Paul Gascoigne is regarded as one of England's most talented players but his run in the national team came to a sad end following his exclusion from Glen Hoddle's 1998 FIFA World Cup squad.
Gazza had put in a series of good performances to help the Three Lions qualify for the tournament but after a series of pictures were published of him eating kebabs late at night just a week before the tournament, Hoddle was swayed into dropping him after concerns over his fitness.
And despite being involved in the pre-tournament training camp, Gazza would not be on the plane to France, which resulted in him smashing Hoddle's hotel room "to bits" following the news.
Each player was individually summoned into Hoddle’s hotel room to learn of their fate ahead of the tournament squad selection, and Arsenal legend Ian Wright was next after Gazza. On the Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast in 2020, he said: "I was in next. I thought Glen was calling me in to tell me that he was not taking me for some reason but he called me in to tell me that he was and what he wanted me to do.
"I remember when I went in and we were actually talking about me being in the squad while cleaning the room up and fixing the mattress. The gaffer and me were talking about what he needed from me and Michael [Owen] all the time while we're tidying the room up – things had been smashed to bits! I was embarrassed because I was thinking about how the gaffer had to deal with Gazza going mad in the room. I just naturally went in and started helping tidy stuff up."
It was news that shocked the majority of the nation, seeing as Gazza had played an important role in England’s qualification to the tournament, although he struggled domestically with just three goals in 36 appearances for Rangers and Middlesbrough that campaign.
Would Paul Gascoigne have made a genuine difference to England's 1998 World Cup tournament? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Gazza had received several warnings over his fitness and Hoddle felt that he wasn’t up to standards for international football, with the then 31-year-old admitting in his autobiography that he proceeded to kick in the door, overturn a table and only just resist his urges to hit Hoddle. He would never feature for the Three Lions again.
Yet fast forward 12 years, following England's dire 2010 World Cup performance, Gazza admitted that Hoddle probably made the right decision to drop him from that 1998 World Cup squad. He said: “I had a situation with my ex-wife so credit to Hoddle. Even though I had my rows with him, he probably made the right decision.”
England ended up being knocked out in the Last 16 by Argentina on penalties at France ‘98, and even after David Beckham's red card in that match and their traditional heartbreaking exit on penalties in St Etienne, Hoddle's side was described as one of the most “expansive'' at the tournament.
But the decision to drop the much-adored Gazza is one that has divided opinion with the nation in the following years since that tournament, even to this present day, as England typically struggled. But one man who has stuck to his guns over his beliefs on excluding the player is Hoddle himself.
Speaking on ITV4's The Football Mavericks show in May 2015, the former England coach described axing Gazza's mercurial talent as his saddest moment as a manager, even if he refuses to back down on his decision to this day. He said: "I gave him so many opportunities to get himself fit.
“Six or seven months before, I said, 'Look, you've got to be fitter. This is another chance, this may be your last World Cup'. But you could see he was never fit. It was the saddest thing I've ever had to do, was leaving Paul Gascoigne out. And that was purely because he wasn't fit, and he wouldn't have been fit for the tournament.”
