WITH Middlesbrough chasing glory on two fronts in March 1998 manager Bryan Robson decided he needed to strengthen his squad.

First division Boro were about to take on Chelsea in a League Cup Final at Wembley and, more importantly, were chasing an immediate return to the Premiership.

And the deal around transfer deadline day could hardly have been bigger as he swooped for his former England team mate Paul Gascoigne.

The midfield maestro had been out of English football for almost seven years, one year injured at Spurs, three seasons with Lazio in Italy and then another three north of the border with Glasgow Rangers.

But with the dream of a second World Cup appearance in his sights, Gazza decided the time was right to head south and team up with Robson at the Riverside.

Two weeks before Gazza signed for Boro, Robson had been to Turf Moor to sign goalkeeper Marlon Beresford and, the man who ended his loan spell at Turf Moor yesterday, ended up rooming with him for a season.

"To be honest I have no idea how it happened but it was certainly an experience," he said. "I could tell you a lot of things but I think maybe I better hadn't.

"The main problem that I had with him was the fact that he got up so early. I could not believe it sometimes, it would be the morning of a game and I would be wanting to have a lie in but he would be buzzing about the hotel room at seven o'clock."

But Beresford has no doubt that the arrival of Gascoigne did give the whole club and the town of Middlesbrough a massive lift and a boost in the push for promotion.

"He signed just before the deadline and there was a huge amount of razzamatazz," he recalled. "Gazza had done well at Rangers and this was a huge signing for the club. We were top of the league but it was an important boost at the right time.

"Just to have him down on the training ground was great because he was so full of jokes. He is superb to have around the dressing room as the Burnley lads are now finding out. The excitement he brings is so special."

As a goalkeeper, Beresford was in the perfect position to appreciate just how good a player Gazza was from dead ball situations.

He said: "He was incredible, the best player I have ever worked with. From free kicks he is able to put the ball on a postage stamp, he has just got that quality. Sometimes there was nothing you could do to stop him.

"Even on the training ground he would do things that other players could not even think of. He is the best player I have ever worked with, definitely so."

On arriving at Boro, Gascoigne immediately displaced Craig Hignett in the side to play at Wembley but that does not stop the Blackburn Rovers midfielder from holding the ex-England star in the highest esteem.

And like Beresford he has nothing but praise for his impact in and around the Riverside.

"He was different class as a fella, he would do anything for you" said Hignett. "He is one of the friendliest players I have ever met.

"When he comes into a club it can't help but give everyone a massive lift as well as increasing the profile of the club. That is what happened at Boro.

"There are no worries about his ability, it is just a case of whether he can keep himself fit. It has been a stop start season for him and he just wants to play regularly. He will just keep getting better with a good run of games.

"He certainly helped us end up getting promotion and I know he will want to do the same at Burnley."

Having helped Boro go up he played in the majority of their games in the Premiership as they finished ninth in the table, a more than respectable return. But it was a hard season as he came to terms with the massive disappointment of not being selected for the 1998 World Cup in France.

The next season saw him again battling against injury problems, not for the first time, and he only appeared eight times for Boro through the whole of the campaign.

It became clear that his days were numbered and it was little surprise when he did move on in the summer of 2000. It was equally little surprise that he ended up at Goodison Park, back under the management of Walter Smith, the man who had taken him to Rangers five years earlier.

Gascoigne featured in the first 12 games of the season for the Toffees but he was soon forced back into the treatment room, playing only a couple more games from the bench.

His appearances this season were more regular, including shining in matches against both Blackburn and Bolton, but since the turn of the year he became less of a fixture.

Loyalty to his gaffer meant he was unlikely to move until the summer but once Walter Smith was sacked the door was opened for him to leave Goodison and head to Turf Moor.

The Gazza story has nearly run its course but it remains to be seen whether the next few weeks at Turf Moor will be the final chapter.

The possibility to stay next season is still there while there is known to be interest from abroad with the name of Gascoigne still a massive one across the world.

But for now his attention is focused purely and simply on the next five games and helping Burnley's push for the play-offs.

And what will follow from there, nobody knows.