Terry Venables - 'Gazza Wanted To Kill Himself'!
I have thought long and hard about doing this piece about a person I regard as my friend.
I don't want to be a grass and I don't want to look like a hanger-on, leeching off Gazza's notoriety.
"Heaven knows, more than enough people have done that to him.
But something had to be done because I've seen first-hand just how bad Gazza is — and I can't stand by and let it run and run until we all end up at his funeral.
Had he kept drinking like he was, he was going to die.
Whether his body packed in on him, like George Best, or he darted in front of a car oblivious to where he was, I don't know. But it was going to happen.
My experience of Gazza in his current condition came to a head when I got a call out of the blue from Insp David Morgan at Kensington Police station in West London.
He said Gazza was with them, in a terrible state, and the police feared for him over the next few days."
Gazza looked straight back at me. I felt he was sober at that moment. His stare was quite chilling really and that's when he frightened the life out of me.
He simply said: "I want to kill myself."
He simply said: "I want to kill myself."
It was an awful moment and I have no doubt he knew what he was saying. I immediately told him I wouldn't stand by and let that happen — and I won't, which is why I'm telling this now.
Whether this is the right way forward, I don't know. But I believe shocking Paul into the truth and into the gravity of his situation might help.
So, why's he in this terrible state?
I read with interest Alex Ferguson claiming things could have been different had he gone to Man United at the peak of his playing career.
I'm not so sure, because this was a tragedy waiting to happen.
It's hard for people to understand but — when you've been that sort of player, at that sort of level, known worldwide by everyone — it's very hard to come away from it all.
You knew once he stopped playing there'd be problems. While he was playing he'd get through things he had to do.
But you couldn't treat him too harshly as he'd react negatively and become introverted.
You could be tough, but you couldn't be a strict disciplinarian — Gazza could never handle that.
Paul Gascoigne is comforted by a policewoman after collapsing again — hours after experts ruled he was NOT mentally ill.
He was allowed to walk away from hospital despite pleas from his ex-wife that the former soccer star needed continued care.
Last night Sheryl was left asking why authorities had let him down again.
She said: "We spent hours spelling out to the doctors just what his problems are, yet he has been discharged. I am really worried."
Gazza's sister Anna said: "I am not saying these words lightly — I want Paul to be sectioned to save his life."
In fact the alcoholic England legend WAS sectioned on Sunday, for the second time in four months, after jumping into a car driven by a neighbour of Sheryl in Stanstead Abbots, Herts, and demanding to be taken to an off-licence.