Let Gazza get on with his life (From Bournemouth Echo)

Let Gazza get on with his life

12:00pm Wednesday 21st July 2010 in

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THERE are two iconic images of Paul Gascoigne. One shows his tears in that 1990 World Cup semi-final when he knew that his yellow card meant, whatever happened, he’d miss the final.

That day he was a hero. On others, such as when he beat up his wife, he was anything but. He offers no excuses for that. There are none.

Gazza’s been called a flawed genius with a foot-ball boot for a brain but, whatever he’s done in the past, he’s a complex, likeable character. And he arouses complex emotions in the rest of us.

Bobby Robson called him “daft as a brush” but he’s more than that. He’s a man who carries the burden of having let down those closest to him.

You wonder what drove him, too, to seek out Raul Moat in that stand-off? His answer is honest. Drink. However good his intentions, alcohol keeps tripping him up. And the world and his mate are waiting for everyone’s favourite performing clown to fall forlornly on his backside.

Today, Gascoigne is our Gazza once again. He looks fine, having spent time at a clinic in Boscombe and has been given a certificate saying he’s stayed clean and sober. Good news.

I hope that those who genuinely care about him can find it in themselves to feel a little proud of him today for that first difficult step. And we should all support him in trying to rebuild his life.

The past is gone but he’ll know too well that the road ahead’s strewn with tempting bottles.

And what was the other iconic image of Gazza? It was the one showing football hardman Vinnie Jones slyly squeezing Gazza’s ‘tackle’ on the pitch.

Alcoholism, sadly’s a much meaner opponent to confront. But today, Gazza, well done for loosening a finger of its grim grip.