Sir Alex Ferguson has often said that not managing to bring Paul Gascoigne to Manchester United, the man who our manager has described as “the best player of his era”, was one of his biggest regrets.
“Around 1987, when Newcastle were bobbing above the relegation zone, we played them and my three central midfielders that day were Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and Remi Moses,” Ferguson said last year. “All great footballers and he just tore them apart. Robbo and Whiteside were chasing him up and down the pitch and they couldn’t get near him. We spoke to him the night before I went on holiday. He says ‘Go and enjoy yourself Mr Ferguson, I’ll be signing for Manchester United’. So I went on my holidays but Martin Edwards rang and said ‘I’ve got some bad news – he signed for Tottenham. They bought a house for his mother and father in the North East and that swung it’.”
Just this week Ferguson confirmed the frustration he still felt at never seeing Gazza in a United shirt, which is a sentiment Gascoigne has today agreed with.
“Maybe if I had stayed at Man U I might have been still there,” said Gazza. “I don’t know, you just look at these players and the squad of young kids that play, young Rooney that’s there, the Neville Brothers and Becks, the way Ferguson just brought them on and there are so many. I got invited to the academy and it is a magnificent place and you can see the way he treats his players, he treats them with respect but he also makes men out of boys. It took me six years to get back talking to Sir Alex, I called him from Lazio and asked him would he re-sign us. He was with Eric Cantona and he said he would see what Eric Cantona was going to do but I think everyone knows if you do something to Sir Alex Ferguson the way I did you don’t get a second chance.”
Man Utd News 24/7
one difference between gazza and rooney
sir alex ferguson
I said the other week i would have loved to see Gazza at United. A superbly gifted player. As gotta hate says the difference is SAF, However i am not sure if even Sir Alex would have prevented him turning out like he did. A waste of an immense talent due to his “illnesses” of alcoholism, drug addiction and mental health.
This brings tears to my eyes & it is not just about football. Sir Alex would have been soo good for Gazza. Just look at Wazza, even Beckham who left, came back & showed his respect to Sir Alex. If I have a magic time machine & the ear of Gazza himself….
Although missing out on Gazza was a blow I still think missing out on Zidane was costly. We would have at least two more european cups inside our trophy cabinet
rick – doubt it about zidane as he didnt really hit his peak as a player until the late 90′s/early 2000′s and we already had the King at that time.
also i know this is being really really nitpicky but i’m not impressed by the way Gazza refers to us as ‘Man U’ – makes me wonder whether he knows about our history and whether he really would have fitted into the ethos of our club.
I think Gazza would have turned out well with Fergie watching over him. Gazza needed a father figure, someone who is willing to put him straight when needed and an arm around him when he needed that. Fergie is great at that, he would have moulded Gazza to the way he needed to be.
Saying that, it’s all history, we’ve had some great players, maybe Gazza being here would have impacted on the likes of Scholes etc.. in a way that held them back and we might not have signed greats like Cantona. Who knows? nobody can say, but i do believe Gazza’s personal life would have benefited, without a doubt.
I hope Gazza recovers from any problems he might be having, after all he’s just a nice guy who has gone down the wrong path and probably hooked up with the wrong hangers-on.
Everyone does it Nino. As annoying as it is, we just have to live with it.
I honestly think it’s pathetic…the idea of looking back with hindsight and adopting some fatalistic view of the world (which doesn’t exist)..you make your own luck in this world, yeah, little things change the course of your life but they don’t affect the most important elements. i.e. satisfaction and happiness, these things can be achieved via an infinite amount of variables so the idea that not being at Manchester United ruined Gazza is ridiculous.. What ruined Gazza is that he has, and always has had mental problems, OCD, ADHD, call it wht you want but he simply can’t handle things very well and that would have troubled him at United or not…Ferguson is just another man, not a God and certainly not a father figure, football is a business and players are assets, simple as..He wouldn’t have been able to help Gazza anymore than his wife couldn’t, if you’re as mad as a hatter, you’re as mad as a hatter.
There were a couple players i wished we woulda signed in the Ferguson era: Matt LeTissier, Paolo Di Canio, Gazza, and Ronaldinho. All at one time or another had the skills of world beaters, could change the course of the game with one deft pass, one flick, one magnificent goal. Imagine our early 90′s squad with Robson and Ince lining up right behind Le Tissier or Gazza we would’ve def one some league titles before we finally ended the drought. Our early 2000′s squad was ageing and bringing in all kinds of new players, some great(RVN,Rooney,ronaldo,etc.) and some who were shiiiite(Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Bellion,etc) but a ronaldinho in that lineup of becks, scholes, keano, and giggs would’ve been dominant. We liked to play 5 across the midfield at that time and Ronaldinho in his prime, in this trequarista role would’ve won us more European cups.
There were a few we missed out. Gascoigne, Shearer, Zidane, Ronaldinho & even Torres. But life goes on. We have done well with what we got. And for that, I’m happy