Gazza - Middlesbrough

tomvallance1983

Well-Known Member
I was young when it happened, although I was gutted and thought it was a daft move at the time.

looking back now it seems even more mind boggling. We sold Gazza to Middlesbrough in March the year we were pushing for 10 in a row.

I know this wasn’t his best season but was there any other reason behind this move?
 
He was off the rails badly by that point and Walter seen him as a hinderence IIRC.

I as gutted too
Advocaat didn’t want him retained along with Goram et al, his form was honking and life got the better of him. We recouped a good chunk of our fee also, decline demonstrated by his following seasons. Real shame, love watching him. Can imagine how heartbreaking it must have been but with hindsight, right decision.

EDIT: didn’t mean to quote you mate :).
 
Couldn't get my head round it also as all we needed was 3 points towards getting us pushing towards 10 .I agree he had problems but to sell him so close towards end of seasons baffling or is my memory playing tricks.
 
He must have been the most frustrating guy to manage. You know there's brilliance in there, real genius. But off the field its a ticking time bomb.

Must actually be how Gerrard feels about Morelos to a lesser extent
 
The legs and football brain had gone by then. He was totally out of control tbh as gutted as we all were, it was the corret decision
 
A fit and focused Gazza would have helped us towards 10. He was neither & veering off the rails big time as mentioned above.

From what I remember it was Gazza’s agents agitating for the move rather than the club looking to offload. They probably saw it as one last payday, which it was as it turned out.
 
The sad truth is he was done as a footballer. Getting £3.5m from Boro was a brilliant bit of business. His subsequent lack of form and meltdown in La Manga simply backed that up.

Had we waited 2 months, his value would've hit zero and we'd have been paying off his rather expensive contract.
 
I seem to remember him being injured all the time.
I recently rewatched the Italia 90 doco about his time at Lazio and even then he had some ridiculous amount of operations.
 
I seem to remember him being injured all the time.
I recently rewatched the Italia 90 doco about his time at Lazio and even then he had some ridiculous amount of operations.
Tbf the whole reason we got him was the lazio and spurs injuries. Played 109 times for us in 2 and a half years I think, so injury didn’t seem too much of an issue. Perhaps your right though all that wear and tear from his youth was bound to catch up at some point.
 
Couldn't get my head round it also as all we needed was 3 points towards getting us pushing towards 10 .I agree he had problems but to sell him so close towards end of seasons baffling or is my memory playing tricks.

Both teams had seven games left when Gazza was sold. We actually won more points after selling Gazza than Celtic did.

Rangers 15/21
Celtic 12/21

We also scudded Celtic twice inside a week without him.
 
He must have been the most frustrating guy to manage. You know there's brilliance in there, real genius. But off the field its a ticking time bomb.

Must actually be how Gerrard feels about Morelos to a lesser extent

what has morelos done off the field that would class him as a ticking time bomb?
 
A fit and focused Gazza would have helped us towards 10. He was neither & veering off the rails big time as mentioned above.

From what I remember it was Gazza’s agents agitating for the move rather than the club looking to offload. They probably saw it as one last payday, which it was as it turned out.

They had spent the whole previous summer and the beginning of 97/98 season trying to get him either a new contract or a move to England. I'm positive the only teams who put bids in around then were newly promoted Crystal Palace and Sunderland who were in the First Division at the time which I think shocked his agents and showed where his stock lay down south.

Murray eventually caved and gave him a new 3 year deal in October 1997
 
what has morelos done off the field that would class him as a ticking time bomb?
Cheating on his pregnant Mrs? Going AWOL for a cup 1/4 final?

Also I did state "to a lesser extent" but to clarify with Morelos I meant more he's capable of genius, but hes a time bomb on the field too
 
I was mystified at the time as the guy could win a match on his own however behind the scenes, who knows what was happening. Hoddle leaving him out of his squad suggests that there was too much risk for him too.
 
By the time we sold him he was done and his form had dropped an awful lot. Arguably we should have sold him a lot sooner than what we actually did.

To get 3.5M for him was a great piece of business.
 
SDF thanks for reply,thought I would get reply on here.Didn't know we got more point in run as stated.This forum is always teaching and refreshing memories.Ta
 
I was young when it happened, although I was gutted and thought it was a daft move at the time.

looking back now it seems even more mind boggling. We sold Gazza to Middlesbrough in March the year we were pushing for 10 in a row.

I know this wasn’t his best season but was there any other reason behind this move?
Yes there was one big massive reason why Gazza was moved on and it was due to pressure from DA who was not even at the club. Murray surrendered to his wishes as he thought he had found some sort of a god.
 
Yes there was one big massive reason why Gazza was moved on and it was due to pressure from DA who was not even at the club. Murray surrendered to his wishes as he thought he had found some sort of a god.
If Walter didn’t want him sold during the season he wouldn’t have been.
 
He was off the rails badly by that point and Walter seen him as a hinderence IIRC.

