While Paul Gascoigne was one of the greatest players that English football has ever produced, it took a special kind of manager to get the best out of him.
For all of his skill on the pitch, Gazza’s volatility and disdain for authority figures off it would often be too much for some managers.
But when an individual who knew how to handle the troubled genius did come around, it would result in something special. And for Gascoigne himself, one figure stood apart from the rest.
Paul Gascoigne on his relationship with Terry Venables
Terry Venables arrived at Tottenham in November 1987 and broke the British transfer record to bring Gascoigne to White Hart Lane the following summer, as the club paid £2.2million to gazump Manchester United and bring the prodigious 20-year-old to Spurs.
Gazza responded by raising his game further, helping Spurs to a sixth-place finish in his first season at club and a third-place finish the following year.
He would then announce his arrival on the world stage at Italia 90 and dazzle for Spurs in the 1990/91 season. His FA Cup semi-final free-kick against Arsenal that season would be a career highlight, with his subsequent knee injury in the Wembley final against Nottingham Forest again highlighting Gazza’s more volatile side.
That match marked the end of Venables’ Spurs tenure, but the pair would reunite in the England set-up, with Gazza a key part of the Three Lions run to the Euro 96 semi-finals.
It is little suprise therefore, that Gazza does not hesitate when asked which manager he most enjoyed playing for.
“Terry Venables,” Gazza tells FourFourTwo before being asked what was his happiest moment under him. “Every day,” he adds.
Venables passed away at the age of 80 in November 2023, with his death clearly affecting Gazza.
“When he died, I was sat in the car and cried my eyes out,” he says. “Terry was a f**king diamond. He had to be, to put up with me.”
Paul Gascoigne: Eight (published by Reach Sport) is on sale now in print, ebook and audiobook
