I was told to snub Manchester United and sign for Tottenham – I shouldn’t have listened
Paul Gascoigne was the hottest prospect in the transfer market in 1988 but after sending Sir Alex Ferguson off on holiday with a move to Man United agreed, he had a sudden change of heart.
Sir Alex Ferguson was in Malta when he read the bad news – a holiday cut short in the worst possible way.
It was the summer of 1988 and Paul Gascoigne had agreed to join Tottenham after Newcastle United’s £2.2million valuation had been met, but they weren’t the first to do so. Manchester United had already put their cash on the table.
“Can I go on holiday knowing that I’ve signed you, Gazza?” Ferguson asked over the phone. The response was an outright yes but this deal was far from done, and it never got done at all.
Ferguson was in his early years as United manager in the late 1980s and was keen to bring in that kind of talent that won matches and titles. It was during a game against Newcastle in 1987 that he first laid eyes on that exact player.
Managed by Willie McFaul, the Magpies had been meandering in the lower half of the First Division but they had a star in their ranks by the name of Paul Gascoigne. The then-20-year-old was famously fuelled by Mars Bars and Newcastle Brown Ale but ran United’s midfield trio of Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and Remi Moses ragged.
Admittedly, no one in that era was a model of physical fitness but Gascoigne did things to that United midfield that few had done before. Ferguson set his sights on the midfielder who would go on to be crowned PFA Young Player of the Year and listed in the PFA Team of the Year that season.
Such was Ferguson’s desire to sign Gascoigne that he spoke to the mercurial midfielder himself, selling the United project. And he had worked his magic, the pair agreeing a deal will be formalised and Ferguson could head on his summer holidays.
After agreeing what looked to be the move of his dreams, Gascoigne took the summer to unwind back in his hometown, catching up with old friends before heading south to Manchester. It was during that time that he went for a drink with then-Tottenham man Chris Waddle.
“I went up to the North East one weekend,” Waddle told FourFourTwo recently. “Terry had given me an additional day off and said that if I saw my pal up there, to have a word about him potentially coming to Tottenham, because everyone knew he was leaving Newcastle.
“I got in touch with Gazza and arranged to meet in a pub at midday on the Sunday. He strolled in with his entourage, all his mates. I asked him who he was going to sign for and he replied, ‘Manchester United’. I said, ‘Why don’t you come to Spurs?’ I told him he could get lost in London and no one would find out half the stuff he’d do. If he moved to United, he’d have Alex Ferguson on his case all of the time, along with some senior players. I said Terry Venables was really knowledgeable and would look after him.
“He said, no, he was still off to Manchester United. I said, ‘Fair enough’ and wished him the best of luck. I left the pub, then he came out with his friends shouting, ‘Waddler, see you at White Hart Lane on Monday!’ I thought he was joking around, but when I returned to London on the Tuesday, I was told Gazza had been at the club the previous day and signed a contract.”
Gascoigne may not have made his mind up that day but his chat with Waddle certainly planted a seed of doubt. The midfielder was on his way to Old Trafford when then-Tottenham chairman Irving Scholar called.
