Signed under the noses of Man Utd in the summer of 1988 for £2 million Gazza was already popular amongst football fans, and was seen as a coup by then Tottenham manager Terry Venables, who wanted to build a team around him. Gazza was in his peak a character, who was able to bridge the gap between football fans and non football fans. Compared on a regular basis with George Best and others he helped us reach 6th in his first season and 3rd the season after.
It was during the 1989-1990 season that he made his England debut, just before the World Cup in Italy that year, and this for me is when things started to change for Gazza. He had a brilliant World Cup, we started slowly but managed to get out of the group. Beat Belgium and Cameroon and then faced Germany in the Semi-final.
With the biggest game of his career in front of him he was booked and would miss the final if we got there. The tears flowed and an icon of the time was born. Coming home on the bus he wore that fat belly and breast vest, and you couldn't go anywhere without seeing his face. Singles were released, public appearances were everywhere and he started to go off the rails. This wont be popular, but its my opinion, Veneables should have stepped in and stopped it. The fact he didn't, for whatever reason, led to the demise of one of the greatest footballers we ever saw.
Gazza played out of his skin in the FA Cup that year, getting us to Wembley in the first ever Wembley FA Cup Semi Final between us and Arsenal. I will always remember his goal,as will many others, It was typical Gazza that year, utterly brilliant. Arsenal already odds on to win the league now couldn't do the double. It was one of the best days of my life as a Spurs fan watching that game.
The Final against Forest was shrouded in negative news coming out of White Hart Lane, Scholar (Ill save the full story for another blog) had almost bankrupted the club, and Venables along with Alan Sugar stepped in and saved us from bankruptcy, we were days away from going out of business. The downside to this was the announcement the day before the Cup Final that Gazza had been sold for £5.5 million to Lazio.
With English clubs banned from Europe due to Hysel if players wanted to play in Europe they went abroad. Gazza was going to be one of them. In that Final the occasion got to him and he lost his head. All the good he had done that season caught up with him and the expectation and press got too much. The signs were there but no one did anything about it. The rumours had started about his drinking, he was being followed by the press all the time and everything he did was poured over in the smallest detail. He was under the microscope and he cracked on the biggest stage in the country.
He kicked Gary Parker in the chest within the first two minutes and should have been sent off there and then but wasn't. It would have taken a strong referee to make that discussion and fair play to Roger Milford in not doing so. Gazza has since said he was given Valium the night before the game to calm him down, he was so pumped for that day it was an accident waiting to happen and just before half time it did. A missed timed tackle on Gary Charles and down he went clutching his knee. It was over. The Gazza we knew was no more.
Carried off on a stretcher, his move to Lazio in ruins, Gazza was a sorry sight. Lazio to their credit stuck by him and didn't cancel the deal, even after he broke his knee cap falling out of a night club. In my opinion going to Italy was the worst thing he could have done. Alone for 90% of the time in a hotel room his problems mounted. Burping into the microphone of the Italian press, telling Norway to Fuck off when interviewed on England duty, and the continual stories of his drinking problems and his subsequent marriage to Sheryl Failes, the allegations of wife beating and abuse that followed that.
Gazza was a lost soul and continues to be to this day. Hounded by the press that once feted him, yet now intent on destroying him at every opportunity they get, he is seen by some as a failed genius and others as getting what he deserves. Personally I don't condone his behaviour away from football, he has done some terrible things, but and to me its a big but, he was let down by the very people who should have been protecting him.
If Gazza had gone to Man Utd he would probably have had a completely different career. Ferguson wouldn't have tolerated the press intrusion and the hangers on and Gazza would probably have benefited from it massively. Coming to London at such a young age, being as immature as he was, the freedom that Venables allowed him, caught up in his own wishes of owning a football club, he let Gazza down.
The hangers on attached themselves to him and the great footballer he could have been was washed away down the drain with the drink and the women that followed. Trouble seems to find him where ever he goes. I feel Gazza just wants, as perhaps hes always wanted, is to be loved. He needs help now more than ever and I hope he gets that help and finds some sort of peace with his life.
Ill always remember the goal against Arsenal, the game against Portsmouth in the mud, the way he always said hello and spent time talking to me when ever I used to hang around the ground after the game. Ill always have the Teenage Ninja Mutant Spurs shirt he signed for me. That's the Paul Gas
