February 15 – Bad Luck Gazza | On This Football Day

February 15 – Bad Luck Gazza

SOME people seem to have no middle ground, no even point, they are either very high, or very low.

In the world of football no one fits this description better than Gazza.

The Geordie midfielder spent his whole career either delighting fans with his exceptional ability, or in hot water because of all the crazy capers he got up to both on the pitch and with his mates Chris Evans, Danny Baker and Jimmy Five Bellies.

Today in 2000 was no different as he was up on an FA misconduct charge for an x-rated tackle on George Boateng during Middlesbrough’s match with Aston Villa.

The FA charge was literally adding insult to injury for Gascoigne as he was hospitalised at the time with a broken arm that he had suffered during his own clumsy challenge.

An FA statement said: “In reaching the decision, the FA is acutely aware that sadly, Paul sustained a serious injury himself from the incident. Everyone within the game will wish him a speedy recovery.

“However, we are committed to investigating allegations of violent play in the interests of the game as a whole.

“Having viewed video footage of the incident, we believe there is a case to be answered.”

This was not the first self-inflicted absence Gazza had suffered. In 1991, he ruptured cruciate ligaments in his right knee after a lunging tackle on Gary Charles in the FA Cup final against Nottingham Forest.

Three years later he was ruled out for 12 months after breaking his right leg in a training ground accident with Lazio – Italian newspapers claimed he had sustained the injury after a sliding tackle on reserve defender Alessandro Nesta, and in October 1998, he was admitted to hospital for two weeks with stress and drink problems.

And of course, there was the time he was ruled out of a Lazio game after straining his thigh – when getting out of bed.

At the time of his arm-breaking challenge Paul was playing for Middlesbrough after leaving Rangers in March 1998, but he would only survive another few months at the Riverside before he was reunited with his old Rangers manager Walter Smith for a Premier League swansong with Everton.

His spell at Goodison was the beginning of Gazza’s ‘Littlest Hobo’ phase as after leaving the Toffees he would pitch up at Burnley, Boston United and, most bizarrely Chinese outfit Gansu Tianma, before an ill-fated spell as manager of Kettering Town which lasted just 39 days.

To read about some of Gazza’s funnier exploits point your surf board in this direction, or have a look at his most famous England goal below against Scotland in 1996 when he was still at the top.