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From a Rangers perspective, in the last fifteen years or so there's been a fair number of books released from players privileged enough to have worn the Rangers Royal Blue. These range in quality and usefulness to the essential Legend: 60 Years at Ibrox by the legendary Bob McPhail to the insightful True Blue: The Davie Cooper Story and Both Sides of the Border by Terry Butcher to the turgid Field of Dreams by Richard Gough down to the 'What I did on my summer holidays' tripe offered by Ally McCoist.
Put together, the approximate sum total of years spent at Ibrox by the five examples of players offered is close on 100 years. Recently, however, a new book arrived by a player who packed in more than many would think possible into a Rangers career that lasted less than three years: Gazza.
If we are to concentrate solely on Gazza's professional football career, from its beginnings at Newcastle United to the sad almost unnoticed end in obscurity recently, what you have is a phenomenally talented player, capable of moments of sheer, exquisite footballing genius and who was also capable of moments of jaw dropping stupidity. Off the park, his antics bore a remarkable similarity to those on it: tales of overwhelming acts of friendship and generosity are juxtaposed with tales of alcoholism, depression and violence. Put together it all combines to create an extraordinarily complex character, who also happened to be the most talented English football player of his generation.
It's said that Paul Gascoigne was worried what reaction would be evident when his book was released to the general public. From the Rangers support's perspective the queues in Glasgow, Ayr and East Kilbride - just to offer three examples - for his autograph in his book would suggest he is still held in extremely high regard. It's probably the case that there are those who will despise him as well. To go off on a tangent for the time being, jealousy of Gazza's talent manifested itself in various guises in the media in Scotland during his time here. Jokes about his battles with alcoholism and domestic problems were evident in several papers in Scotland.
There really is a stunning irony and ignorance evident when Scottish journalists feel at liberty to comment on anybody else's actions, given the squalid, verminous way in which they grub out an existence. One thing is for definite though: when their career is over - hopefully far sooner than later - there'll be nobody who was interested enough in their life and career to even pass comment far less read a book about it. That's what sets Paul Gascoigne apart from such non-entities: love him or loathe him - and it seems far more Rangers supporters are of the former emotion than the latter - it's impossible to ignore him.
During the course of reading Gazza's story, it's sometimes easy to forget that it's being recounted by a 37 year old man. Stories of childish pranks feature quite prominently throughout and sadly, this detracts from what is a very important book in a football sense. There's only so many times you really want to hear about how he did something daft while drunk. That's possibly a minor gripe as the book does contain some very interesting insights into the mind of not just Paul Gascoigne, but several other notable personalities and how they coped with their fortune and fame.
What does shine through Gazza's story though, is his undoubted love for the game of football. Indeed, he comments himself on the book that on the training ground and on the park it's really the only time he feels relaxed. Sadly though, every Club he's played for and talks about, his time there is awash with injuries and tales of misbehaviour. Indeed, the rather startling statistic emerges that he missed four and a half years out of a first team career of seventeen years. Again, rather sadly, several of these years were lost due to acts by Gazza himself rather than anything carried out by an opponent.
Every Club Gazza has played for and left and is commented on in the book, you're left with a feeling that he never reached the heights he was capable of. Obviously it's his Ranger career that takes centre stage here as his book in under review by a Rangers fan and again, a feeling that he never performed completely to the best of his ability is evident in the pages that deal with his time at Ibrox. Of course we saw flashes of utter genius during his almost three years at Ibrox but you do sense a tinge of regret from the player that he never performed as well as he would like on the major stage of the Champions' League. He does say, though, that he was happier in a football sense at Ibrox than he was anywhere else throughout his career.
His England career is slightly different. He possibly never ran a tournament in the way that Maradona or Zidane have done in recent times but he did produce moments of brilliance on the big stage. He was catapulted onto the big stage during Italia 1990 and became a household name due to a combination of superb football and his highly publicised emotional outbursts. Sadly, he only featured in one more major tournament: the European Championships that were held in England in 1996. Again, he displayed some jaw dropping skills but in a carbon copy of Italia 1990, his team lost on penalties to the eventual winners of the respective tourneys, Germany.
England's departures in these events may in fact mirror Gazza's own career: almost peaking to the very top but never quite managing it. That's not meant as a criticism of what Gazza achieved in his career. Even a Paul Gascoigne performing at 33% of his talents would be head and shoulders above many players. What is being suggested is that his career never brought as many rewards in a playing sense with regard to trophies both domestic and international as his talents deserved. He does state in his story the medals he won while at Ibrox, though, and it's fitting that he finished on top of the pile with the team he enjoyed playing with the most. In an international sense, he may well have filled a gap in his medal collection during France 1998. The England manager, Glenn Hoddle - himself a strange character - decided his team would function better without the talents of Gazza, though. Gazza's own thoughts on his exclusion and on Hoddle as a manager and person make for very illuminating reading.
A very obvious paradox runs through the book. It's been released by a character who we all see as being a cheeky, happy go lucky sort who's always got a smile on his face, is always ready to help out those less fortunate than himself and who seems to exude immense joy when playing football; yet one recurring theme throughout the 300 or so pages or so that he takes to tell his story is one of regret. It's an interesting juxtaposition. As mentioned, his unquestionable happiness at actually playing football is tempered by regret for various events throughout his life. Regret that he never achieved quite what he was capable of in his playing career, regret that he was injured a lot, regret for the domestic situations he found himself in and remorse and even guilt for the tragedies he had to suffer at an early age.
He doesn't shirk from anything, though. He doesn't seek to blame his problems on anybody or anything else and is brutally frank about the less pleasurable episodes of his life. The domestic abuse occurrence isn't passed over at all as one may expect; instead it's described to its full extent. Of course, it doesn't make for pleasant reading but it's a part of his life and he doesn't try to disguise it in any way by blaming outside influences or pressures.
The same goes for the time spent in various clinics in the world as he fought his battles with alcoholism and the inner demons that seem to have tormented him throughout his life. He's very open and frank about these stages in his life thus far and it's at times like these that the reader will find genuine sympathy with him. It's to be hoped he wins his battles with his internal torment, if, for nothing else, for the pleasure he brought to thousands of football fans throughout the world when he was doing what he did best: exhibiting phenomenal talent on a football pitch.
When all is said and done, it's one of the more enjoyable and interesting footballing autobiographies to have appeared in recent years. As mentioned, there are possibly a few references to the daft wee jokes he's played throughout the years. Some genuinely are 'laugh out loud' funny, though such as when he set his mate Jimmy Five Bellies up as a frustrated homosexual on the radio!
Like the man himself, the book is a mixture of laughter and tears, peaks and troughs. It'll obviously hold special attention for fans of Rangers, Newcastle, Spurs and followers of the England National team but football fans everywhere will find something in it of interest. The Bears particularly had a special relationship with Gazza the player and for that reason it should be essential reading for anybody who was lucky enough to see him in what he describes himself as the happiest days of his playing career.