseyside there was a cameo showing in front of the television cameras at Leicester City’s Filbert Street. The Observer spoke of Gazza’s ‘trickery, strength, and sheer impudence’ in January 2002. Those platitudes were bestowed though after a virtuoso appearance against Leyton Orient in the F.A. Cup.
Towards the end of Gascoigne’s time at Goodison there was talk of a spell in an alcohol rehabilitation centre. Gazza fruitlessly sought to prolong his career, desperate to avoid the one constant in his life, the one facet of an increasingly chaotic existence which provided succour from the hard realities of the real world, being taken away.
From Burnley, to Gansu Tianma in China, and back to Boston United Gazza couldn’t find the solace he craved.
There are many of us who owe Gazza a debt for making football even more magical than it once was. We should all pray that Paul Gascoigne can draw on the determined manner in which he used to bustle through a packed midfield, to find a way out of the latest opponent kicking at his heels.
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