What an absolute tragedy, a life of extraordinary promise utterly ruined by tabloid harassment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016f03/gazza-series-1-episode-1

That’s reminded me it’s on my list of things to catch up.

Always felt he was a vulnerable personality who was set up to fail for the gutter press to exploit.

Yes, it’s easy to forget how great he actually was.

The tabloids didn’t help but he also had a desire to be “a lad” and an entourage who didn’t want the party to stop.  If only someone could have got him to cut out the boozing and focus on his career,  like Ronaldo for example.  (I know people tried but it was also the culture of professional football, at that time)  Imagine how different his career/life might have been.

Excellent documentary but tough to watch, at times.

Seen first episode, met him a couple of times when he played for Newcastle, and my brother caddied for him once at same time. Lively guy daft as a brush, but would today probably be described as vulnerable. I think his life would be very different if he was playing today. Above is correct hounded and a tradegy

I watched it and thought it was really quite good, and I’ve zero interest in football.

He’s a very vulnerable guy, who found himself with wealth. His ‘lads’ used this to their advantage and the gutter press plagued him. I once met the reporter who got his sister to sell the story, he had absolutely no remorse over it. As others have said he would get a lot more support now but sadly too late for him.

If you didn’t already despise Piers Morgan, Rebecca Brookes, Andy Coulson, Murdoch and the whole tabloid gutter press, then you will do after watching that. They didn’t care one bit about the effect their relentless harassment was having on him

Utter scum!

Fergie tried to sign him at United when he was younger and always said that if he had then his life could have been very different. At the time he was known to have scouts in all the clubs in Manchester and would turn up and literally physically drag the younger players out of there

Rebecca Brookes

Her duplicity was particularly horrific

Fergie tried to sign him at United

The Alex Ferguson documentary on Amazon Prime is also well worth watching – not about Gazza per-se but just because it’s a really good watch.

Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In

The Jack Charlton one on BBC is also worth a watch.

Another vote for the Jack Charlton one. Brilliant!

If you haven’t seen the Class of 92, then you don’t have to be a United fan or even a footy fan really to enjoy it. Its just a window into what seems a distant era now

Far from driving around in Ferrari’s, when they had started playing for the first team, only one of them had a car. Nicky Butt had a Ford Orion. Honda was a club sponsor so you were loaned a Honda Accord after you’d played so many first team games. Becks was considered to be a flash bastard because he’d payed the extra to have one with a leather interior

A different world!

It’s not even that the gutter press hounded him; they built him up to start with so they could then knock him down, because falling idols sell more papers. It was in their plan from the start, and anyone with any sense could see his vulnerability but that just made it easier for them (when Jack Charlton gave him his first contract he already knew what he’d do with it so put half of it into a bank account that he could only access after the end of the contract)

I was lucky enough to see him at SJP as a kid, and he is still the greatest player I ever saw.

It’s not even that the gutter press hounded him; they built him up to start with so they could then knock him down, because falling idols sell more papers

Its what made Piers Morgans comment even more contemptible:

“we build them up, they knock themselves down”

What a **** that man is.

and he is still the greatest player I ever saw.

When it came to natural talent, he was just on another level. That sublime goal he scored for Lazio which he says he doesn’t even remember? Bonkers

Imagine if a decent manager had got hold of him at a young age, kept him out of trouble and got him training properly. I honestly believe you’d be talking about him in the same way as Ronnie or Messi

This is still as unreal as ever, no matter how many times you watch it. The shear audacity of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzzqVNwx2U

What an absolute tragedy, a life of extraordinary promise utterly ruined by tabloid harassment.

I thought that there were other aspects of his life/persoanlity, that contributed to his downfall that were largely ignored by the documentary.
As much as I despise the press figures that hounded him, they’re unlikely to be entirely responsible for the unfortunate character that remains. I think it’s always been obvious that he’s a troubled individual, probably with attention issues ?

Still the greatest English player I’ve ever seen.

got him to cut out the boozing and focus on his career, like Ronaldo for example. (I know people tried but it was also the culture of professional football, at that time)

I reckon the move to Rangers was bad on that front there were a few noted pissheads on the books at that point.

I don’t think it was any better at Middlesbrough. You could say that about most clubs in that era.

I think United and Arsenal were a bit different at the time, probably after being the home to some pretty legendary pissheads in the years immediately prior to that.

So maybe if Fergie had have got him to Old Trafford? I’d bloody loved to have seen him in that squad

From Wikipedia:

Gascoigne promised Alex Ferguson that he would sign for Manchester United. Ferguson duly went on holiday to Malta, expecting to sign Gascoigne. On his holiday, he received the news that Gascoigne had signed for Tottenham Hotspur, for a record British fee of £2.2 million. In his 1999 autobiography, Ferguson claimed that Gascoigne was wooed into signing for Spurs after they bought a house for his impoverished family. Gascoigne in his autobiography states that after he was given his £100,000 signing on fee, he spent £70,000 buying property for his mother and father.

