The New Best Man

‘AS it was with Princess Di, so it is with George Best, whose bodiless head hangs on the front-page of the Sun..

Like Di, Best is the celebrity that will not go peacefully. And here he is, appearing as a ghostly warning to Paul Gascoigne to “Get help now…or end up like Bestie.” This is a “WARNING TO GAZZA”.

It’s a similar thing on the cover of the Mirror, although with no picture of Best. There’s a looming shot of Paul Gascoigne, newly freed on bail from 14 hours in police custody on an allegation that he assaulted a photographer.

And here’s the headline: “I’M NO BESTIE.” Gazza’s not wrong. Whereas Best only inflicted damage on his own liver, and latterly one borrowed from a donor, the allegation is that Gazza has wounded the face of one Steve Farrell.

The other key difference is that, as the Mirror’s front-page shot reveals, Gazza is not Best yellow but red in the face.

But this is the tale of a former top footballer who likes a drink, and the temptation to draw parallels with Best is too great for the papers to ignore.

Although Gazza tells the Mirror, “I’m not like him [Best]. I’ve got my alcoholism under control”, the Mirror employs a sports writer to pen a piece entitled: “TRAGIC ECHOES OF SAD GEORGE.”

Not only has George Best – four Miss Worlds, lots of gongs and all but a State funeral – been dubbed “SAD”, but

he’s now been bracketed with Gazza, a man who married someone called Sheryl, whom he allegedly hit, has behaved like a buffoon and once cried on the pitch.

So here’s Oliver Holt saying: “It didn’t take Paul Gascoigne too long to start playing catch-up with George Best.”

And it’s worse in the Sun. “It’s awful to see someone suffering like George..Paul must end the drink binges,” says Professor Roger Williams, George Best’s surgeon.

Should Gazza’s liver give up on him, perhaps the good professor would be so kind as to tell us of any similarities between the two organs.

And while we’re waiting for that, if Gazza could just grow a beard and feel up Terry Wogan’s knee, so much the better…’

Posted: 7th, December 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink