Gazza was the most naturally gifted English player of his generation. For a while he was the best midfielder in England, period. His workrate was (almost) always questionable, but then again the most naturally gifted players often are like that. England is still searching for a player to emulate him. Gerrard and Lampard are the best of this present generation, but they are differernt types of players. More direct, all action and dare I say, more effective. Gazza was certainly less of an athlete than either of them, but his creativity and genius blows both of them out of the water. At his best, Gazza was what David Beckahm always wished he could be. In terms of pure talent, Wayne Rooney is the only English player I have seen who is even in the same league as our Gaz was. In terms of Spurs midfielders, I rank him second, just behind Hoddle and just ahead of Ginola and Ardiles. In terms of all time greatest Spurs players, he would be in my top 10. But in terms of just my favorite players, Gazza is head and shoulders above the rest.
Gazza was the most talented English midfleider to wear boots. He was also a menace to himself and society; reminds me of the European adaption film of "The Longest Yard" where the prisoners are coached by an ex NT player by the name of "Mean Machine."
Absolutely top player. Along with Lineker and Italia '90, Gascoigne was my first footballing memory. When I played at school everyone would yell out "GAZZA" when someone did something nifty. The drink and domestic abuse was a very sad thing but he was a troubled man. They say there's a fine line between genius and madness, sadly he crossed over to the latter. Even though my dads a Scot (genius goal in Euro '96) and a born Celtic fan (crazy flute business) he rates him as the best player from this island. Reminds me of Maradona and Rooney, which is worrying as an England fan. Such a shame, beaten by himself
gazza was at spurs at a time when club football came to me pretty much through magazines and the sunday times only. needless to say, reading about genius can't really compare to seeing it. his idiocy, however, came through loud and clear in print. when i was fortunate enough to see him in action, it was usually with england; and with the exception of a handfull of fa cup matches (big ones, though), i can't recall ever seeing him with spurs. of course, those cup matches and world cup/euro matches were enough to show his genius. but if i'm honest, it seemed to come in flashes. i always tended to like linekar more, as he always seemed so much more steady. and in retrospect, i suppose when you're reading about (as opposed to seeing) matches, the only way to seem consistently excellent is by scoring alot. that said, even when i could see more matches, i found a player like sol campbell a greater asset than someone like ginola (damn, that hurt to type). to sum up, i guess i'd call gazza an embarrassing genius.
Similar situation at my school. I got called Gazza a lot. Except it was probably more due to the fact that I was a little tubby and had a bad imitation-Gascoigne haircut, than to any footballing prowess...
I'm much in the same boat. When I first started getting English league matches, Gazza had already moved on to Lazio. I was dissapointed I never go to see him apart from Italia 90. I will never forget seeing him cry during that loss to Germany. It is one of the most striking moments I've seen in football.
...I believe the Celtic fans took it as a offensive gesture due to their catholic roots, which go back to the issues in Ireland, which I really don't want to get into here.....each year there is a marching season in Belfast where the Protestant Orangemen march through the sectarian areas, the marchers are accompanied by drums and flutes....they felt that by him doing that he was blatantly showing a Loyalist symbol (by that I mean wanting to stay part of the United Kingdom) I don't remember the reason Gazza did it though, but I think he denied it being any thing to do with the sectarian issues between Catholics and Protestants.
...either way stupid gesture on his part, in an already hostile derby....he got into shit loads of trouble. It really was one gesture in a long line of stupid antics by Gazza, I think Dave say's it all with "i guess i'd call gazza an embarrassing genius"
He got told to do it by one of his Rangers team-mates, of course he didn't have a clue what it meant but he sure did after. After that incident he got death threats and even had to get people in to show him how to look for bombs under his car.
Funniest thing he ever did was nicking the Boro team coach when he was lashed and of course he crashed it. He was then sent home and was spotted crying his eyes out at stevenage train station. Hilarious. Great footballer, not so good at drink driving
Their are so many funny Gazza stories, i got his DVD and some of the stories people like Ally McCoist, Andy Townsend and Gary Lineker told about Gazza were just so funny. One of them was when Gazza and Chris Evans (Ginger TV presenter) were on the way to play golf in Scotland with Ally McCoist and Trevor Steven in Loch Lomond, they stopped a stop station and for some crazy reason Gazza got the golf clubs out and gave the keys to his car to a stranger and told him to drive it to Loch Lomond. That left them without a car, so Chris Evans sees a showroom and goes in and says what is your cheapest car, they ended up with a Mini, so they got this car and then went on their way to the golf club, they get to Loch Lomond but they never stopped, Gazza was saying "Chris has this car got brakes because if it has you better put them on now" Chris Evans replies "don't worry we'll have abit of fun" They drove straight into the Loch, Gazza was saying "Chris we're sinking" so he wound his window down and got out of his window then Chris Evans followed out of the window. They got out of the water and Gazza said "what are we going to do now" so they both went back into the water got their golf clubs out of the boot and started playing golf. And they wasn't even drunk. Another story was when he was at Tottenham, he stopped a bus down Regent Street and asked the driver if he could drive the bus, the driver let him, the bus was packed and Gazza had the bus singing "we're all going on a summer holiday" while driving down Regent Street.
The joint 1st greatest talent Britain ever produced (alongside George best) At worst he is 2nd but no lower I think hoddle,Charlton, dalglish,barnes,waddle are of a slightly lower category On his best days he was a merge between the technical brilliance of some of the best fantasista in history but with the work rate of someone like wayne Rooney I think with a natural career progression and some discipline Gascoigne was on course to be one of the very best players in history Possibly challenging for top 5 of his era