Gary Lineker rejects Sir Alex Ferguson’s Paul Gascoigne reflection with Terry Venables tribute

Gary Lineker believes Terry Venables - not Sir Alex Ferguson - was the right man to manage Paul Gascoigne. The former England manager tragically passed away over the weekend aged 80 following a long illness.

While football fans may remember Venables best for leading the iconic Euro 96 campaign, which Gascoigne starred in, the duo also worked together at Tottenham Hotspur. It was Venables who signed the midfielder as a 21-year-old from under Manchester United’s noses.

Despite agreeing a fee with Newcastle United, Gascoigne snubbed an Old Trafford move at the last minute because Spurs promised to buy his parents a house - and his sister a sunbed. Ferguson called the rejection his “biggest disappointment” in management, insisting United would have helped Gascoigne avoid the dazzling London lights and eventual mental battles.

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"Losing out on him was the biggest disappointment of all,” Ferguson said in a previous interview. “He admits it was a mistake. Moving down to London can't be easy for any 19-year-old lad," Sir Alex explained.

"We could have taken London out the road of him. We had Bobby Charlton, a Geordie. We had Bryan Robson, a Geordie. We had a structure of players who could have helped him (and) given him some discipline."

However, former club and international teammate Lineker has refuted those claims. The Match of the Day host was part of the Tottenham side that won the FA Cup in 1991, a campaign Gascoigne starred in before infamously suffering an ACL injury 15 minutes into the final - which ruled him out for a year.

That game would ultimately prove Venables’ last in the Spurs dugout before he moved