Paul Gascoigne shows Jack Wilshere and England the way forward

After his stirring performance for England on Sunday, Jack Wilshere revealed he had a new source of inspiration. He had been watching a documentary about Paul Gascoigne and seeing footage of the young Gazza taking Italia 90 by storm, the Arsenal man had tried to play against Slovenia as the then Newcastle midfielder did in that tournament.

He tried to be bold, to attack without fear, to play his natural game. And the result was two coruscating goals, one of which was as good as any by an England player in a decade. He owed Gazza for those, he said. He dedicated them to the former maestro.

The idea of Gazza as a role model will amuse many. I recall once interviewing the great Dino Zoff who had been Gascoigne’s team coach when he had played at Lazio in the early 90s. Still enormously fond of the player, Zoff had asked what he was then doing. I responded that he was trying to make his way as a manager, having just taken the job at Kettering Town.

Zoff found the idea of Gazza being a manager so ridiculous he started laughing. Not just giggling but rocking back and forth, roaring with mirth, to the point that tears were rolling down his cheeks. “Gass-goigne manager! Ha ha ha! Gass-coigne manager! Ha ha ha!” he kept repeating, as if the idea were the most preposterous thing he had ever heard.

And, in a way, it was. In the self-disciplined world of Italian football, Gazza was way too wayward and out-of-control to ever be considered managerial material. But it was that very singularity, that very unhingedness, that made Gazza such a revelation in 1990. He played without consideration of the consequence, he played without concern, he played without responsibility. As a result he was absolutely superb.

Watching footage of that tournament 25 years on – as Wilshere has just done – is to be reminded what an impact Gazza made. Playing as if in the playground or on the street, unworried by the importance of the occasion, not cowed or constrained, he drove England forward. Sure, this was a talented side, the best since the 1970 World Cup, filled with excellent players like Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and Gary Lineker. But Gazza was its beating heart, its engine, its forward thrust. And most important of all, its ambition.

It is in the way he played that he is such an inspiration. So many who have followed him since have been burdened by the pressure of representing their country, failing to reproduce their club form, as if the very act of pulling on the national jersey somehow emasculated them. Thinking across the 25 years since Gazza’s time, only Wayne Rooney in the 2004 Euros has come close to repeating his feat. Most just quake with fear. Instead of being cowed, nervy, contained, Gazza looked as if he was having the time of his life in 1990.

Sadly, he probably was. A brief flowering in Euro 96 aside, he certainly never replicated that performance. He was wonderful then, but the emotional energy he displayed in that showing turned to self-destruction. Self-inflicted wounds prevented him ever becoming the dominant force that he threatened to be 25 years ago this week.

Wilshere’s point, however, remains a pertinent one. If young English players could only play like Gazza did back in that Italian summer then England could only benefit. Throw off the shackles, have fun, put the smile back on their faces and watch the results flow.

It is, however, easier said than done. You can almost guarantee that the final words spoken by every single England manager since 1990 as they sent their players out on to the pitch has been “enjoy yourselves”. Everyone knows that reducing stress and relaxing is the best way to unlock performance. Doing it, however, with all the concomitant pressures stacking up on the shoulders, is no simple task. The truth is no one ever looked as if they were having fun under Steve McClaren or Fabio Capello’s stewardship.

In a way, Gascoigne was lucky. His character shielded him from the wider meaning of his position. Naïve, child-like, unencumbered by adult responsibility, at times he was a wholly exasperating colleague. Gary Lineker is incapable of talking about his former team-mate without a rueful shake of the head at the memory of his antics around the England camp.

His very lack of appreciation was often infuriating for those who realised representing their country was serious business. How they wished he might knuckle down and stop arsing around. But he couldn’t help himself. He behaved as he played: without any boundaries of constraint. Most players do not share that happy-go-lucky predilection. And it is not something that can be quickly learned.

But Wilshere’s attempt to embrace the Gascoigne approach clearly paid dividends in Slovenia. Go for it, show yourself, be bold: these is nothing wrong with that as a guiding philosophy. And now Wilshere has shown the way, confidence will pour through the side. The task will be to exploit that, make the most of the bubbling excitement, bottle it and use it.

How successfully that can be done will now largely depend on the manager creating an environment in which pressure is reduced, opportunity opened up for free expression, hair let down. That will be some challenge for the man in charge. Because until now, it has been the rarest of occasion when the words enthusiasm and Roy Hodgson have shared the same sentence.