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In an exclusive interview with Techopedia, England legend Paul Gascoigne opened up on the highs and lows of his career and assessed the fortunes of his former clubs Tottenham, Newcastle and Rangers as the new Premier League and Scottish Premiership seasons got underway.
‘Gazza’ was in fine form as he recounted hilarious anecdotes like the time he ate Liam Gallagher’s steak and was sprayed with a fire extinguisher in revenge.
Gascoigne also lifted the lid on some of the legendary managers he played under and revealed that he has been told that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been lined up as the next England manager.
About Paul Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne, or ‘Gazza’ as he’s known to millions of fans worldwide, was one of the shining lights of English football across the 1980s and 90s, with performances for Tottenham Hotspur and the England national team catapulting him into a worldwide star.
He is widely recognized as one of the most naturally talented footballers of his generation. His passion for the game made him a favorite among fans, and his performances in the 1990 World Cup in Italy and at Euro ’96 won hearts everywhere.
Along with stints at Lazio and Rangers, he is also known for speaking openly about his struggles with alcohol and the impact it has had on his personal life.
Key Takeaways
- Paul Gascoigne, or Gazza as he’s known to millions, discusses antics on the pitch, in the dressing room, and on the streets…It’s rarely been a dull moment.
- Gazza shares humorous and personal anecdotes from his time on and off the pitch with Techopedia, as well as the evolving style of the game, and his thoughts on the players and managers of today.
- The England legend also shares his views and memories — from the feedback he received from Noel Gallagher and Elton John to his verdict on Wayne Rooney and Brian Clough.
- Show Full Guide
Gascoine on Tottenham & Ange Postecoglou
Q: Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, is he the type of manager you’d have loved to play under?
A: I’d never really heard of him but he looks confident though.
He did well at Celtic. He’s trying to bring the attacking brand of football back to Tottenham isn’t he? Yeah, we had that with Terry Venables. What a man to play under, he was fantastic.
They attack and that’s what Tottenham like. It could be they get beat 4-0 or win 5-0. He seems interesting, reading some of the interviews he’s done in the paper, he seems confident so he’s got to back his words up – or the players have to back his words up as well.
“I think you need to let the players go out there and express themselves, enjoy it. That’s the main thing.”
Now, so much of it is the papers and social media and you’ve got everyone on their phones and all that. The pressure is really on, especially at the top, it’s 24/7.
Q: Is it true you turned down Chelsea and Aston Villa to play for Rangers?
A: When I was leaving there (Lazio), I thought, ‘which teams are in for me?’
And he said, ‘Chelsea’. Well, (Glenn) Hoddle had dropped me for the 1998 World Cup, and he was manager there, so I didn’t want to play for him.
But I spoke to him and said how I wasn’t really interested in signing for him, because I was still fuming from the World Cup.
And then Aston Villa, I thought ‘well, Doug Ellis was the chairman’. He could talk until I could sleep. He was just driving me nuts when I was talking to him. ‘Let me tell you about myself’. It was all about him. I want to know about the stadium.
He said, ‘we’ve got the best pitch in the country.’ And I’m like ‘wow, but how much are you going to pay us a week?’.
And then I said to my agent, ‘I’m not interested’. Then he said ‘and Rangers (are interested)’. So I’m walking out, I said, ‘I ain’t f**king signing for Queens Parks Rangers’. And he went, ‘Glasgow Rangers!’
I turned around and went, ‘Oh! Get them over.’
“So I took a drop, a massive drop in wages and said I want to sign for the Rangers.”
I remember years ago, I was with my ex-wife in Tampa, and (Walter) Smith was there, and I went, ‘see that guy over there?’ I said ‘I would love to play for him. He’s the manager of the Rangers’. Then I had a drink with him.
And then four years later, he signed me! It was his son that told him. He said, ‘Dad, why don’t you go for Gazza?’ So you know, to go to Rangers, it was a buzz.
And the press were saying I wasn’t going to do very well. And yeah I loved it. I won everything in the first year. Players player (of the season) sportswriters (player of the season), scored a hat trick.
There was one pre-season I didn’t mind up there.
In the middle of Glasgow, they’ve got a horse (statue) in the middle of the square. They’ve got a cone on the top, and it’s right high up and I always wanted to get up there.
“I thought, ‘I’ve got to do this’. So it was one night, it would be ten o’clock at night, I had a few drinks and I was only on my own and I saw this guy coming up, I said ‘mate, give me a favour and toe me up on that horse’.”
So he throws me up on the horse, and I’m giving it ‘yee haw’ on this horse. And I managed to get down and went back.
Then, on Friday morning, the gaffer says, ‘Can I have a word with you in the office?’ I said ‘yeah’.
He says, ‘What did you do last night?’.
I said ‘I went to bed early, I’ve got training, it’s pre-season’.
He went, ‘are you sure?’
I said ‘yeah!’
He says ‘come in here and watch this video’.
He’s put the video, right, and you see me on that big horse, and he said ‘who’s that?’. I went, ‘not me!’
He said ‘well zoom in Gazza’, I said, ‘what? oh, s**t’. And he’s just pressed zoom and you see me. And he said, ‘who is it then?’ I said ‘I suppose it’s me’.
But I loved it at Rangers, you know. Sometimes I wished I’d have stayed, but Walter Smith was getting the sack and I had the opportunity to play under Brian Robson, you know, who was my idol.
Gazza & Life After Rangers
Q: So you didn’t feel that you stayed a bit too long at Rangers? You would have stayed longer if you could?
A: Yeah, if Walter was staying there, I would have.
Because, he said ‘I don’t think you’re going to get on well with the next manager’, which was Dick Advocaat. I remember saying to my gaffer, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be playing for him or drinking him!’
So I left, but I loved it at Rangers.
Q: You did have a brief dabble in management at Boston United.
A: Yeah, I was like a player-coach with them. The manager was Steve Evans, he was horrible to the players. I’ve never witnessed anything like it.
One guy, he was a centre half, a corner came over, he’s outside the box, he’s headed the ball from outside the box, the ball went just over the top corner, just missed the top corner to score.
And in dressing room he went absolutely off him, saying he should have scored that goal.
So he’s talking, he said to the other coach, ‘what do you think?’ Then the coach had a go at him. And then he said to me, ‘what do you think, Gazza?’
“And I said, ‘right, listen up, guys. He hasn’t got a clue, just try and play football and enjoy it’.”
So he didn’t like that, the manager and he didn’t let me train with them again. So I just left, yeah, I rang Gordon Taylor and said I’m leaving.
The fans were fantastic towards me. But it was like, I was getting on, and I was getting pissed off because I couldn’t really do the things I used to do.
I shouldn’t have gone to China, but I went there just to get away from England, but I only stayed there a couple of months, and then the sauce hit and I came back.
And then it was just a matter of just like, ‘right, Dad, what am I going to do now?’
“It was so funny. I said, ‘Dad, what am I going to do now?’”
He said, ‘you’re f**ked’. He said, ‘you’ve been in rehab, you’re f**king messing about. You’ve been drinking, you’ve done all sorts, been in trouble’. He said ‘I told you to get good publicity. You f**king messed that up.’
And then the phone went, and it was the FA asking me to be ambassador for my country.
He said, ‘that’s f**king impossible!’ I rang (Alan) Shearer, (Gary) Linekar and they said, ‘no way!’
The FA wanted me kicked out of Euro ’96 because of the dentist chair thing. There were seven, eight of us but I got all the stick. I could handle it though. So it wasn’t a problem.
And then I remember speaking to the FA, so I said, ‘what are we going to do?’
So we were going to Africa, supporting the kids and it was like me and 10 of the FA but in the back of my mind, all I kept thinking about was, the Euro ’96.
They wanted me to be kicked out, so we arrived there, and all I remember is dancing to the ‘Queen of Africa’.
They gave me this drink, it was lethal, so then we went on a safari and I jumped off the truck and saw a wild cheetah. I was talking about it as if it was a puppy.
I was on my way home the same day.
