Ever heard the one about Gazza dressing up as Santa Claus to meet Sepp Blatter?

He's still mad. Paul Gascoigne is doing a lot of media work today to promote an upcoming documentary about his life and thankfully, he looks in decent shape. One of his appearances today was in a livechat with the Guardian and in typical Gazza fashion, he has told some brilliant stories. He was asked by one reader whether the Italians got his sense of humour when he was at Lazio. The Geordie midfielder can take it up from there:

"I did one on Di Matteo, who would sometimes get on my nerves. I went back to the villa and there was a little snake. I went back to training in the afternoon and put the snake in his pocket. When we came back in after training I asked him if he had any money. He put his hand in his pocket and nearly shat himself. But at training I put the effort in as well. Once Dino Zoff said Blatter was coming. He wanted us on time in the Lazio suit. I turned up 30 minutes later in a Santa Claus outfit. I sat next to Blatter and said: “Hello, I’m Santa, ho, ho, ho.” The security wanted to get rid of me and Zoff wasn’t happy and made me train morning and afternoon for a week."

He also revealed that Jack Charlton 'pestered him like mad' to play for Ireland but that he wanted to wait until Bobby Robson called him into the England squad. A pity really, the stories of Gazza clashing with Big Jack would have been just as enjoyable as watching him play in green. The documentary, Gascoigne, looks worth a watch too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMjmApzOo0A