PAUL Gascoigne, don’t die!
That’s the tabloids’ cri de coeur this morning as the Mirror (“GAZZA LOCKED UP FOR HIS WON SAFETY”), Sun (“QUIT BOOZE OR YOU’LL DIE GAZZA”) and Star (“GAZZA LOCKED UP IN ASYLUM FOR 3 MONTHS”), lead with news of the “troubled” (all papers) former England footballer.
It’s usually the job of columnists to lament the tragic decline of the footballing “genius” who rarely if ever spoke a sentient word, but life after the game is tough, and there is no shortage of former players lining up to kick start their media careers with a few words about poor Gazza.
Says the Mirror: “Paul Gascoigne’s old team-mate Gary Mabbutt told of his relief last night as the troubled star was sectioned for three months - adding: ‘It sounds extreme but it’s what he needs.’”
In the Sun, Terry Venables, who coached Gazza in the 1990s, “decided to speak out in The Sun in a bid to save his pal”. Says Venables, who once had a column in the paper: “Something had to be done. I can’t stand by and let it run until we all end up at his funeral.”
Indeed, if Gazza dies, what will the sports hacks have to write about?
Posted: 4th, June 2008 | In: Back pages, Tabloids, Wags & Players Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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June 5th, 2008 at 1:47 am
paul dont give up they is peopal out here that thnk about you and love you and rember you hsa good footballer but most of all has nice person we all thnk you aer ace and love you
June 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I don’t think it’s the case that people don’t care about him - I think it is more likely that since football was everything to him, because that side of his career is over, he has nothing else in his life and he can’t handle it. He always seemed a basic, down-to-earth kind of guy, who couldn’t really handle the fame and money effectively and didn’t seem to ever get the right kind of people around him to help, just a load of spongers and hangers-on.
People cared about George Best in the same way, but with him as well there seemed to be no-one willing or able to put him back on the straight and narrow - and we know what happened there…
What bugs me about it at the moment is the feigned sympathy of the press, who privately are rubbing their hands together and thanking Gazza for the newsworthy insight into a man’s downward spiral - voyeurism at its very worst.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:28 am
It must be a serious blow to one’s self esteem to realise that no one cares about you once you stop kicking a football around, that was the only thing about you that they cared about.
It makes one long for the days of truly amateur sport. A spare time activity which you did in the gaps between work. ‘Professionalism’ for which read commercialism will necessarily have its victims.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I loathed spurs but loved Gascoigne -
June 4th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I hope he finds a way.
Such a shame
Come on Gazza turn your life around and be a role model for others who fall by the wayside.