Paul Gascoigne makes brutal Rangers comment as he names best career moment

Former England international Paul Gascoigne has admitted that Rangers gave him one of the highlights of his career but made a confession about his time at Ibrox

Rangers legend Paul Gascoigne says he could have played blindfolded at Rangers he was that much better than everyone else in a brutally honest admission about his time in Scottish football.

In the summer of 1995, Gazza arrived at Ibrox for a club-record fee as he attempted to get his career back on track. The iconic midfielder had faced his share of struggles towards the end of his time at Lazio and signed for Walter Smith’s side in search of a fresh start.

Gascoigne soon found what he had been looking for at Rangers, scoring 19 goals in his first season, including a memorable hat-trick against Aberdeen as the Gers clinched the league title in the penultimate game. Despite being regarded as one of the most naturally gifted players of his generation, Gascoigne initially felt some scepticism from onlookers but confessed that the standard of the league allowed him to flourish.

Asked about the best moments in his career, Gascoigne told the Rest is Football podcast: “The highlight of my career was when I went to Scotland. The press said I wouldn’t do well up there. I played blindfolded up there, Jesus Christ!

“To score the hat-trick, because I’d never really won a championship medal. The FA Cup final [with Tottenham Hotspur], I only played about 12 minutes [due to injury]. So to score a hat-trick to win the league for Rangers was an unbelievable feeling.

“That was some highlight. I just remember going to collect all of the awards: I won players’ player, I won sports writers’ player of the year. I cleaned up the first year.”

The success would continue in his second season as the club once again won a league and cup double. However, Gazza, who has since had a well-documented battle with alcoholism, revealed that a rather unique team talk inspired his brace in the 1996 League Cup final, which ended in a 4-3 win over Hearts.

“I remember, we were playing the Scottish [League] Cup final. I didn’t have the best of first halves and Archie Knox went, ‘Have you had a drink?’ I said, ‘No’. He went, ‘Go and get one’. So I remember going in the directors’ box, ‘Give us a tripe brandy, that’s nice, give us another couple, I had nine brandies,” he added.

“I went back to the dressing and they asked me, ‘Have you had a drink?’ I said. ‘Yeah, gaffer’, and they said, ‘Get out there and do the business’. I scored two in 10 minutes, I was f****** brilliant!”

Gascoigne only spent three seasons at Rangers but left a lasting impact, being inducted into the club’s hall of fame in 2006. He won two league titles, the Scottish Cup and the League Cup but was left with one regret from his time in Glasgow.

“We played with 18 internationals. I think that’s the reason why we didn’t really do well for Rangers in the Champions League, Gascoigne explained. “It is because, imagine, one minute you’re playing against Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, and then in the next game in the Champions League, you’re playing against Ajax. I think that’s why we struggled [to adjust] as much in the Champions League.”

The Gers failed to progress past the Champions League group stage in his three-year spell but Gascoigne did more than enough to ensure his place in the club’s history. ‘Gazza’ would go on to join Middlesbrough in March 1998, narrowly missing out on an England place at the upcoming World Cup, while Rangers lost out on the title to Celtic that season.