June 1 – Hoddle Drops Gazza
Glenn Hoddle called time on Paul Gascoigne’s England career today in 1998, when he announced the controversial midfielder had run out of chances and wouldn’t be a part of England’s World Cup ’98 challenge in France.
And, boy, did Gazza take it badly.
A week earlier Gazza had been snapped by paparazzi stumbling out of a kebab shop, donner in hand, in the earlier hours of the morning after a heavy session with DJs Chris Evans and Danny Baker and Glenn Hoddle reached the end of his tether.
Gazza had been a regular in Hoddle’s squads over the previous 18 months, playing a big part in ensuring England qualified for the World Cup, but reservations over his fitness and behaviour meant that Hoddle’s plans didn’t involve the former Newcastle star.
Now all Hoddle had to do was break the news to Gazza. Easier said than done.
At an England training camp five other players were due to be told they hadn’t made the final 22 and Glenn ‘people skills’ Hoddle decided the best way to inform them was through a series of drawn-out one-on-one sessions.
An anxious Gazza didn’t take to this waiting game very well, storming in during Phil Neville’s session and demanding to know whether he was in or out.
A pre-emptive plan by Hoddle to relax the mood by playing the smoothing stylings of Kenny G in the background failed miserably, as Gazza proceeded to smash up the room upon hearing the bad news.
Over to you Gazza: “I went over to his wardrobe and kicked in the door. Then I overturned his table, smashing a pottery vase and sending it crashing to the floor. In the process I managed to cut my leg, so now there was blood all over the place as well.
“I was about to start smashing all his windows,” Gazza continued in his autobiography, “when David Seaman and Paul Ince burst in and managed to restrain me. Then they called for the doctor, who gave me a valium tablet to calm me down.”
Later that summer Hoddle published his ill-advised diary of the World Cup, saying: “He had snapped. He was ranting, swearing and slurring his words. He was acting like a man possessed.
“He seemed to be dealing with it quite well… then he stopped, turned and flew into a rage, kicking a nearby chair. It was a full-blooded volley and I was concerned because he had bare feet. The kick was so hard I thought he must have broken his foot.
“He was a different person now. He had snapped. I stood there and he turned as if to go again, then came back with a barrage of abuse.”
This indeed proved to be the end of Gazza’s England career after 57 caps and ten goals. Unfortunately it wasn’t the end of his struggles with drink and drugs, but Gazza has recently been doing the media rounds and appears to finally be on the mend.
Marvel at the man in his pomp below and check out what else was going down in football-dom today here.
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