To be fair, as a man United fan I’d always have preferred Cantona if it was either or. If you look at his personality, personal tragedy and love of gambling I think even Fergie would’ve struggled. Just look at Ravel Morrison

Thought it was a brilliant documentary. Sad, but brilliant.

On the subject of documentaries, the Ali one is brilliant too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0bk0h24 via @bbciplayer

I think Trailmonkey has it. Yea the press didn’t help but he had a fairly flawed personality.
A friend of a friend was a youth player at Tottenham and he said that whilst Gazza was there he’d love to tackle the young players rather over-enthusiasticly. Was something of a bully at times. As they could not retaliate.

Yea the press didn’t help but he had a fairly flawed personality

As has been said above, I think by today’s standards he would certainly have been considered “vulnerable” to some degree, rather than it just being part of his personality.

If you didn’t already despise Piers Morgan, Rebecca Brookes, Andy Coulson, Murdoch and the whole tabloid gutter press, then you will do after watching that. They didn’t care one bit about the effect their relentless harassment was having on him

Utter scum!

Yes quite. I thought the way Brookes behaved was particularly contemptuous. Have watched a few programs like this recently (“killer nanny” or something) and the tabloid Journos reflecting back at what they did without any kind of regret/remorse really highlights what a blight they are on society.

Yea the press didn’t help but he had a fairly flawed personality.
A friend of a friend was a youth player at Tottenham and he said that whilst Gazza was there he’d love to tackle the young players rather over-enthusiasticly. Was something of a bully at times. As they could not retaliate.

Not saying it’s right but that was the culture at sports clubs, and probably still is to an extent. Toughen them up, see if they have enough ‘ticker’. It’s been written enough that even with experienced players, there’s a sort of initiation – Carragher and Gerrard used to absolutely hammer balls at new signings in training to see how they’d manage to control them, and would they wilt or stand up and give it back to them. Young cricketers of course will get a working over by their own quicks in the nets. And not meaning to defend but I don’t think Gazza would be bright enough to see that it isn’t right and not be part of that culture at that time, or to be the one that stood up against it and set himself against the culture of the day, when all he wanted to be was on the inside.

The tales are all over of him handing out pocket money to other players kids in the lounge after games. Of putting money behind the till in the newsagents for sweets for local kids that came in. Giving his sponsored kit away to the apprentices, The signs were / are all there – immense desire for inclusion, to join in, to be loved. Even the marching flute thing at Rangers – stupid thing to do, I bet he had no idea why it would be offensive but did it only to endear him to the fans (and they loved him for it)

I’m blindly biased; not to the point where he can do no wrong in my eyes but managed differently back in the day and who knows what he’d have been.

Not saying it’s right but that was the culture at sports clubs, and probably still is to an extent. Toughen them up, see if they have enough ‘ticker’

A mate of mine was a half decent goalie in the late 80’s/early 90’s. He had a few starts for the Motherwell* first team then quit football entirely because of the bullying culture. He had lots of stories about coaches screaming insults in his face, getting pushed around, slapped and having his hair pulled.

*I’ll head off the obvious comments about my use of the terms ‘half decent’ and ‘Motherwell’. 🙂

There are plenty of stories of that culture coming to light now – it really isn’t good and I’m certainly not defend it but that does seem to have been the standard normal culture and thinking back then. Loads of sports are flagging these kinds of sorry stories and it is really bad.
I suspect if you are in the thick of it and heavily involved you aren’t aware of it as it is what is done, but I’d hope many people looking back would be embarrassed about how they behaved and likewise, I hope all this is making current coaches/trainers/clubs/players across all sports look to how they can encourage and improve without such a bully-esque culture.

A friend of a friend was a youth player at Tottenham and he said that whilst Gazza was there he’d love to tackle the young players rather over-enthusiasticly. Was something of a bully at times. As they could not retaliate.

There were similar stories at his time in Glasgow, the biggest problem was that the management and team would stick up for him, instead of bringing him into line.

He was just self destructive, through mental issues i’d say more than anything else, but he did destroy his marriage, abuse his wife and do a hell of a lot of bad stuff that you just can’t write off, it’s the same with Mike Tyson, he had a horrific upbringing, was manipulated and used, then went to jail for a horrific crime, because nobody was there to keep him in check, the big difference is that Tyson nowadays looks back and has real remorse about what he used to be.

the big difference is that Tyson nowadays looks back and has real remorse about what he used to be.

How do you know Gazza doesn’t?

While we’re on the subject of both documentaries and now Mike Tyson, if you’ve not watched the Tyson v Bruno documentary on Sky then its an absolute must watch. A fascinating insight into both their personalities, the iconic fight and then a genuinely touching meeting between the two of them recently where they discuss it all and being open about suffering from severe depression

Love to see that but not subscribed to Sky.