Hero to zero: Paul Gascoigne's sad, drunken descent

PAUL GASCOIGNE'S guilty plea to a charge of using racially aggravated words in front of hundreds of people at his An Evening With Gazza show is just the latest brush with the law for the former star footballer.
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne arrives at Dudley Magistrates CourtFormer England footballer Paul Gascoigne arrives at Dudley Magistrates Court
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne arrives at Dudley Magistrates Court

Gazza fined £1,000 for racist comment to black security guard Gascoigne was arguably the most gifted English player of his generation but since retiring from the game, he has become better known for his drunken antics and a very public battle with the bottle.While still playing at the top level, Gateshead-born Gascoigne developed a taste for drink and was regularly in trouble with club managers for his well-publicised benders.After stints at Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, who bought him for a then-record fee of £2.3 million in 1988, Gascoigne moved to Italian club Lazio in 1992.The move led admirers to hope that he might settle down once away from his UK drinking haunts.But his spell in Italy was plagued by injuries - some picked up on the field, some in nightclub incidents.He moved to Rangers in 1995 for £4.3 million. The following year was one of his most turbulent.Between April and October 1996, he became player of the year in Scotland, was caught taking part in the infamous “dentist’s chair” drinking escapade with other England players on his 29th birthday, led England to the semi-final of the European Championships and attacked his then wife Sheryl - who he had married just four months earlier - leaving her with a cut and bruised face and her arm in a sling.Gascoigne joined Middlesbrough in 1998 in another multi-million pound deal, but by now his star was beginning to wane.He was left out of the England World Cup squad and in October of that year he checked in the Marchwood Priory Hospital,From then, despite repeated promises to managers and fans to stop drinking, his spiral into alcoholism accelerated.His last stint in the top rank of football came when he was signed for Everton, in July 2000, but despite some virtuoso performances, his time at the club was dogged by drinking. In October that year, at a time he said he felt his life was falling apart, Gascoigne again checked into the Priory.The following year saw him check into a rehab centre in Arizona.After he was released by Everton, Gascoigne joined Chinese team Gansu Tianma, but yet again the move was soured by his drinking. Another stint in rehab followed.In 2004, he joined Boston as player/coach, but after two games he left the club after announcing his intentions to train for a career in football management.His last foray into football came in 2005 when he was offered the job as manager of Nationwide Conference North club Kettering after a consortium, of which he was a member, bought the club.After two wins, two defeats and two draws, Gascoigne left Kettering. His 39-day reign ended in acrimony with chairman Imraan Ladak claiming the former England midfielder was “under the influence of alcohol before, during and after several first-team games and training sessions”.In 2010 he appeared at the scene of the stand-off between the police and gunman Raoul Moat. Arriving in Rothbury, Northumberland, Gascoigne claimed he was a friend of Moat and said he had brought him ‘’a can of lager, some chicken, fishing rod, a Newcastle shirt and a dressing gown’’.The same year, he was given an eight-week suspended sentence at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court for driving while more than four times the legal alcohol limit.Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno were among a string of high-profile figures to offer support and counselling, but their efforts were in vain as Gascoigne repeatedly descended back into his old habits.In 2013 Gascoigne was fined £1,000 after he admitted drunkenly assaulting a security guard at Stevenage station in Hertfordshire.In 2015, he told a High Court hacking trial that he would like to trade in his mobile phone for a coffin as he has “no life”.Later that year he was fined and given a restraining order after he pleaded guilty to sending a series of abusive tweets, phone calls and messages to his ex-girlfriend.He also pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court to assaulting photographer Steven Shepherd and damaging his glasses after spotting him taking shots of him.In April this year he told Good Morning Britain he was “all right” and had been clean for 11 months. But images of him dishevelled and troubled continued to appear in the papers.In June he was ordered to stand trial accused of a racially-aggravated public order offence, after the incident at his An Evening With Gazza show in Wolverhampton the previous November.