Paul Gascoigne is a Tyneside lad who at the age of seventeen entered the stage of the Newcastle Football club in the days when there were four stands and the wind and rain came through the open corners. That September in 1985 he scored his first goal for the club's first team before a crowd that quickly came to adore his flair and commitment. At the age of 19 years he was selected as the Professional Footballer's Association Young Player of the Year and after 99 games and 25 goals he was transferred to Spurs in the Summer. The moved enable him to be called up to the England Squad and he made his debut that September, scoring his first international goal the following Spring. In the Summer of 1990 he came internationally known for his performances and his reaction to being sent off in the World Cup. That Christmas he was voted by the British Public Sports personality of the year. The following year he joined the Italian Club Lazio and in 1995 he joined Glasgow Rangers, becoming the Scottish Player of the Year. Around this time I was on holiday in Scotland and visited a local Inn on the banks of Loch Lomond, Gazza as he became known entered for a drink and the effect was electric. There have been only two other sporting celebrities and personality where I witnessed a similar impact. Mohamed Ali when I attended a Civic Lunch at which the crowds were larger and more enthusiastic than for the Queen who visited the Town in the same week, and Ian, now Sir Ian Botham, when unknowingly I sat in the stand of a Kent Cricket ground near his wife, when during a rain interrupted match he joined her and then signed autographs and chatted to everyone, and I mean everyone, who stood in line to meet him. It is not surprising that all three individuals have had the problems as well as their many triumph given the adulation they received, the comparative shortness of their time performing their skills, and the inevitable void which follows when they cannot continue at the required level. The test is how an individual then copes with the situation and of the three, Paul has too often hit the headlines for the worst possible reason. Ian Botham continued to be a known and loved character for his Cricket expertise, his monumental walks from one tip of the British Islands to the other some 600 miles, year upon year, raising over ten million pounds of leukaemia research, and for his TV adverts, and which mean that he continues to be recognised and shown attention wherever he goes. Mohamed Ali also possess the personality to continue to be recognised and loved, particularly when stricken with disease he continued to demonstrate a spontaneous humour and courage which refuses to accept his disabilities.
At the end of this week the media in the Northern region disclosed that following a situation Paul had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in the interests of his own welfare. It is the nature of the people and their culture in the North East England that the local football managers and other personalities together with the local media has sent a public message to Paul that he is not alone and that he has many friends. Kevin Keegan has said the Newcastle Football Club will give what help is needed.
By a twist of circumstance this weekend is the 75th birthday of Sir Bobby Robson who is still under treatment for cancer and who for the first time to my knowledge has commented about his disappointment at being sacked from Newcastle after four successful seasons although the tide was beginning to turn as the new breed of over paid, arrogant and self seeking carpet bagging players came to dominate the Premiership and finding someone able to exercise control and discipline and to create a united and committed team of skill and flair led to one managerial failure after another. Sir Bobby was also the England Manager during Paul's international career. It is also the first time that Keegan has faced Sir Alec Ferguson since returning as Newcastle Manager Newcastle Manager, with the team and supporters still reeling from the 6.0 surrender at Old Trafford which contributed to the early departure of his predecessor. Many of my generation and of more recent generations prefer to remember the occasion when Newcastle scored five goals and Manchester Unit 0, I was there. The match is live at 5.15 on Saturday evening and the club will be lucky to escape with a draw, but then nothing is impossible as Barnsley have demonstrated, igniting the dreams of everyone. Outside of Liverpool.
I went out twice during the day, the first occasion to seek the advice of a bank manager, located near to a barbers I have used in the past. In this instance I checked first that I had sufficient cash with me and fortunately having changed trousers for the visit there was a £5 note in one of the pockets and I had sufficient coin. There was gale blowing so my hair was mess my the time I arrived home. It was sunny with not hint of the squalling storm which hit me as I ventured out again in the afternoon to purchase and post a card and a letter. I bought an evening paper, two in fact after seeing the headlines in the Sunderland Echo and retreated for a cup of tea and a read. The cause of the double purchase is the news of the prospect of resolution over the future of the large vacant riverside site across from Sunderland AFC stadium and a matter of yards from the City centre. The site was bought from Vaux, the former Brewery and Hotel company which provided major employment after the demise of shipbuilding and coal. and cleared by Tesco with the intention of building a major store with car parking. Vaux also owned the hotel near to my former home where I stayed on the night before my interview for the job which brought me to Tyneside, and also owned the Inn built into the cave at bottom of the cliff at Marsden and where the new owners had to close the facility shortly after I visited last summer because of the problem with the adjacent stairs and the instability of the rock faces. It was important that alternative job creating uses were found for the Vaux site but the news of a third major supermarket complex in the city was not greeted with the enthusiasm that might have been expected because of the proposed location, given the master plan that had been developed for the generation of the Riverside with educational, cultural and residential developments to rival those underway at Newcastle, Gateshead, and latterly planned for the North and south banks of the Tyne at the estuary.
The proposed solution should satisfy all interests. It looks as if a major site has been found, a short distance away over the Wear bridge close to the football ground and about two miles away from Morrison's on the same side of the river, and about three from Sainsbury situated within the southern communities at the outskirts of the city. Hopefully Tesco will retain its smaller city centre store which would otherwise have closed have closed the riverside development continued. The plan to go ahead with using the riverside site for a hotel close to the football club, for apartment blocks, offices and a civic building already approved by government should be realised . There was also excellent news about jobs locally as the Legal body responsible for managing legal; aid is moving to Jarrow. This involves 132 Legal jobs.
