When you are already in a hole the general advice is to “stop digging.” When your own manager is so petrified by what’s coming out of your mouth that he begs you to “leave it to the lawyers” then that’s probably the kind of advice you should be taking.
Not Paul Gascoigne. Not the clown Steven Gerrard says is an inspiration to him as a footballer and as a man. He is not going to bother taking anyone’s advice. Because in spite of making a fool of himself over and over and over again of late, he knows best.
Tonight, in a series of tweets – some of which he deleted but only after the media had got hold of them and various people had done the whole copy and paste bit – he has lashed out against the cops who arrested him, the system that has charged him, and, basically, the world in general in a Twitter outburst that is Trumpian in its capacity for self-destruction.
They could, of course, also be construed as a naked attempt to turn his Twitter horde against the victim, which is a page out of the Donald Trump playbook all by itself.
Although he doesn’t urge that, anyone with half a brain knows that when you tweet to the world that you “did f*** all wrong” you’re not simply trying hard to exonerate yourself but saying that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.
I cannot repeat this enough times; Scottish football was all set to honour this guy, this guy who doesn’t even appear to realise when he’s crossed a line.
In the aftermath of the arrest he was cracking jokes about this on Twitter.
Tonight, even as he bleats for sympathy, he signs off one tweet “BIG HUGS FROM GAZZA OH INFACT I BETTER NOT SAY THAT.”
Amidst the crocodile tears, this geezer still thinks this is a laughing matter.
The scenario he describes – where he gave her a peck on the cheek to make her feel better after someone called her a “fat cow” – is ludicrous at best; nobody gets charged for doing that. It wouldn’t happen if Suzanne Moore was Home Secretary and writing the laws.
The accusation is “sexual assault by touching” which suggest something more serious.
His behaviour here reeks of “lads, look what they are doing to me; it could be you next”.
It’s a common defence of men in power who find themselves on the end of these sort of allegations.
It’s also one of the most fraudulent.
The allegation that he’s Mr Handyman – can’t keep them to himself – is not unique to these charges. It’s been levelled against him before, of course. On the night he was thrown down a flight of stairs in a hotel, witnesses describe him as being drunk, foul-mouthed, racist and groping women.
He could just as easily have stood charges for that as for this.
Look, as I said earlier, we’re not here to judge his innocence or his guilt in this case. We know he has history. But he does himself no favours, and this kind of behaviour is typical of him. His tweets are self-pitying nonsense. His is a disgrace as a human being.
And I repeat, and I will keep repeating it because it’s important and it’s the sole reason I’m writing this second article in the first place; Scottish football was getting set to honour this guy and a lot of people in the game and in the media think we should have.
He has always had, and continues to have, way too many people making excuses for his behaviour.
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