Memories of Early Wayne Rooney
Q: Speaking of other footballers that have gone into management now, Wayne Rooney, he’s down the road in Plymouth. How do you rate his chances?
A: Yeah, he had a chance at Birmingham, didn’t he, so yeah he had a good win yesterday, I think it was. He needed that after that (4-0 loss).
He looks like Captain Pugwash with that beard. Jesus Christ!
Well he’s got respect as a player anyway. He’s just got to earn respect as a manager. He’s started well, he’s not gone for a massive club with Plymouth. So he’s got a good foundation there.
And I hope he does well, because he’s a lovely lad, and a great player as well.
I remember when I was at Everton, I used to go and watch the under 21s. I went up there, and, you know, they were kicking off at 11 o’clock, so I got there. And Colin Harvey says, the manager he says, ‘watch this player. He’s 14. I’m going to put him on in a minute’.
“It was under 19s I think and he was only 14. I thought, well, let’s see what he’s like.”
God almighty, he got on the pitch, it was only 20 minutes. He scored two unbelievable goals. One was from 35 yards out. I thought, ‘whoa, he’s going to be good’.
Then the next thing, he was training with us at Everton. And I knew he was going to be an unbelievable player.
And he was lucky because he’s got the build as well, you know. Power, strength. So I knew he was going to be a world class player.
Q: Rangers’ stadium is not fit for purpose at the moment, so they’re playing at the National stadium, Hampden Park. That’s not ideal is it going into the new season?
A: Well, I remember speaking to the chairman, because they’ve got 53 (thousand) or something, they want to make it up to 80,000 or something.
And what happened is, because there’s so many houses around, that they wouldn’t let them build up. That was the first time.
So, it was clever what the chairman did. So it only held 30,000. He got diggers in, and you know the ground, he dug 20 feet down, and then put seats in that way, you know.
It was a clever way of doing it, but yeah, there’s been problems down there. Because it’s been the same for a hundred years, you know. Like, even the dressing rooms haven’t changed. And the tie, you have to wear a tie every day.
Gazza: When Musicians Attack
Q: Noel Gallagher said that Phil Foden is going to surpass Gazza in the next few years. Did that wind you up?
A: God almighty. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, that was one.
Snoop Dogg was the other one that had a go at me. Elton John, I keep getting these singers having a f**king go at me. It’s funny.
Snoop Dogg, I call him Poodle Head. And then Elton John, when I went to Italy, and I’d already seen him, he said ‘Gazza won’t do well in Italy. He shouldn’t be going there.’
And I had just done Fog On The Tyne. I’m number one in Newcastle, number two in the charts, and Elton John was number five or something in the charts.
“So I went to the newspapers straight away and said ‘well Elton, be quiet. Look, you can’t play football, and have a look at the charts as well.’”
Then Noel Gallagher having a go, God almighty, Phil Foden?
But I just responded and said, ‘Liam Gallagher’s a better singer than you’. Noel Gallagher looks like the guy from Thunderbirds!
Gazza, Liam & a Fire Extinguisher
Q: Liam is playing at Reading Festival this weekend. He was saying he sprayed you with a fire extinguisher. What do you remember about that?
A: Yeah, I was going home in a taxi in London. And the taxi driver said, ‘guess who’s in there?’ And I’ve never met him before. And he said Liam Gallagher, so I said ‘stop the taxi’.
So, I got out of the taxi. And I went to the third floor of Grouchos, where the restaurant was.
And I’m looking around and he’s sitting there, and he’s sitting there with a lovely big steak. And so he says, ‘Gazza sit down’ and he said ‘look, do you want anything to eat?’
I said, ‘no, I’m not hungry, I’ll have a drink, though’.
He said ‘I’ll go and get you one.’
So as he’s waiting for my drink, I’ve ate his steak. I’ve had it, right.
He’s come back, he’s said, ‘where’s my steak? Where’s my f**king steak?’
I went, ‘I ate it.’
He went, ‘I’ll have to go and get another one’. Did he f**k!
