Gascoigne Page #4

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And I thought, "Sh*t, well,

I'm in trouble here. What have I done?"

And he says, "Sit down."

And he kept a serious face.

I'm going, "I haven't done anything wrong,

have I? I haven't?"

He went, "I've got some news for you."

And I was like, "Yeah?"

He went, "You've been picked

for England." Wow.

Feel like crying now, thinking about it.

I worked with Mr Robson,

and Mr Robson was really in love with Paul

and was permanently speaking

about his talent

and about the pleasure he had to coach

such a talented player.

He is a rare talent,

which we need to nurture and we need to

give him his head sometimes

and he needs just to be disciplined as well.

I don't think, going into 1990,

expectations were that high.

Obviously, England had underachieved

since '66, when we won the World Cup.

Inside the camp, I think we were,

you know, quietly confident.

You'd look around. You'd go, "We've actually

got a really good group of players here.

"We've got half a chance,

if things go our way.

In that World Cup,

there wasn't anybody that stood out,

basically, from the first game.

It was Cameroon versus Argentina,

with Maradona and that playing,

and Cameroon won, one-nil.

And you think, well, everybody's

got a chance here, you know.

The game against the Dutch

was the game that Gazza emerged

as being a genuinely world-class talent.

Gazza was brilliant. Unbelievably brilliant.

I remember him. He was chasing Ruud Gullit,

pulling his dreadlocks.

And he was winding Gullit up.

And he was going, "What? Who?

"Who is this kid? What's he doing?"

The one thing I used to love

about watching Paul play was

how he got the ball and he ran

at defenders with the ball and...

Nowadays you mightnt getaway with it

but he'd always protect himself

with his arms.

It's a great art to be able to do, and,

you know, to not let the defenders near you.

Gascoigne.

This is brilliant stuff from Gascoigne.

He was aggressive.

Very physical.

At the same time, very technical.

Fantastic characteristics that you need

to be a top football player.

Scifo went for it

and I sort of, like, tackled him,

but what happened was I

brought me other foot across

and sort of like tried to give him a whack,

a little bit, as well, and the referee's seen it.

The Belgians unhappy

with that, and Gascoigne gets a yellow card.

I forgot about the yellow card.

A couple of minutes left, I got booked.

I just wanted to give my all,

like all the players we had.

Give it all for England, you know.

It's a battle

against the clock here, for sure.

I was thinking what to do with the ball,

whether I was just going

to just try to whack it towards the keeper.

But then Bobby Robson, I could hear him,

and I dare not look at him,

and I can hear him screaming,

"Just chip it in. Chip it in."

You know, and...

Eventually, like, we got

Butcher forward and then,

then I did the worst pass in the world.

I chipped it to David Platt

and made him a player. Devastated.

Then I...

Gascoigne's free kick.

And Platt! David Platt has scored for England.

It was the explosion of different emotions.

It wasn't just the joy of the fact that

this was a last-minute, stunning winner.

It was also the fact that,

we haven't got to take penalties.

England, through

to the quarter-finals,

and Gascoigne's reaction says it all.

Afterwards, it was brilliant,

because afterwards, after the game,

we're all in the dressing room,

and diving in the bath

and doing somersaults

and everything, you know.

We were over the moon to get

through that one.

The atmosphere in the dressing room

was incredible.

Incredible because we were under

a lot of pressure in that game, you know.

Gascoigne calling for it.

Here's Stuart Pearce

looking long to the far post.

And David Platt!

We took the lead,

David Platt.

And then they scored two goals.

And it's one-one.

Cameroon, they're in the lead!

Whilst we knew they were a good side,

if we'd have come home, losing to Cameroon,

you know, they would have been

the first African side to make

the semi-finals of the World Cup,

we'd have been ridiculed.

You know, then

there's the little ball knocked into me.

I turn, got brought down. Penalty.

And Lineker scores!

And it's all square at two-two.

Often the only way you'd have a chance

of getting the ball off Gazza

was actually if he knew you had

no alternative but to give it

to him straight back, a little one-two.

Unless he was completely knackered.

Then you've got a chance as well.

A la extra time. Against Cameroon.

Quarter finals of the World Cup.

England much more

on top now.

This is Gascoigne.

That's a great ball to Lineker.

He's got away!

And he's brought down.

Another penalty, surely.

That pass there, which he was capable of

all the time but didn't do very often,

was because he couldn't run any more.

Straight down the middle!

England are back in the lead.

We were in a World Cup semi-final.

You know, we had done better

than any other team had ever done,

for England, apart from on our own shores.

Gascoigne has done

so much to pull England into the semi-finals.

And no one appreciates that more

than his manager, Bobby Robson.

England's footballers are preparing

for their most important game

since winning the World Cup in 1966.

They fly to Turin later today

for Wednesdays semi-final

against West Germany.

The night before the game,

the semi-final, was all, like...

I was rooming with Chris Waddle.

It was half past 10:00

and I was with Chris and I went,

"I can't sleep. I'm going for a walk."

So I was out for a walk and I just

heard some guys playing tennis.

So, it was two Americans, I went,

"Can I join in lads? I'll challenge you."

So I was working my nuts off

to beat these two Americans

and I hear, "Gazza."

And I just see Sir Bobby Robson.

I've ran. I've ran to my room.

About five minutes later

there's smashing at the door.

Sir Bobby Robson. Banging like mad.

"Open the door. Open the door.

Chris, where's Gazza?"

And so I looked at Chris, I went,

"Tell him I'm sleeping."

He went, "He's sleeping, gaffer."

He went, "Sleeping?

He's just been playing tennis."

And Chris looked at us and I went...

And that was it.

A little letter come through the door.

"I'll see you in the morning."

So I didn't sleep well that night

because I thought he was going to drop us.

Bobby Robson wanted

a team meeting, with all the players.

But he was late for the meeting.

He was always, he was always a bit late

and whilst he was late,

I, I put on this board

I put, "Even money, he mentions the war."

Then I put the sheet back down

and Bobby comes in

and he addresses, we're all sitting there.

And he goes,

"We beat them in the war."

It was his first words and it was just...

And then there was this uproar,

uproar, in the whole room

and Bobby's going,

"What's going on? What? What?"

So, I said, "You might wanna turn?"

So he turned it over and he went,

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