Paul Gascoigne: England CAN become world-beaters… but only if they start taking risks
Legend who Gareth Southgate rates as the Three Lions' last genius urges the current squad to start playing with freedom
PAUL GASCOIGNE has told England manager Gareth Southgate: “You’ll never get another me.”
After Southgate admitted the ex-midfielder was the Three Lions’ last football genius, Gazza told SunSport: “I’m not being big-headed but it’s impossible to be the next Paul Gascoigne.”
But here the former Newcastle, Tottenham and Lazio hero explains how and why he thinks England, as a team, can still become world beaters.
I WASN’T too surprised when I heard what Gareth Southgate had to say about me.
He was right, wasn’t he? I was the best.
There will never be another Bryan Robson.
There will never be another Pele.
And there will never be another Paul Gascoigne.
I’m the only Paul Gascoigne and I would never put that pressure on a player to be the next one.
It’s impossible. I’m not being big-headed, it’s just impossible.
I don’t think we’ll see anyone like me in the next 20 years. Unfortunately.
I knew how good I was and when I was on the ball, there wasn’t a problem.
Gazza: Gissa game, gaffer!
PAUL GASCOIGNE tweeted The Sun’s back page yesterday — and jokingly offered to play for England tonight!
Alongside the snap of our headline, Gazza wrote: “Cheers Gareth. I’ll be there tomorrow. Oh Gareth, I take a size 9, I’ll see what I can do.
“I’ll pop down and see you x good luck mate and thanks for the kind words mate x Wow. Love Gazza x.”
Following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Spain, boss Southgate bemoaned England’s failure to find a playmaker, saying: “The only one in my lifetime is Gascoigne.”
Asked about Gazza’s cheeky comeback offer, Southgate (with the midfielder at Euro 96, right) smiled: “It’s probably a little too late! But he was a wonderful player.”
For those 90 minutes on the pitch, nobody could touch me, nobody.
That was my own time. I just felt free.
Whenever I was on the pitch, all I wanted was for someone to give me the ball. Just give me the ball.
When I played, I feared nothing. The way to conquer fear is to face fear.
In my own half I treated the ball like a diamond. A big diamond.
Would you ever give a diamond away?
But in the other half, players mustn’t be scared to lose the ball. Gareth knows what I’m like. He knows I’m a fruitcake but it was really nice of him to say I am the only creative genius England have had in his lifetime and I’ll tell him that before the game when I pop down and talk to him.
I’m really happy we now have an English manager. Gareth has got passion. He’s got his own way of playing, which I like.
What I would say to the players is that if Gareth asks you to go out and play for England, you must go and do it. If it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t be playing.
Every one of those England players is a good player. If they want to become better, they have to be prepared to take a chance on the ball in the right place.
I guarantee if they take a chance and lose the ball, Gareth will not be upset or angry — he will encourage them to do it again and again.
What he’s upset about is that the players are not doing what they can do, the things he’s seen on the training ground.
When I was getting ready for a game, I didn’t turn up wearing headphones.
Two hours before a match I’d start talking to myself, telling myself what I was going to do, what I needed to do when I got the ball.
I always wanted the ball and made sure I was close to it — 15 yards from the right-back, 15 yards from the left-back, next to the central midfielder.
And I read my own players. I’d worked out where they would put the ball.
I played the match in my head two hours before it started.
I played for the shirt on my back. At 18 years of age I was on £25-a-week.
Nowadays, I see 18-year-olds on £50,000-a-week. And if you’re that age on 50 grand a week, who gives a s**t if you’re playing well or badly?
There was money in my day but I gave £1million to charity over ten years and never told anybody.
I knocked on people’s doors at 4am to give them £10,000 to go to Disney World.
Players have got to be footballers, to be prepared to have a little gamble in the right areas and not worry if they lose it.
England have been playing really well, good football and keeping possession.
But anybody can keep possession all day long. The last time I saw England play, I swear I’d never seen a goalkeeper have so many touches, far more than anybody else on the pitch. That’s not right.
They have to do more with it and excite the crowd, because all the fans want is to be excited.
And I excited them for years.
most read in football
All these young players, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard. James Maddison, Phil Foden, every one of them can be a world-class player.
But it’s up to them. They have to go out and show people. Play with a smile.
Why would you work every day of the week, train for five days for a match, then come the Saturday and not want the ball? You might as well just go home.
Gareth is trying to encourage the players to be the next me.
They won’t be me but they can become themselves. And once they do that, they will become better players.