Ex England footballer Paul Gascoigne was detained under the Mental Health Act by Northumbria Police on Thursday after behaving strangely at a hotel.
Allegedly Gazza was wandering around the building with three battery operated plastic parrots that said “Give us a kiss”; ringing room service for plates of raw liver which he would then eat the next day; and answering his door naked. Eventually after refusing to leave the hotel when fire alarms were suspiciously set off, Gazza had “words” with a night porter which led to him being asked to leave and to his subsequent detention under the Act .
Football’s “great and good” have all been suggesting that everybody should
pull together and help out a man who (actually really did) give us so much pleasure on the football field (even if as the Telegraph points out, the seeds of his decline were present even during his salad days….)
But do we actually owe Paul Gascoigne anything as football fans? (Or even as a society if you like.)
If so, what do we owe him and how could we go about giving it to him?
* (Kevin Keegan)