Book quotes and pictures

CHAPTER ONE
‘I told him they would be lookalikes, that there’d be some sort of competition on in Kettering that afternoon' - pub landlord Jim Wykes

“He was quite happy to sign autographs at first but when it got too busy he got a bit agitated” - Jim Wykes

He sneered at me, he didn’t like that at all. He didn’t say anything but just gave me a look that said “no” - Jim Wykes

“I stood there thinking why on earth would Paul Gascoigne want to be chatting to non-League footballers.” - football reporter Jon Dunham

CHAPTER TWO
'It’s not nice having your throat opened up and have them mess with your spine' - Paul Gascoigne

‘In England, there are too many people using him' - Corrado Correggi

‘Unfortunately these days I don’t get up and just get paid every month. I have to work for a living' - Paul Gascoigne

CHAPTER THREE
‘There was him in one room telling me Paul wasn’t drinking and Paul in the other room drinking my bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream' - Peter Mallinger

‘The three players I’ve admired most are Maradona, Ronaldinho and Paul. Ronaldinho’s under contract and Maradona’s not really management material' - Imraan Ladak

‘He has invested in the club. He is part of the consortium and he will be involved in the long term' - Imraan Ladak

'I won’t be making the club look like a circus' - Paul Gascoigne

‘It was like the second coming...people were stopping and talking in the streets; there was a feel-good factor' - local councillor Chris Smith-Haynes

'Then Gazza walks into the dressing room and he’s standing there, and you think, Hey, this is an opportunity for me' - Andy Hall

'I kept telling myself, it’s Paul Gascoigne, I’m going to be playing for Gazza. I’m going to do my best to make sure I’m a part of this' - Neil Midgley

‘This was Paul Gascoigne and people had stars in their eyes...what do you do?' - former director Dave Dunham

'There were a lot of people in Kettering who were just overtaken by it all' - Dave Dunham

CHAPTER FOUR
‘I sat there wishing I wasn’t there, feeling like a spare prick at a wedding - Kevin Wilson

'My long-term goal is to become a top-class manager and I’m delighted that I am beginning my journey here at Rockingham Road' - Paul Gascoigne

'I think he lived in a bubble. I’m not sure how aware he was of anything that wasn’t directly affecting him' - Jon Dunham

CHAPTER FIVE
'Everything I do is positive. It’s just unfortunate that people write lies and wrong things' - Paul Gascoigne

'Suddenly everybody wanted to be seen wearing a Kettering Town shirt' - Peter Mallinger

CHAPTER SIX
'I’ve done every job you can think of in this club from the tea man up' - Paul Gascoigne

'You couldn’t help but think, “Am I going to be got rid of?”’ - Christian Moore

'These are my players, it’s my team, my club and now it’s my town' - Paul Gascoigne

CHAPTER SEVEN
'When someone rings you up and says Paul Gascoigne wants to talk to you, you’ve got to think it might be one of your mates winding you up' - Andy Hall

'The person I remember seeing on TV compared to the guy standing before me, I could have sworn it was a different bloke' - Wayne Diuk

'He was shaking. To most of the lads he was a hero but it was like he had no confidence, he was shy, he was very nervous. I wanted to give him a hug and say, “Come on, you’re Paul Gascoigne, you don’t need to be nervous here"' - Christian Moore

'Obviously they hadn’t watched the Conference North much because you just don’t get time like that. Basically, it’s just 22 people running round like headless chickens' - Wayne Diuk

‘I looked at Jamie Paterson and started laughing. That’s when I thought, “This isn’t going to work".' - Christian Moore

'They kept telling us we were good players but they didn’t know where to start with us' - Neil Midgley

CHAPTER EIGHT
'They had no clothes on and he had his suit, which got soaked. It was strange' - Droylsden manager Dave Pace

'There were a few times when he was reduced to tears before the game. He’d say things to us like, “You’re my boys, we’re Kettering Town.” Looking back, it was all a little bit cringeworthy' - Brett Solkholn

‘Cry in a minute, he’s going to cry in a minute' - Stevenage fans

CHAPTER NINE
'With all the press that had started following us around, I was amazed there wasn’t a reporter there to see it' - Brett Solkholn