For the past two nights, there were three in the USA, I have watched the first round of the finals of American Idol, with two shows of two hours each featuring twelve men and women from 16 to 30.While there were half a dozen outstanding performances and half a dozen others noteworthy, it was evident who should be cut at the numbers are halved over the next three weeks to the final dozen. However the public does not always select the best and with 28 million votes, I will say that again 28 million votes, the equivalent of one phone call for every two people in the UK, the unpredictable and the unjust had to be expected. For me the memorable aspect is the faces of the four sets of parents of those whose dream ended. The dream quickly ended with a taste of appearing in the most watched show on American Television and therefore becoming celebrities, particularly in their home towns and states. It is to be hoped they do not spend the rest of their lives reflecting on what might have been and looking to recapture the feelings they will have experienced so briefly. The dream should always go on although the images will need to adjust to the realities of circumstances.
At the end of this week the media in the Northern region disclosed that following a situation Paul had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in the interests of his own welfare. It is the nature of the people and their culture in the North East England that the local football managers and other personalities together with the local media has sent a public message to Paul that he is not alone and that he has many friends. Kevin Keegan has said the Newcastle Football Club will give what help is needed.
By a twist of circumstance this weekend is the 75th birthday of Sir Bobby Robson who is still under treatment for cancer and who for the first time to my knowledge has commented about his disappointment at being sacked from Newcastle after four successful seasons although the tide was beginning to turn as the new breed of over paid, arrogant and self seeking carpet bagging players came to dominate the Premiership and finding someone able to exercise control and discipline and to create a united and committed team of skill and flair led to one managerial failure after another. Sir Bobby was also the England Manager during Paul's international career. It is also the first time that Keegan has faced Sir Alec Ferguson since returning as Newcastle Manager Newcastle Manager, with the team and supporters still reeling from the 6.0 surrender at Old Trafford which contributed to the early departure of his predecessor. Many of my generation and of more recent generations prefer to remember the occasion when Newcastle scored five goals and Manchester Unit 0, I was there. The match is live at 5.15 on Saturday evening and the club will be lucky to escape with a draw, but then nothing is impossible as Barnsley have demonstrated, igniting the dreams of everyone. Outside of Liverpool.
I went out twice during the day, the first occasion to seek the advice of a bank manager, located near to a barbers I have used in the past. In this instance I checked first that I had sufficient cash with me and fortunately having changed trousers for the visit there was a £5 note in one of the pockets and I had sufficient coin. There was gale blowing so my hair was mess my the time I arrived home. It was sunny with not hint of the squalling storm which hit me as I ventured out again in the afternoon to purchase and post a card and a letter. I bought an evening paper, two in fact after seeing the headlines in the Sunderland Echo and retreated for a cup of tea and a read. The cause of the double purchase is the news of the prospect of resolution over the future of the large vacant riverside site across from Sunderland AFC stadium and a matter of yards from the City centre. The site was bought from Vaux, the former Brewery and Hotel company which provided major employment after the demise of shipbuilding and coal. and cleared by Tesco with the intention of building a major store with car parking. Vaux also owned the hotel near to my former home where I stayed on the night before my interview for the job which brought me to Tyneside, and also owned the Inn built into the cave at bottom of the cliff at Marsden and where the new owners had to close the facility shortly after I visited last summer because of the problem with the adjacent stairs and the instability of the rock faces. It was important that alternative job creating uses were found for the Vaux site but the news of a third major supermarket complex in the city was not greeted with the enthusiasm that might have been expected because of the proposed location, given the master plan that had been developed for the generation of the Riverside with educational, cultural and residential developments to rival those underway at Newcastle, Gateshead, and latterly planned for the North and south banks of the Tyne at the estuary.
The proposed solution should satisfy all interests. It looks as if a major site has been found, a short distance away over the Wear bridge close to the football ground and about two miles away from Morrison's on the same side of the river, and about three from Sainsbury situated within the southern communities at the outskirts of the city. Hopefully Tesco will retain its smaller city centre store which would otherwise have closed have closed the riverside development continued. The plan to go ahead with using the riverside site for a hotel close to the football club, for apartment blocks, offices and a civic building already approved by government should be realised . There was also excellent news about jobs locally as the Legal body responsible for managing legal; aid is moving to Jarrow. This involves 132 Legal jobs.
For the past two nights, there were three in the USA, I have watched the first round of the finals of American Idol, with two shows of two hours each featuring twelve men and women from 16 to 30.While there were half a dozen outstanding performances and half a dozen others noteworthy, it was evident who should be cut at the numbers are halved over the next three weeks to the final dozen. However the public does not always select the best and with 28 million votes, I will say that again 28 million votes, the equivalent of one phone call for every two people in the UK, the unpredictable and the unjust had to be expected. For me the memorable aspect is the faces of the four sets of parents of those whose dream ended. The dream quickly ended with a taste of appearing in the most watched show on American Television and therefore becoming celebrities, particularly in their home towns and states. It is to be hoped they do not spend the rest of their lives reflecting on what might have been and looking to recapture the feelings they will have experienced so briefly. The dream should always go on although the images will need to adjust to the realities of circumstances.
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