Paul Gascoigne picks his #One2Eleven on The Fantasy Football Club

Thursday 24 December 2015 15:44, UK

Former England, Tottenham and Newcastle midfielder Paul Gascoigne picks his #One2Eleven on The Fantasy Football Club.

In a 4-3-1-2 formation, Gazza has gone for a team made up of ex-England players he played alongside and has also included a few entertaining stories about each of them.

GOALKEEPER: David Seaman

I played with some great goalkeepers. Shilts [Peter Shilton] was class and when I signed for Rangers, someone told me Andy Goram had not made a mistake in 18 months but because I scored that goal past him, he's not making the 11.

I'm going for Seaman, what a goalkeeper. He would have been better if he'd got that mullet cut. I don't think he realised how good he was. The two penalty saves he made in Euro 96, I know he didn't really go for the one I scored against him, bless him. He said he got his studs caught in the ground... perhaps he should have been using them ice skates he wore on 'Strictly Come Dancing on Ice'!

But what a goalkeeper. He trained hard and he was funny as well. He was my fishing partner too - saved my life once when I fell in!

He was behind Shilts and Chris Woods at the World Cup and did his finger and didn't make it, I felt so gutted for him.

Some of the saves he used to pull off... I did score a few goals against him, but some of the saves in Euro 96... he was solid. He didn't say much and just concentrated on his game.

RIGHT-BACK: Gary Neville

I was fortunate to play with some great right-backs but it's got to be Gary Neville. Only because his fitness... you see players today as wing-backs, getting forward, getting round the back and whipping in crosses and people say this is the new game, but he was doing it 10 to 15 years ago.

He had a funny run on him and he was a moaner but what Sir Alex Ferguson did with him at Manchester United was amazing. He came on leaps and bounds. He was confident, he was a really quiet lad but he got stuck in and he was a team player.

He was a guy that you would never see jogging back - he was up and down that line. He was an honest player, he moaned a lot but it has to be Gary Neville.

CENTRE-BACK: Terry Butcher

Tony Adams was phenomenal, I really wanted to pick Tony, he put his head where some people wouldn't put their feet. He was a great leader but I picked Terry because when I first got in the England squad, in the dressing room and we're getting ready to go, Terry Butcher looked at me and he said: 'This is my house. No one comes into my house and takes anything. This is my house. You remember who you're playing for.

That Sweden game, when he got the big cut and blood all over him and I was looking at him getting stitched up. Bobby Robson grabbed me and went 'you come with me', and I hadn't even played. I'm looking over at Terry Butcher and Sir Bobby said to me 'that's what it's like to play for England, that is what it's like.

Terry was a big lad, but he had a good touch on him and he was great in the air. Just like Tony (Adams), he would put his head anywhere. He would kick his granny, him. A solid bloke and I wouldn't have like to have played against him.

CENTRE-BACK: Gary Mabbutt

When I first went to Tottenham, we had a car park and in the car park, we had a hanging rope with a ball on it and I thought 'what's that for?' All of a sudden, I see Mabbutt heading the ball.

The first game away we played at Manchester City and we get on the bus afterwards and he pulls his pants down and injects his leg, and I say 'what are you doing there?'. He went 'I'm injecting my leg', so I said 'what for?'. He said 'I'm diabetic'. 'What's that?' I said. 'My sugar level's up and down'. I said 'How often do you have to do that?'. 'Every day, three times a day,' he said. To go through his career like he did, wow. What a bloke.

He was definitely underrated, he could have played more times for England. In training, he was the only guy I couldn't beat, I just couldn't beat him. There was a couple of times when he collapsed at home and I had to go and pick him up, bring him round and take him to the match. One of the reasons I'm picking him is because in training, when I was free to do anything, I just couldn't get the ball past him.

LEFT-BACK: Stuart Pearce

I dare not leave this guy out. I was fortunate enough to play with Stuart Pearce. He used to deliberately wear little pairs of shorts so his thighs looked massive. He was a strong bloke and when he scored that penalty (at Euro 96), I was proud of him after he missed that one in the World Cup, because he had the balls to go up and take it, whereas I didn't because my head wasn't there.

You saw his reaction - he had waited six years to do that. I remember one tackle - I was so glad I wasn't a right winger playing against him - it was a crunching tackle, on Pat van den Hauwe. The ball flew about 40 yards, wow. The noise that came from that tackle was incredible.

He had a free-kick on him. He could smash the ball in the back of the net. What I like about Stuart Pearce as well is he came from a tough background, from where he was to playing in the World Cup. I'll go for Pearce, he was a solid guy and I wouldn't have liked to have messed with him or played right wing.

CENTRE MIDFIELD: Bryan Robson

My favourite player of all time. I actually call him 'dog poo' because he is everywhere. I had the chance to play against him when I was 17. I always remember when he used to play for West Brom and he had that curly daft hair and I remember him running from box-to-box and he scored a header from about 18 yards out.

For someone to come back from three broken legs and still play the way he played was phenomenal... captain of England. When I played for England, he said 'Listen Gazza, you can't tackle'. I said 'I can', and he says 'well, why have you had three operations already then?' He said 'right, any tackles or challenges in the air, you leave them to me. I will take the cuts and bruises but when I give you the ball, make sure you do something with it'.

