39 Days of Gazza - When Paul Gascoigne arrived to manage Kettering Town, people lined the streets to greet him. Just 39 days later, Gazza was gone and the club was on it's knees…. Steve Pitts
he had been bewitched by the Gascoigne who scored a spectacular goal for Spurs against bitter rivals Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final of 1991, on his way to becoming a national icon. Gazza was a Tottenham and England legend. Here was Ladak, a young man with no experience of football other than as a fan, working in partnership with his boyhood hero on an exciting new venture that would surely lead to bigger and better things. And he had put it all together, even if that had required little more than a telephone call and a three-hour conversation – and, of course, a significant amount of money.
‘It was a call out of the blue,’ Ladak said when asked to explain why he had gone after Gascoigne. ‘The three players I’ve admired most are Maradona, Ronaldinho and Paul. Ronaldinho’s under contract and Maradona’s not really management material.’ But was Gascoigne?
Gascoigne had convinced him that he could keep his drinking, and other problems, under control, and Ladak was having no truck with the doubters. He was keen to assure people that Gascoigne was a reformed character who was as committed to Kettering Town as he was. ‘From what I’ve heard, the one worry that people have got is that Paul may not be around for that long,’ he admitted to reporter Jon Dunham. ‘He has invested in the club. He is part of the consortium and he will be involved in the long term.’
Although he did not always answer his phone, Gascoigne gave every indication of having a genuine passion for the task ahead. While he was recovering from the operation on his neck, he often retreated to Champneys. There he had been transformed from the thin and wan man who had so disappointed Anna Kessel and shocked Mallinger to someone who appeared in reasonable health, other than having a big plaster on his neck, when he was unveiled as manager three-and-a-half weeks after Kessel’s Observer article was published. The pictures taken during and after the press conference on 27 October show a man enjoying being back in the limelight for purely footballing reasons. He was the charming, wise-cracking man who had captivated the nation, and it was good to see.
When Ladak spoke to him in the weeks leading up to that press conference, Gascoigne could be humble and keen to impress, even though he had found it odd being interviewed for a job by a man 10 years his junior. He studied videos of Kettering playing, and they talked about the type of players they should recruit. The disgraced former Manchester United and Chelsea player Mark Bosnich was mentioned as a possible goalkeeper. Other names bandied about included former England strikers Les Ferdinand, Teddy Sheringham and Steve McManaman.
Ladak could barely contain himself and spoke of signing ‘very big former internationals who have played Champions League football’. When the name of Graeme Le Saux, capped 36 times by England, was speculatively thrown into the hat, Ladak retorted, ‘Bigger than that.’
Ladak and Gascoigne also spent time discussing how they would take the playing staff full-time and introduce a reserve team, something that had been beyond the means of Mallinger. The Football League was the target – in three to five years, according to Gascoigne, who had convinced Ladak that he was not at fault for his rapid departure from his three previous ventures, as far apart as Lincolnshire, China and the Algarve. That was in the past and he had got his act together. He would deliver, and Ladak was willing to put his faith in a man he had idolised from the White Hart Lane stands.
Ladak, like so many over the years, was determined to give him the benefit of the doubt. He knew that Gascoigne’s name alone would bring in the crowds and he gave every impression that Kettering Town could blitzkrieg their way into the Football League. Gascoigne was just the man for attracting the players needed to achieve that goal.
Even those who thought his ambition naive at this ruthless level of semi-professional football lauded his enthusiasm. And Gascoigne had another big advantage: his name alone would open the door to potential sponsors. Gascoigne claimed as many as 40 were keen to get involved with him at Kettering.
The promises that he made to Ladak were the same ones he went on to make to the supporters of the club and the people of Kettering in general. Aware that his first venture into football management after years of negative headlines had attracted scepticism, Gascoigne met the critics head-on: ‘I’m not going in there saying, “I’m Paul Gascoigne, I want respect.” But I’ve always been a good person and that’s why I’ve never fallen out with any of the managers I’ve worked with these past 23 years. They respect me and not one has advised me not to do it. I’ve just got to make sure I do the right things as a manager. I won’t be making the club look like a circus. I shall be doing the job properly like the top managers.’
He wanted to be judged at face value, not by what the good folk of Kettering had been reading in their newspapers: ‘Local people will get to know me and when they do they will realise that I am an honest and genuine guy, and I will always try and give a good account of what’s happening at the football club.’
And he did try. After the game against Stafford Rangers, he had spent a good half-hour signing autographs, posing for pictures, shaking hands and exchanging small talk with a queue of excited football fans, young and old, which snaked around the back of the stand. He had stepped out from the boardroom to meet them with a smile on his face after a crowd had gathered around the entrance to chorus, ‘Gazza, Gazza, Gazza’ without a break for 20 minutes. They gave every indication they would carry on all night if necessary, and he clearly enjoyed the adulation. Mike Capps recalls, ‘They were asking him to sign just about anything … shirts, programmes, bits of card. If the kids had picked stones up off the ground, he’d have signed them.’
Indeed, for much of his time at Kettering, Gascoigne demonstrated a tolerance of supporters that put to shame those who would sneak out through side doors to avoid pesky fans. He was a genuine man of the people. Many top footballers, and other sportsmen, refuse to sign autographs for fear of them ending up on eBay or endorsing dodgy products. Gascoigne would sign almost anything put in front of him. He seemed to find it hard to say no.
And so Gazzamania came to Kettering, and it wasn’t only football fans who were whipped into a state of great excitement at the prospect of Gascoigne picking their team. The local MP, councillors of all political persuasions, business leaders and the solid, ordinary folk of a town hardly renowned for its football hysteria all threw their arms open to a man they felt was going to put Kettering in the spotlight. ‘To say the club had been put on the map nationally and internationally would be an understatement,’ says Kevin Meikle, who, in the way only sport seems to manage, got himself promoted from loyal fan to managing director in the aftermath of the takeover.
Local councillor Chris Smith-Haynes says there was ‘absolute elation’ in her neighbourhood at the news that Gascoigne was to be the club’s manager. ‘It was like the second coming,’ she enthuses. ‘There was great excitement. People were stopping and talking in the streets; there was a feel-good factor.’
Kettering MP Philip Hollobone couldn’t contain his enthusiasm as he predicted a positive impact ‘on all businesses and shops in the town’. The Tory politician gushed, ‘It is great for Kettering that a footballer as professional as Paul Gascoigne should take an interest in our main local football club.’ Gazza-inspired graffiti began appearing on the walls of buildings and fences in Kettering as the excitement spread. ‘Welcome to Kettering Gazza’ and ‘Gazza’s Army’ were among the sentiments spray-painted in the town centre.
As for the players, there was genuine excitement at the prospect of playing for a man they all claimed as their favourite footballer, even if there was regret over the obvious shadow cast over Wilson’s future. ‘When I was a kid, Paul Gascoigne was my hero and the chance to meet Gazza, it’s like you’re really nervous,’ said Wayne Diuk, a defender in his seventh season with the club. ‘But a lot of us were loyal to Kev and we were thinking, “If Gazza’s coming in, then where’s Kev going?” I didn’t want to see him stitched up.’
Andy Hall, a teenager busy trying to establish himself in the team, said, ‘When it was first being said, I just thought it was all talk. Then Gazza walks into the dressing room and he’s standing there, and you think, “Hey, this is an opportunity for me.”’
More experienced players found it hard to take it in. Christian Moore, a no-nonsense veteran of the non-League