England legend Paul Gascoigne has revealed why he opted to sign for Tottenham Hotspur over Manchester United in 1988.
While he’s been through his fair share of troubles over the years, Paul Gascoigne is still widely regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation and one of the best English footballers of all time. There are very few within the history of the beautiful game who could do what Gazza could when a ball was at his feet, and that was evident from the early days of his career right up until when he retired.
Towards the start of that journey, Gascoigne was receiving a lot of interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United after making a splash with hometown club Newcastle – first through an FA Youth Cup win and then in the first team.
After much speculation and deliberation, it appeared as if Gascoigne was heading to Old Trafford to join the Red Devils but in a late change of heart, he instead made the jump down south to sign for Tottenham.
Good old Gazza
Sir Alex Ferguson has gone on record in the past and said that Spurs were able to “woo” Gascoigne into signing on the dotted line and during a recent appearance on BT Sport’s What I Wore, the 54-year-old confirmed that theory with a one-word answer when asked why he chose London over Manchester.
“Money!”
Ferguson stated that Tottenham had bought a house for his family when discussing the matter in his 1999 autobiography, and also suggested he could’ve helped the Englishman go down a different path in his life.
“If he had signed for United, he would not have had nearly as many problems,” Ferguson said.
Gascoigne captured the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 1990 and also won the FA Cup with Spurs during his four years with the club. In that timeframe we saw United win just one FA Cup and League Cup title but after Gascoigne left North London to join Lazio, Manchester United went on a sustained period of historic success both domestically and in Europe.
The honesty of the great Paul Gascoigne is one of the many reasons why fans still love him to this day, and why he’ll continue to hold a special place in the annals of football history in this country.
The latest episode of BT Sport’s ‘What I Wore’ series featuring Paul Gascoigne is now available to watch on the BT Sport YouTube channel. For more info on BT Sport go to www.bt.com/sport
Featured image credit: Getty
