|
|
|
|
|
 Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 05-05-2008 20:41 By rick derris.
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 05-05-2008 20:31
|
|
|
I was wondering whether Gascoigne's life might have taken a different turn had he signed for Man Utd under Ferguson. I reckon the poor, stupid fucker would have had at least a fighting chance.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
kugelrund
Dick Werden, Special Agent
Posts: 747
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 07:48
|
|
|
Utter balls.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 09:04
|
|
|
Alex Ferguson's a football manager, not a social worker or a psychologist. Stan Collymore says the same about himself in his self-pitying autobiography, that it could all have been so different if only he'd been signed by Ferguson for Man Utd. Who knows, maybe things could have been different for Kurt Cobain if only he'd been good enough at football to get taken on at Man Utd in the eighties- and Dorian Gray, he wouldn't have made half such a mess of that portrait if he'd been taken under 'Fergie's' wing at a young age. And did not Suetonius, in his Lives of the Caesars suggest much the same of Caligula?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Mumpo
This boy's a mess, he's a menace, he's a pest
Posts: 5311
  
|
posted 06-05-2008 09:06
|
|
|
I was wondering whether Gascoigne's life might have taken a different turn had he signed for Man Utd under Ferguson. I reckon the poor, stupid fucker would have had at least a fighting chance
There's an open goal, if ever.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 09:07
|
|
|
Worth remembering that Man Utd were a circus in the late 80s, the Newcastle of their day, so it isn't as if Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne would have slotted smoothly into a winning team or anything.
Possibly he might have had to change his agent.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 06-05-2008 09:08 By Nesta Que Un Club.
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 09:15
|
|
|
Ferguson's first great young protege was Lee Sharpe, who having missed the best part of a season with meningitis was effectively replaced by Andrei Kanchelskis.
If Gazza had gone to United not Spurs in 1990, and suffered the inevitable self-inflicted injury his style of play invited, the manager wouldn't have shown him any more sentiment either. Cantona would still have come in, and Gazza would, if he'd been lucky, have spent four or five years knocking about waiting for chances from the bench, sat alongside Nicky Butt.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
kugelrund
Dick Werden, Special Agent
Posts: 747
|
posted 06-05-2008 09:21
|
|
|
I wasn't endorsing the idea expressed by Richard Williams in his article, by the way.
And *applause* for You Are The Ref.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 10:10
|
|
|
Rumours at the time and later suggested Sharpe's meningitis was actually a cocaine addiction. No source, so apologies if this is actually bollocks.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 10:21
|
|
|
Eric Cantona was the one whose presence galvanised United & moulded them into a winning team instead of a group of talented individuals like Gazza was. If Gazza had been a few years younger & joined Utd when they were winning titles regularly, he'd have settled, not only in his career but in life in general, like Steve Bruce & Bryan Robson did ( men who liked a pint too - and came from the North-East ).
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 11:43
|
|
|
You speak from a position of deep knowledge about Gascoigne's mental problems and much experience of mental healthcare, I presume?
Or is what you said just glib nonsense about North-eastern player + drinking habit + titles at Man U = happy individual?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 06-05-2008 13:50 By Harry Truscott.
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 11:46
|
|
|
Gazza was, if I read Aidan correctly, a group of talented individuals. Perhaps he simply failed to "gel".
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 11:56
|
|
|
Bryan Robson's off-field drinking was certainly reduced under Ferguson. If you ignore the fact that it wasn't, of course.
Don't forget, Ferguson got rid of McGrath, Whiteside, Sharpe and Gillespie because of their lifestyles. Gascoigne would have been no different.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 11:57
|
|
|
Yes, I couldn't help wondering how much happier Gazza's life would have been at late-80s Man Utd, accompanying Robbo, Clayton Blackmore, Paul McGrath and Co through life's complicated byways.
Post of the day from YATR there.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 11:58
|
|
|
I had an excellent source with knowledge about Lee Sharpe at the time. And he wasn't addicted to cocaine.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 12:00
|
|
|
Wyatt Earp wrote:
Gazza was, if I read Aidan correctly, a group of talented individuals. Perhaps he simply failed to "gel".
See, Aidan, you would have got away with that on football 365.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 06-05-2008 12:50
|
|
|
I was working in Leeds at the time Sharpe was there, and various female work colleagues would periodically regale us with tales of being sleazed up by Sharpey and chums in the city's throbbing nightspots of a Saturday night. No drug stories though.
Anyway, back to Gazza and the unlimited redemptive powers of Fergie.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 07-05-2008 20:49
|
|
|
Obviously there was no guarantee that being managed by Ferguson would have prevented Gascoigne's slow self-destruction. Hence my qualifier "fighting chance".
Gascoigne surely could have benefited from the guidance of a manager who exercises such authority as Ferguson. There certainly were other managers with similar authority -- but, unlike Ferguson, none of them were about to sign Gascoigne. Therefore reference to Ferguson specifically is appropriate.
My understanding is that Ferguson gave the likes of McGrath and Whiteside time to mend their less than dedicated professional ways before offloading them, and even then, their persistent injury problems were probably the more pertinent reason.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 08-05-2008 08:25
|
|
|
Gascoigne found something of an authority figure in Walter Smith at Rangers and briefly Everton. Didnt seem to curtail his off-field distractions at the time, and long-term doesnt seem to have had any lasting effects.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
MESSAGE BOARD 
