I know not all people agree but I feel very sorry for the bloke. Alcoholism is such a misunderstood illness.
Most alcoholics drink not because they enjoy getting rat-arsed and falling over the place and embarrassing themselves, but because they have turmoil in their lives that they're struggling to cope with. Gascoigne has clearly had many problems over the years that he hasn't be able to put to bed.
Divorcing the mother of his kids, becoming estranged from his kids, not finding a replacement for the buzz playing football, feeling paranoid and humiliated by the press hacking his phone, not being able to find steady work. All of these things have contributed to him building a prison for himself inside his head that he feels trapped in. Obviously for him the only way he can escape the torture of thinking about all of his problems is having a drink, even if he can forget about his sadness for just a few hours he will do it.
He's recently signed up to twitter and it personally makes me smile whenever he tweets because it's a nice reassurance to know that he's feeling okay. He's engaging with people instead hiding away and when you're depressed even the smallest act of kindness, like reading nice tweet someone has sent you, can help cheer you up tremendously.
I hope one day he finally kicks alcohol for good and finds peace but people shouldn't be so quick to just discard him whenever he slips up. It's not his fault that whenever he has a bad time that it ends up on the front of the national papers for the entire country to see. How would any of us like it if in our dark moments there was paparazzi taking photos of us and then writing really hurtful and innacurate articles that millions of people will read and believe? He deserves a bit of dignity.
.......Kick her in the fannie, Gazza.
