It could have been Paul Gascoigne!

[Hants_red]

After John Cornworth was sacked Paul Gascoigne applied for the manager's job. He didn't however make the shortlist

Exeter say no to Gazza

The latest club to snub Paul Gascoigne are Exeter City, who will not after all be pursuing the ex-England man as their player-coach.

www.theguardian.com

Any more details? I would love to know what Exeweb of the day thought of the idea!

 

[Legohead]

It would have been a disaster. Gazza will always be a footballing great but he's always had internal issues shall we say and probably always will.

In that regard I feel sympathy and empathy with him and hope one day he'll see the light of change and acceptance of who he is inside but from a managerial sense I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have been a sheer catatssrophe waiting to happen for us or any other club.

The instability he would have brought to those around him along with such erratic behaviour would have been disruptive to any side.

 

[Billy The Fish]

Appointing Gazza at that time would have been just what we needed. Another feckin pantomime horse.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Before John Cornforth was sacked,the idea of Gazza signing as a player was talked about.
Apparently R & L were up for the idea,but got cold feed on the way to a meeting with Gazzas representative,which might have been Jimmy ‘5 Bellies’ Gardner

With all the crazy antics of that year,Jackson & the rest it did not make too many headlines iirc.

 

[John William]

Appointing Gazza at that time would have been just what we needed. Another feckin pantomime horse.

Gazza is by all accounts a lovely fella but not very worldly wise and easily led. Like Lego I wish him well.

 

[jimmy]

It just shows that the general reputation of the club is now a thousand times better.

I was fed up in the early 2000's of people saying, "Exeter? Isn't Uri Geller and Michael Jackson on the board?!"

Now the first things that spring to mind about ECFC are (hopefully) fan owned, producer of dozens of youth products and a great place to come on loan from higher up.

And nowadays all without the added stereotype of suits, boots and hats with feathers in them!

 

[Alistair20000]

The profits of FECRACE or its equivalent in those days would have shot up !

As JW says, all good wishes to Gazza.

 

[Dannyred]

Gazza is by all accounts a lovely fella but not very worldly wise and easily led. Like Lego I wish him well.

I can only speak highly of when I met him and his generosity but it was clear he had issues but he was fully aware he had them, I think some of the people around him haven’t helped at all.

 

[John William]

I can only speak highly of when I met him and his generosity but it was clear he had issues but he was fully aware he had them, I think some of the people around him haven’t helped at all.

That's putting it mildly.

He lived in the same village as some friends when he was at Middlesbrough (in a house rented from Fabbrizio Ravanelli) and the view was that he seemed happiest playing kickabout in the park with the local kids.

 

[Incontinentia]

One thing we can be absolutely sure of is it would've been very, very brief. He joined Kettering a couple of years later and I am not sure he even lasted as much as a month due to the drinking. And the man appointed here instead of him in 2002, Neil McNab, didn't see out the season.

It was such a mad time at Exeter, and probably best for the poor bloke's wellbeing that it never happened. Oddly, though, it may well have been better for Exeter had Gazza joined, because it would probably have been such a car crash that it may have accelerated the arrival of Gary Peters. McNob was awful and doomed us that season, whereas Peters brief spell at the tail end saw us pick up 20 points from 13 games - almost rescuing us with what was just about play-off form. An interesting little counterfactual.