For that to come from an England captain after what he achieved for England himself was just unbelievable. The guy was phenomenal and everyone looked up to him as a player, a great bloke. He is a one-off. He was one of the reasons I didn't sign for Manchester United. Fergie had (Neil) Webb and Bryan Robson. Where would I have fitted in? One of the greatest players of all time, for me. If I'd had end-to-end stuff like him, I like to think I'd have been even better.

RIGHT MIDFIELD: Chris Waddle

This guy was phenomenal. The goalkeeper throws it out just near the halfway line, for Tottenham, and it's come to Chris Waddle. I've turned because it's gone over my head and Chris is attacking, but what he's done, he's half-volleyed it over my head, I've turned to get at him and he's half-volleyed it over my head again and ran away.

I'm near the bench and I just stood and applauded him because that was brilliant. Terry Venables shouts 'what are you doing?', I said 'did you see that?' He's like 'get after him', but by that time it's too late.

When Chris Waddle dropped his shoulder, half the stadium left. One game, after he moved to Marseille, I went to watch him and it was a Champions League game. He battered AC Milan all game and he scored with a back-heel. He was miles apart from anyone else, his skill was unbelievable. Even late on in his career, he was still playing unbelievable football, still scoring goals and he was probably one of my best friends too. What a player.

LEFT MIDFIELD: John Barnes

I was going to pick (Brian) Laudrup, he was phenomenal for Glasgow Rangers but I'm going for John Barnes. You can't leave the guy out. For what he did, he grafted back. The goal he scored against Brazil, I mean what a goal that was. I would have been proud of that one. The crossing he had on him, the free-kicks, his control... even his belly!

Imagine the two of them (Barnes and Waddle). And what was good about them was they could swap either side. Barnesy had both feet as well. We don't have that now for England, do we? Someone that is perfect with both feet. If you ever wanted a break for five minutes, just give it to Barnes or Waddle.

John Barnes, I think, was sometimes underrated, some of the stick he used to get from England fans. I didn't like that because they didn't realise how good of a player he was. And he is a genuine nice guy, so that must have hurt him and I didn't like it. But what a player.

ATTACKING MIDFIELD: Peter Beardsley

Probably the most unselfish player I have ever met in my life. He would rather set someone up for them to take the headlines, than himself. People didn't realise how much work the guy put in.

Peter was always available, he wasn't frightened to tackle, phenomenal finisher but his passing ability... there were loads of times when I was watching, thinking 'go on Peter, have a shot', and he would see someone and, bang, it was in the back of the net. He would always look for someone else. That was his first objective, to look for a team-mate straight away.

One of the nicest blokes I've ever met. Great, great friend and I still speak to him all the time. We play five-a-side and he has still got it. I remember one game at Newcastle when I was an apprentice. We were playing Manchester City and Peter's done a sliding tackle and he's dinked it from the edge of the 18-yard box over Joe Corrigan, who was on the six-yard box. Anyone who has played with him will say what a brilliant player he was, that jink he had. You knew what he was going to do, but you couldn't stop him. One hell of a player. In today's game, he could have named his own price.

STRIKER: Gary Lineker

Unbelievable amount of goals from outside the box... zero! He was always in the right place at the right time. We signed him when I was at Spurs and I said to Terry Venables, 'what's he like?', and he said 'he can score, this guy'. I knew he was a good player, I'd seen him at the World Cup. So in the first four games, he's not scored so I said to Terry, 'I thought you said he was good and could score'.

Then he scored four and Venables said 'Gazza, shh'. He got 38 goals that season and he won the Golden Boot and he was phenomenal. It took me a while to work him out. He used to give me little signals to let me know whether he wanted it short or if he was going to join in behind. He caught pigeons on his day off, he was so quick.

You know what I liked about him, his body. What a lovely body. Unbelievable, it was so smooth. I fancied him. Honestly I really did. I used to see him getting a massage after the game and I thought 'wow, he's beautiful'. Against Holland in the World Cup, it was hot that day and he worked so hard for the team. He lost 12lbs that day. He worked really hard and what a finisher. And he is a really good lad. I used to leave training early and park my car in his space, so he had to park his car on the road and get a ticket. Terry Venables used to tell me 'stop parking in his driveway'. What a striker.

STRIKER: Alan Shearer

I was at Newcastle and he was making his debut for Southampton and I didn't really know who he was, but the guy was phenomenal. After the game, I put my arm around him and said 'you stick in there son, and you're going to be a decent player', he just looked at me and said 'aye, cheers Gazza', and that was it.

But wow, this guy could score. Outside the box, inside the box, he had a free-kick on him like a rocket. What I liked about Shearer was he didn't like getting messed about. He gave it as good as he took it. He would get rattled and he hated it, but he wouldn't roll over. He'd be straight back up. The only player close to him in the modern game is Diego Costa.

He had a bad ligament injury and he came through that. One of the good things with Shearer, even though he got rattled, he never let anyone know. He was always quiet and just got on with it and you knew he was going to get his own back. He just knew where the net was.

Last week, I was watching his '100 Greatest Goals' on Sky and some of them were absolutely phenomenal. I had a bit of a lump in my throat watching it. I used to go training up at Newcastle and I would see him in the gym, I would be training and he would be counting his money! I went to his testimonial and I had tears in my eyes. He went back there and he showed them he had it.