'As a player, you’d see someone stumbling about before a game and think, “This isn’t right,” but you’ve just got to get on with it' - Andy Hall

'Half the lads were in the shower but he just walked in and talked to them' - Stalybridge manager John Reed

'A lot of the fans from Redditch stayed behind to get his autograph and he just ran through them all' - Jon Dunham

'The lads started to question the management and felt it was a bit of a joke. The novelty wore off very quickly' - Brett Solkholn

'The pressure of a manager’s job was just too much for him. Imraan was so close to getting it right but he could do nothing about Paul’s drink problem' - Peter Mallinger

CHAPTER 10
'The chairman has got a good knowledge of football. I call him the young Ken Bates. But it will be me who brings in the players' - Paul Gascoigne

'Some people got really upset with him but in many cases, rightly or wrongly, people accepted it because of who he was' - Peter Mallinger

'It was a sham. If everything about Gascoigne had been absolutely right, then he would not have been looking to manage Kettering Town' - Dave Dunham

CHAPTER 11
‘He was drunk before that game. He just wasn’t coping' - Brett Solkholn

'Anything could have been happening. It could have been a juggler coming in to play centre-half for all I knew' - Christian Moore

'The next thing is Gazza’s ripped the phone out of Andy’s hand and he’s just ranting down the phone at me, ranting and ranting about Imraan and how he’s been shit on' - Wayne Diuk

‘I lost confidence that Paul was making decisions with a clear mind' - Imraan Ladak

'It was a matter of: is Gazza going to turn up? He didn’t. But I think Kev would have loved that. I think Kev might well have just turned round and bopped him one' - Wayne Diuk

CHAPTER 12
‘All this anger over kettering town lol, take a chill gazza' - internet posting

'The worst thing was Gazza just started laughing hysterically. He seemed to think it was hilarious' - photographer Steve Farrell

'I believe the one person who was advising Paul gave him some very bad advice' - Imraan Ladak

'When I talk about Paul I can’t help but think of George Best and what happened to him' - Brian Laudrup

CHAPTER 13
‘People watching that interview were seeing what we’d seen for a long time. The players allknew how bad he’d been the night before and how much it had hurt him to get sacked' - Brett Solkholn

I’m sacked but I’m turning up. I’m sacked but I’m turning up. I am sacked from … well, I’m not sacked, at the end of the day I own the club, I run the club, I don’t own it but I still do, regardless' - Paul Gascoigne

'I would have give in two years ago, but now I’m stronger and I’m the man, I’m a genius and I know what goes on on the football field' - Paul Gascoigne

CHAPTER 14
‘I was fuming. You don’t try to get rid of a player via some PR bloke. So I told him he was taking the piss and I wasn’t accepting it' - Christian Moore

'He was crying, saying he had wanted to keep me, it was Imraan who wanted rid of me, that he was being stitched up - Christian Moore

'Paul Gascoigne and Paul Davis were from a different level of football completely and they didn’t get how a club like Kettering worked' - Christian Moore

CHAPTER 15
‘We’d got through the Gascoigne period, we’d survived, we’d had our three minutes of fame, and now everything was going to be hunky-dory again' - Neil Midgley

'There had been all this money flying about and I was absolutely astounded when I saw what some of the new players were on' - Kevin Wilson

'You’d think 39 days isn’t that long but it was, and there had been too much in-fighting. Morale had gone' - Wayne Diuk

CHAPTER 16
'I was kicking myself. I should have asked for more but I was too busy thinking what Gazza would be like' - Ryan-Zico Black

'I knew something was going on, though, and I started to wonder who wanted me there' - Ryan-Zico Black

'He was too busy having a slanging match with Paul Gascoigne live on Sky Sports News' - Ryan-Zico Black

CHAPTER 17
'He said to me, “I can get you 40 grand,”and I was like, wow, all I could see was pound signs' - Wayne Diuk

'He was a genuinely nice bloke and, if he said he was going to get Robbie Williams, then he would try to get you Robbie Williams' - Christian Moore

'He has not been in football since I sacked him and I do feel I let him down in a way' - Imraan Ladak

'It’s just, “Here’s some more booze and just keep giving me money.” I think deep down he’s a nice person but people have taken advantage of him, which is wrong' - Wayne Diuk