GAZZA jokes and jibes from his mates are part and parcel of everyday life for Harlows own Paul Gascoigne.
But the namesake of the fallen soccer star who is an engineer, from The Hornbeams backed Hoddles decision to axe Gazza from Englands World Cup squad.
Mr Gascoigne, 45, who reckons he tolerates at least three Gazza gags a day at work, said: If Gazzas fitness isnt perfect, he shouldnt be playing.
An avid Arsenal fan, he said: I feel sorry for Gazza, because he has had a lot of pressures to deal with and the media have probably exaggerated many stories.
But I feel upset that he has let himself and the country down. With him fit we would have had more chance of winning the World Cup.
Mr Gascoigne added that, although it would be difficult for England to take world football by storm without Gazza, he was confident that new stars such as Michael Owen, David Beckham and Steve McManaman would now shine.
He will be in Italy during the World Cup, but following the action on TV.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article