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The most talented, and most tainted, England player of his generation was back on the booze. It was as unseemly as it was pitiful, and the redtops devoured it. Last week, he had to be helped on to the stage for an evening of chat in Northampton. He was weepy, abusive, and obviously ill.
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On Wednesday, it was revealed that a few of Gazza's celebrity friends, including Chris Evans and Piers Morgan, had clubbed together to pay for the stay in Arizona, where has has previously been treated. Morgan told the Guardian he believed Gascoigne was "at the last chance saloon – an all-too apt metaphor for Paul because he has always found it so difficult to pass a saloon without being lured in for a drink".
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Gascoigne has often been compared to another footballing genius, George Best, who died in 2005, aged 59. "He had an irresistible charm, like George Best," Morgan said. "Gazza was incredibly funny – a naturally quick-witted, funny character. And there is the emotional side: when he cried at the World Cup, the country fell in love with him because we saw that underneath the cheeky chappy character was this very caring, sensitive, emotional, vulnerable guy."
But, Morgan said, in another way Gascoigne couldn't be more different to Best: "George Best was a happy drunk. He never wanted to be helped – he just wanted to be left alone to drink himself into the grave; Gazza is a very unhappy drunk. He has been through innumerable hellish treatments, and although he keeps falling off the rails, he is still desperate to sort himself out."
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