[DavidT]

Originally Posted by whatever54

given how long-running his problems are and that his friends were funding treatment I struggle to understand why he didn't stay at the clinic longer. That article suggests he is going back to Bournemouth and going to start AA meetings again, deja vu. Best of luck to him but he has the benefit of hindsight from similar previous situations so I don't understand his logic. As Lexi said 3 months minimum, anything less sounds like a mini-break

I made much the same point on the other thread a few weeks ago. I'm no expert at all but given how deep rooted his problems are I would have thought several months in rehab would be a must. I can't see someone like him coping just going to AA meetings and so on. I mean he was injecting cocaine just a few weeks ago.

He has form for leaving early rehab early as well. I know they say the rehab was happy for him to go but its not a good sign to me.

A point I made in the other thread is that I don't really think he has ever been clean as such. When he wasn't drinking (as fas as we know) I read and saw several interviews and most mentioned his constant chain smoking and others his non-stop exercise regime. To me it just seemed he was replacing one addiction with another. One may not be as bad as the other, but addicted all the same. Anything he did had to be done to excess. Didn't seem to me he had ever really dealt with his problems.

I really hope he does get better but at the moment all I can't see anything except the next and perhaps final "relapse".

[Saltydog1955]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

It would need to be a bigger role than that somewhere bigger at a club like Man Utd. Somewhere he would have his own little role as part of a bigger setup. Being manager of a club is just all wrong for him. I know what Jimmy is getting at but I don't think that means he should be given up on as a lost cause. Someone, somewhere, surely could offer him a role of importance that involves football as many days a week as possible.

To be honest, I think he'd be regarded as too much of a liability for a big club like Man U, and he won't be fit for any kind of job until he's proved he can stay off the booze for a fair stretch of time.

It's his responsibility to try to help himself with support, not for someone to nanny him 7 days a week.

[Inspiration]

Originally Posted by Saltydog1955

To be honest, I think he'd be regarded as too much of a liability for a big club like Man U, and he won't be fit for any kind of job until he's proved he can stay off the booze for a fair stretch of time.

It's his responsibility to try to help himself with support, not for someone to nanny him 7 days a week.

Not saying he needs nannying, he just needs to be given a purpose. A reason to get up in the morning and a reason to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Something to give him pleasure and a reason to stay healthy. And football is as close to his heart as anything will be. If he can be given a football role that is serious and important, it's better than him having nothing. Surely football as a sport can give him that opportunity. It would be a shame if the sport can't help one of it's legends in this way.

[MJS]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

Not saying he needs nannying, he just needs to be given a purpose. A reason to get up in the morning and a reason to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Something to give him pleasure and a reason to stay healthy. And football is as close to his heart as anything will be. If he can be given a football role that is serious and important, it's better than him having nothing. Surely football as a sport can give him that opportunity. It would be a shame if the sport can't help one of it's legends in this way.

You idea is a good one, once he becomes sober. But personally I think at the present time it would be of little use. His purpose should be to get sober and stay sober.

His most important goal at the moment is to accept he is an achoholic, and that he can no longer control his life because of his drinking. He needs to re-evaluate his whole life, sort out his demons and his head and needs to accept the only way he can do this is without that drink. This takes time - a day at a time - not a quick 5 week stay in rehab. He probably feels euphoric at the moment, as his body is free of the drink, but unless he takes control then I see him back in rehab perhaps for the last time.

[janna]

He is nowhere near clean & sober. 5 weeks ago he was beer-logged & on the verge of death. Now he has dried out & regained some strength & that is the sum total of his 'rehab'. Just an expensive hospital stay really.
Think about it----he was seriously ill & confined to bed for weeks. So there was NO dealing with his mental issues during that period. After that he had two weeks tops with the experts wanting to sort his head issue out. Not enough. Plus,bear in mind HE signed himself out...he wasn't discharged.
He is already flogging his monotonous story to anyone who'll buy it & then the money amassed will be spent on drink as soon as the spotlight is off him. Will his child see any of the backlog of support payments? Nope,why break THAT habit. He is a loser & it astounds me people buy into his sob story. He had it all & wasted it ...again & again & again. George Best Mk2.

[dorydaryl]

5 weeks is nothing like enough. I hope he makes it but her really did need much longer, whatever anyone says. Did the funding run out?

[Osusana]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

Not saying he needs nannying, he just needs to be given a purpose. A reason to get up in the morning and a reason to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Something to give him pleasure and a reason to stay healthy. And football is as close to his heart as anything will be. If he can be given a football role that is serious and important, it's better than him having nothing. Surely football as a sport can give him that opportunity. It would be a shame if the sport can't help one of it's legends in this way.

He has been given this and more.
Given coaching jobs that did not exist but were created for him, assistant manager jobs and one ill-fated non-league management post.
Football has bent over backwards to give him support, qualifications and put him in contact with many, many job opportunities. He has flung that help back on every occasion and yet people in the game are still willing to support him.
Gascoigne needs to find peace within himself and a direction in his life that is not alcohol related. Being near football is not a good idea for that.

As for getting a job at my club - MUFC - never in a month of Sundays. He (like many addicts) will be attention seeking, self-obsessed and an appalling influence on the younger players (and maybe some senior ones).
SAF has more sense than to let him near his team

[DavidT]

Anyone see his interview on Sky today? I thought he looked very ill still. I'm not convinced at all he will be able to beat this but hope he does. One thing he said was that he was dry for long periods but then had binges. He said most of the time he wasn't drinking but had these relapses. What I can't understand though is how the other drugs fit in to all of it. If he was on a drinking binge why did he also start injecting cocaine at the same time?