A SAD DAY - BUT I STILL TRUST GLENN By Philip Cornwall I COULDN'T believe it. I so wanted Paul Gascoigne to be there when I watch England run out in Marseille but I wanted a fit Paul Gascoigne. And Glenn Hoddle is in a far better place to judge the man's fitness than all the fans, ex-pros and pundits or me. That said, while most of the England players have performed below par in recent matches, Gascoigne did seem to me physically below par. I don't know anyone who was impressed by his fitness. In the second half against Morocco, at a time when England raised their game to win it, he vanished almost entirely until the last ten minutes. Two friends watching the game in the pub actually thought he'd gone off at half time, until he suddenly scuffed a shot wide. England played reasonably in that half, and Michael Owen and one or two others even played well, against a team who went on to hold the French. And they did it with a man missing. It's also worth bearing in mind that the pace of those matches was a long way away from the heat of competition. There was no visible improvement in Gascoigne's fitness in the week between the Saudi Arabia game and the Belgium match, in which he picked up yet another knock. Had I known that his place was in doubt, then I guess I'd have been almost as concerned about his dead leg as I had been about Owen's concussion against Morocco. But Hoddle gave Gascoigne a fair chance to prove himself in fact quite rightly, he gave him more chance than anyone else would get, for in form he could be such a key man. �Sicknote' Anderton is far short of Gascoigne in genius, but has demonstrated much greater fitness. In the coach's view, Gazza is a shadow of the man he was in October 1997, never mind Italia 90, and is unlikely to get back to even an adequate level in the time available. No-one certainly not Glenn Hoddle is saying that a fit Gascoigne should have missed out. People are saying Hoddle should have given him a chance to be fit later, even if he couldn't make the Tunisia game. But sadly I can see an argument that it's better to axe him now rather than have a player simply not up to it physically, who would nonetheless be regarded by media and fans as a potential messiah. Against Saudi Arabia, a large part of the Wembley crowd were calling for him five minutes into the second half, and when he did come on he made little or no difference. If Gazza was, eventually, fit enough to be on the bench in France, then you'd get the same chants if England weren't ahead by half time. If he did come on and did nothing, the questions would be Should you have brought Gazza on earlier? And so on. The squad might miss his presence off the pitch, but when they're on it they'll be better off without the sadly unreliable crutch of Paul �Supersub' Gascoigne to rely on, or to put additional pressure on them. Of course, no-one can prove whether Hoddle is right or wrong on his fitness because we'll never know how Gascoigne would have played. Instead they hint at ulterior motives. But remember Hoddle's fears, before he took the job, of being hounded by the press. He even speculated he would turn down the job if offered it. If England actually win the thing, some people will still say that they should have done it with Gazza just as a few pundits still talk about Jimmy Greaves and 1966. But equally, while a poor performance from England will lead to plenty of articles (even books) along the lines of What if� , we won't know whether he would have made a blind bit of difference. What is certain is that if England do badly, Glenn Hoddle will join the band of people saying What if� as he contemplates resignation or life as Turnip Mk II. And I don't believe for one moment that Hoddle would have risked a lifetime of vilification and regret over some grudge. Whatever the conspiracy theorists try and tell you, I cannot believe that Hoddle was anything but honest in his reasons for dropping the best footballer I have ever seen wear an England shirt.

HODDLE WRONG TO DUMP GAZZA IN HELL   By Harry Pratt GLENN HODDLE believes himself to be such a master of deception with team selections, tactics and formations, you would not put it past him to pull off his most elaborate plan yet and name Paul Gascoigne in his squad for France 98 later today when the official FIFA deadline falls. Yeah� and England are going to win the World Cup too. Sorry as I am to say, the scenario of Gazza facing Tunisia in a fortnight's time would even by Hoddle's standards be stretching things too far. One point not in question, though, is the national coach's passion for playing the guessing game. Ever since making the transformation from player to coach, the guy has positively revelled in the pre-match art of keeping opponents in the dark until the last possible moment. Take Rome last October when England were planning how to seal their qualification for the Finals and the way he made out that David Beckham and Paul Ince were injured, only to name both on the starting sheet. Take the friendly with Morocco only last week when Ince played from the off despite Hoddle indicating only 24 hours earlier that there was serious concern that the Liverpool star could declare himself unfit for the World Cup. Normally of course most of us see the funny side at what after all is a fairly futile exercise. Can you imagine the Italians or Brazilians losing sleep over whether they will face Ince or David Batty in the middle of the park? Or Robert Lee or Darren Anderton on the right flank? Nor can I! This time, however, I am not laughing and I doubt many others are either apart from the three Group G opponents loitering with even more intent at the prospect of meeting a Gazza-less England in France. As for those (yes, Football365 were among them) foolish enough to take Hoddle's Sunday afternoon press conference, well we should have known better. Many will have not seen the words delivered in La Manga just a couple of hours before he went and condemned the midfielder to hell with the events of later making them redundant for the Monday newspapers. But they show the extent to which our coach is prepared to go, twisting the truth to suit the situation and conceal his thoughts. At 2pm, Hoddle indicated Gazza's fitness would be up to scratch come the big kick-off., saying: The question of whether Gazza can pass the ball or not isn't one that has to be asked. That's never been in doubt. Everybody knows the talent he's got and he proved it in the four matches he put together for me last year. Whether he's somebody we feel is right and ready we'll have to wait and see. He has to be 100% and I had to give him the opportunity to get further down the line towards that. Paul's fitter than when he arrived without a doubt. He's had 30 minutes against Saudi, a full 90 against Morocco and then 50 against Belgium, although I was hoping for 70 to 75 minutes. He needs to get fitter and sharper but he's worked extremely hard and he's still got time. Yeah, all of three hours! At 3pm Hoddle started notifying the unlucky six they had not made it. At 6pm he finally knocked on Gascoigne's door and minutes on the shattered Geordie exclaimed as he fled the La Manga nest: I can't believe this has happened. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. If it is any consolation, Paul, I felt much the same way upon hearing that God whoops Hod had wrecked England's summer of soccer. I pray I'm wrong but should England reach the second round stages they will require extra class and craft to slice through the world's best defences. Only Gascoigne can provide the boys with that sublime cutting edge. And do not tell me he would not have been fit by then. Four weeks of working in sweltering-French sunshine and the midfield maestro would surely have been ready to kick ass. Now we will never know, thanks to Glenn.

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