“He came back with a fire extinguisher. I went, ‘Oh no’ and just sat there. He just absolutely soaked me.”
I had to walk half the way home because no taxi would get me in the car because I was soaking wet. I’ve met him a couple of times since then. Great guy though. Great singer as well.
Back of the Net
Q: Are there any goal celebrations you rate in football right now? Because you had some amazing goal celebrations.
A: Yeah, I used to. I mean, Peter Crouch’s was ridiculous. The robot. That was mad.
But yeah, I did the dentist chair. I used to do a couple of daft ones.
Because me and (Peter) Shilton were getting sponsored mobile phones I said to him in England squad. I said, ‘next time I play against you, get your mobile phone, put it next to the post. And if there’s a free kick I’ll call you. I’m gonna tell you where I’m gonna put the f**king thing’. And he went, ‘shut up Gazza!’
So we played Derby and it was a free kick. And I scored from the free kick and I looked at him and he wasn’t happy. I went, answer your phone next time!
“Everyone seems to have a different celebration. I think the best one I’ve seen was the fish one, it was brilliant. The guy scored, he ran to the corner sort of thing. And then he’d pretend to be a fish. And then all picked him up for a photo with him.”
Tottenham’s Chances in the Years Ahead
Q: Do you think Tottenham have got a good enough squad now to finally win something? Because it’s been so long since they’ve actually lifted a trophy.
A: Heung-Min Son seems to just get better and better. He’s a great player. Sometimes they look like it’s just a one man team in the last couple of seasons.
“Now they’ve got James Maddison, it’s a decent squad but they’ve got to strengthen it because you want to be playing with someone on the bench thinking, I better play well today because he’s going to take my place.”
Well, I mean look at Rooney, he changed nine players (from league opener). And he got a performance from them, so the other nine will be gutted.
The chairman’s been a bit stingy with the money, it’s terrible. They’ve had to build a stadium. In fact, I think the real owner of Tottenham, he lives in Barbados. He’s never been to the game.
He watches live satellite from Barbados. But the other guy just works underneath him, you know. Daniel Levy.
I did a thing with his wife once. How he can get a woman like that, I’ll never know. Wow, she’s just stunning.
But yeah Levy’s different you know. I remember asking for a few tickets once. He said it’ll cost you a certain sort, and you’ll sit down there.
The Future Gazzas
Q: One more word about Jack Grealish, obviously he’s got so much potential. Do you think there’s any danger of him going off the rails a bit? He seems to be out partying a lot.
A: Yeah I mean obviously it’s pre-season, I mean I think he spent 50 grand on a night out in Dubai when he didn’t make the England squad.
Good on him. He’s got that money. But yeah, he’s got quality, you know. I think he said he’s going to knuckle down. I was the same.
“When I had a few days off, I’d go and celebrate. You had a drink and that. Sometimes, I wish I hadn’t of, you know. Regretted it. You know, but I still managed to perform.
“If you can perform on a Saturday then, fair enough, the manager is not going to have a go at you.”
I’ve had the thoughts of Walter Smith a couple of times, on me own, in the stadium, f**king right in the back of the fourth tier, really choking me.
It was like, ‘whoa, whoa’. At one point I was crying. I said, ‘oh, I won’t do it anymore’.
And then Archie (Knox) being nice, and then it would be the other way around. Archie being nasty. And then Walter would be nice, like ‘God where do I stand here?’
But Terry Venables was brilliant too. Like I knew I had a great game when he’d pull me.
You Need an Unbelivable Manager for Great Players
Q: Do you think Pep Guardiola is the type to do that kind of thing? Grab Jack Grealish around the neck?
A: No, I don’t think so. I think he does it by just not playing you.
I mean Jose Mourinho, that time at Chelsea, when they were getting beat at half time and he went in and he didn’t say a word. And then they went out for the second half, he didn’t talk to them or nothing, just stood there, and went back, sat down, and then the second half, they won 3-1 and then he spoke to them.
I’ve seen that thing on Netflix with Man City. He’s funny in there, Guardiola. He gives them a bollocking, he’s nearly crying, and then turns it around and says, ‘I love you all, I really love you’.
