Former Rangers star Lorenzo Amoruso has revealed what it was like working with Paul Gascoigne during his time at Ibrox.
Gascoigne moved to Rangers from Lazio in a £5.4m move during the summer of 1995, a high-profile move at the time.
Like everywhere he went, he quickly became a fan favourite at the Scottish club, scoring 39 goals in 104 league games for the club as well as winning two Scottish league titles, the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup.
While there he met Amoruso, who arrived at Rangers from Fiorentina in the summer of 1997.
The pair didn’t manage to play much together as injuries limited the Italian’s impact at first, but Gascoigne left an impression nonetheless.
“Our (relationship) wasn’t very long, I was injured, he left in April, practically when I came back after the third operation,” he told CalcioMercato.
“I began to doubt the British doctors, and so I decided to have the third operation in Belgium. That’s why we weren’t so much together.
“But I can say that he had an incredible class, that he could do a lot, but a lot more than what he did. He didn’t have a normal childhood, the ease of growing up serene, and he took that with him.
“But he was a wonderful person, with an immense, deep, gigantic heart, an incredible goodness. I’ve never seen Paul be mean to anyone.
“Sometimes he was a bit over the top, a bit superficial, but it was also his strength.”
Gascoigne wasn’t the only football icon that Amoruso met at Rangers, with another being fellow Italian Gennaro Gattuso.
Long before he’d established himself as an AC Milan legend, the midfielder was turning out for Rangers after moving from Perugia in 1997.
His stay at Ibrox only lasted a year but, Amoruso says it was beneficial, revealing what he taught his compatriot at the time.
“That experience at Rangers I think it served him very well,” he added.
“He understood that his characteristics suited him well to that reality. Then afterwards he was good at exploiting all this, arriving on top of the world.
“He needed to manage his physical strength and mental aggression on the field. He also had to do it in training.
“I gave him lots of advice, so much so that he took my agents, D’Amico and Pasqualin, and he negotiated to go first to Salernitana and then to Milan.
“I’m not saying I suggested it, but I helped him. At Rangers he had broken up with Advocaat, who had flunked him, and I told him to go to Salerno to show off. If he stayed there, he would have lost a lot.
“I also talked to Franco, his father. So many little things that took Rino where he is. And seeing him on certain levels made me very happy”.