I as gutted too
Don’t know if that’s j
If Walter didn’t want him sold during the season he wouldn’t have been.
No problem Dalmuir you are entitled to your opinion but I will stick to the facts of what actually happened. I’ve no doubt you also believe Walter left and was not sacked but hey ho everyone has an opinion.
 
Don’t know if that’s j

No problem Dalmuir you are entitled to your opinion but I will stick to the facts of what actually happened. I’ve no doubt you also believe Walter left and was not sacked but hey ho everyone has an opinion.
Gazza was a liability by that point. Are you telling me that if Walter thought he would have got us over the line to clinch the tenth that Murray would still have sold him?

You massively underestimate the size of our former chairman’s ego if so.
 
Gazza was a liability by that point. Are you telling me that if Walter thought he would have got us over the line to clinch the tenth that Murray would still have sold him?

You massively underestimate the size of our former chairman’s ego if so.
I am not telling you anything Dalmuir. As I said you are entitled to your opinion, however that’s all it is an opinion. You are obviously pretty close to SDM when you seem to know a lot about his ego.
Believe as you will I will stick to the truth as I know it.
 
Don’t know if that’s j

No problem Dalmuir you are entitled to your opinion but I will stick to the facts of what actually happened. I’ve no doubt you also believe Walter left and was not sacked but hey ho everyone has an opinion.

Advocaat wanted Gazza gone. That much is clear.

However, there isn't a doubt in my mind Murray would've kept him until summer and sold him if he felt we'd get a tune out of him for the final seven games.

Gazza was gone as a player by then. Heavier, slower and his drinking and behaviour had by this point gone beyond acceptable for Rangers.

Look at his Boro record for the rest of that season

8 games - 4 wins, 1 draw, 3 defeats. He was changing nothing that season for us.
 
I am not telling you anything Dalmuir. As I said you are entitled to your opinion, however that’s all it is an opinion. You are obviously pretty close to SDM when you seem to know a lot about his ego.
Believe as you will I will stick to the truth as I know it.
:D
 
Was pissed off at the time and always of the opinion that we would have won 10 if we had kept him. This is the first I've seen though that we won more points than Celtic in the 7 games after he left so it's hard to argue with the logic in selling him.
 
Rumours of off-field incident with Murray.

Apparently he forced him out.
Hadn’t heard that one before.

By the spring of 1998, all that Gascoigne cared about was his next drink and his place in the England squad for the World Cup... he was in pieces and those were his immediate and medium term targets.

Rangers did well to get the £3m or so for him, as SDF says if it had been left to the summer then Rangers would have struggled to give him away.
Advocaat clearly wanted nothing to do with him at Ibrox for the next season (or a deal would have been on the table) and I think Gascoigne had mentally checked out of Rangers as a result.

I loved Gascoigne, it genuinely was a dream come true for me when he signed, but he was gone as a footballer and in bits as a person by March 1998. I was furious at the transfer right at the time but by the time news of Gascoigne & Merson necking bottles of wine all night and getting taxis to training came out then you can see that Rangers made the right decision for Rangers.
 
They had spent the whole previous summer and the beginning of 97/98 season trying to get him either a new contract or a move to England. I'm positive the only teams who put bids in around then were newly promoted Crystal Palace and Sunderland who were in the First Division at the time which I think shocked his agents and showed where his stock lay down south.

Murray eventually caved and gave him a new 3 year deal in October 1997
Aston Villa were the other team quoted constantly that autumn... I’m sure he was even seen in a hospitality box at a Villa match at one point.

On the debate raging about Advocaat’s role in this... if your current manager has said that he is leaving at the end of the season, and the guy you are investing in for next season has said that he doesn’t want Player A, who has gone off the rails since you handed him a new contract, then selling him to the first club that offer the magic number that you have in your head is a sensible outcome.
 
Don’t know if that’s j

No problem Dalmuir you are entitled to your opinion but I will stick to the facts of what actually happened. I’ve no doubt you also believe Walter left and was not sacked but hey ho everyone has an opinion.
Can't say I've heard this before, care to elaborate?
 
Gazza started the 97-98 season brightly and turned in a great display when we beat Dunfermline 7 nil, plus he played a big part in getting England to the world cup with a masterclass in Italy.

Just shortly afterwards Walter announces he is off so I am just wondering just like other players they knew deep down they were on their way it may have caused Gazza to lose focus and trigger off some of his old demons.
 
In his book, Gazza acknowledges that he was drinking heavily that season, often missing training and understood why Rangers wanted him moved on.
 
Gazza started the 97-98 season brightly and turned in a great display when we beat Dunfermline 7 nil, plus he played a big part in getting England to the world cup with a masterclass in Italy.

Just shortly afterwards Walter announces he is off so I am just wondering just like other players they knew deep down they were on their way it may have caused Gazza to lose focus and trigger off some of his old demons.

Seemed to go tits up after he was sent off at the piggery in the game that Stubbs scored in the last minute.

Actually, it might be the mists of time but I can’t actually remember him doing anything after that that season. That said I was still gutted at the time as I loved Gazza but the facts laid out in this thread show it absolutely the right move for Rangers.
 
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