It’s like, wow. One minute he’s bollocking you and then he loves you all.
Terry Venables was the same, when I played really well, I knew I’d played well. He’d get me in and say, ‘you were s**t today’. And he’d go, ‘play better next week’.
And I’m thinking, wow. Or if I played s**t, which was never, he’d come and say, ‘you were brilliant today’. And I’m like, ‘oh God, I was crap today’. So you wouldn’t understand where you were with him.
“There’s different ways (of doing things), you’ve got to be an unbelievable manager to take all of those great players on.”
So I wouldn’t like to be a young man to take that squad on. You know, but obviously, he’s got so much respect, but when he’s been manager of Barcelona and they’ve got the best players in the world. And Bayern Munich.
But the thing is, he’s performed with them and all his teams have respect for him.
And, as a matter of fact you see all these managers with suits and ties on. He just comes out, it’s like a Sunday morning stroll with a polo neck, or a t-shirt.
Obviously he must have something that the players just absolutely love and adore him for and that’s why they perform for him.
Managing the Managers
Q: Do you think he’ll (Guardiola) still be there after this season or do you think this might be his last season?
A: I was told that Gareth Southgate was going to Manchester United and Pep Guardiola was going to be the manager of England!
So we’ll see what happens this year. Maybe it’ll happen next summer.
If he’s on that much money and he’s winning five trophies a year. You know, what an achievement. I’m on a bike, pedalling at 7 o’clock in the morning, or at 5 fishing.
I played against him against Spain in the Euros. What he’s achieved, it’s like, wow, it’s incredible. As a manager, you’ve got to give your whole life to it.
Like Wenger, he wouldn’t have ever seen his wife or the kids like you know. So you just have to be obsessed with football.
I remember getting pneumonia and my chest was black, and I went to the training ground at Arsenal, and I was like, as soon as I walked in (it was no problem anywhere else). They said ‘can you take your shoes off, Paul? Put flip flops on’.
“So all the players got to take their shoes off, put flip flops on, and walk around. And then put your shoes in a little socket. The dressing room was spotless. The kitchen was absolutely spotless.”
And like, even the players, when they put the boots on, they’ve got to do it outside, not in the dressing room. And then when they come in, they’ve got to take the kit off at the door, and put the dressing gowns on. It’s like, wow.
He never let anyone watch the training sessions. But yeah, he was a class guy, you know. Come and achieved everything at that time.
“That time when they went unbeaten the whole season. I remember watching them. They were playing in Leeds. I’ve never seen a team play like that.”
They won 5-0. They were doing 1-2s in the six yard box before then tapping it in the back of the net. It was scary.
But I did go there in the dressing room. Sol Campbell was there and (Thierry) Henry was there and he went on his knees and started giving that to us (praise).
I said ‘Henry get up lad’ and I said, ‘God, I might see how good you are’.
Man, I wish I had his pace. When I had the ball I seemed alright and I seemed to run quite quickly with the ball.
I did that once, playing for Tottenham at home against Nottingham Forest and Brian Clough was the manager.
I went down the line a bit, beat a couple of players, I ran the ball out of play. I turned around and walking back, I heard, ‘Gascoigne, get back!’, f**king really loud.
I’m thinking, that doesn’t sound like Venables. And I’ve looked up right Clough’s at the touchline, ‘Get back for your f**king team’. And I started running, I looked at Terry Venables, and he said ‘get on with it, have a go.’
One Final Class Act
Q: Brian Clough was something else wasn’t he.
A: Yeah, some of the stories, I used to room with Nigel (Clough) in England under 21s. Some of the stories he told us.
One was, I said ‘you got a girlfriend and that?’ He said he did.
I said, ‘what’s your dad like?’
He went, ‘nightmare, I took her home for the first time once.’ And the first thing he said was to her, not to him. ‘Sweetheart, what are you doing with my son?’
She said ‘I’m going out with him’. Clough said ‘are you joking? He’s the most boring bastard I’ve ever met.’
Yeah, Brian Clough’s class.
