Paul Gascoigne played alongside some fantastic footballers during his two years at Everton.
The England international shared a dressing room with the likes of Kevin Campbell, Duncan Ferguson, Francis Jeffers and David Ginola, but never managed to play alongside Wayne Rooney before he made his Everton debut at the age of 16.
However, Gascoigne did get a chance to see what the now 40-year-old was like in training at the age of 14.
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Romelu Lukaku of Everton celebrates his goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Hull City and Everton
Credit: Getty Images/Alex Dodd – CameraSport/Alex Livesey/Jan Kruger.
Paul Gascoigne says Wayne Rooney “did not look out of place one bit” at the age of 14
Speaking to Footballer’s Lives about the Everton academy graduate, Gascoigne – who had a bad first impression of David Moyes – said: “(He was a) brilliant, good lad as well – great, special player….he was determined.
“I trained with him a couple of times. He joined in with us when there were school holidays, and he did not look out of place one bit. He was taller than me you know, the way he was built, but he was obviously more stocky.”
In that respect, nobody at Everton would have been shocked to see Rooney – who recently praised Beto – score on his Premier League debut at the age of just 16, against Arsenal of all clubs.
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The aforementioned Campbell has also previously told a story in which he was asked to play up top alongside a 14-year-old Rooney in a friendly, claiming that he could not believe his eyes as established, senior players “bounced” off the youngster and struggled to contain him.
It is a crying shame that the Toffees only got two years out of the Liverpool-born striker before his £27m move to Manchester United in August 2004.
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Everton icon Wayne Rooney.
However, as Bill Kenwright said at the time, that cash gave Everton a lifeline amid financial difficulty, and allowed David Moyes a chance to rebuild at Goodison Park – which he took when bringing James Beattie and Tim Cahill in that same summer.
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