WELL, was he worth the money or not?

When you look at what Paul Gascoigne's 48 senior appearances cost Middlesbrough - over £7m in earnings and transfer fee - in two-and-a-third years on Teesside, the answer has to be an emphatic "no''.

Boro will argue that the £3.45m they paid Rangers for Gascoigne in March 1998 reaped an instant dividend - a return to the Premiership and a £10m windfall.

It is true to say that in the final weeks of the 1997-98 season, Gazza made a key contribution as Boro pipped arch-rivals Sunderland by a point to the First Division's second automatic promotion spot.

But then so did the inspirational Paul Merson, as he had done throughout that campaign, and strikers Marco Branca and Alun Armstrong, who both arrived shortly before Gascoigne and hit 16 League goals between them.

May of that year brought unbridled joy to the Riverside Stadium and, characteristically, Gazza was the life and soul of the party as Boro celebrated being back among the elite.

But, by the time the month was out, Gascoigne was a broken man, shattered by his exclusion from Glenn Hoddle's England World Cup squad.

It was a devastating blow and one from which the 33-year-old has never really recovered.

Kevin Keegan, Hoddle's eventual successor, gave Gascoigne the encouragement he needed when he hinted that international rescue could be at hand.

Keegan told him before the start of last season that an England recall was within his compass if he proved his form and fitness at club level.

Boro boss Bryan Robson, steadfast in his support of Gascoigne, hoped the challenge would help him re-invent himself.

But niggling injuries interrupted Gascoigne's season and the call from Keegan never came.

Even Robson's patience began to wear thin as Gascoigne ran into disciplinary trouble.

Introduced as a late substitute in the Premiership defeat by Chelsea at the Riverside on September 25, Gascoigne launched a foul-mouthed tirade at an assistant referee and was sent off only minutes after coming on.

Robson ignored the midfielder as he trudged past him and down the tunnel, but the manager's stony expression said it all.

When Gascoigne's left forearm smashed into George Boateng's head at the Riverside in Boro's 4-0 St Valentines Day massacre at the hands of Aston Villa, the obituaries were being written on the Geordie's career.

Match referee Alan Wilkie missed the incident but TV captured everything and Gascoigne received a three-match ban from the FA.

The Villa game was only his ninth start of last season and his last appearance in a Boro shirt.

But from the word go, Gascoigne made life hard for himself, marking his Boro debut as a substitute in the 1998 Coca-Cola Cup final against Chelsea by picking up a yellow card for a rash challenge.

Off-field difficulties were to dominate, however, as his marriage to Sheryl Kyle was dissolved in the wake of his England rejection.

Gascoigne hit a nadir when he was found sobbing at Stevenage railway station and voluntarily admitted to the Priory clinic in Roehampton in October 98 to undergo treatment for stress and alcohol-related problems.

Although he figured in much of that season, injuries and a lack of fitness ultimately took their toll and he ended the campaign on the sidelines, just as he did his last on Teesside.

The arrival at the Riverside this summer of midfielders Christian Karembeu and Paul Okon were a clear indication that Gascoigne was to be, at best, a bit-part player.

Such a scenario would have been unthinkable a decade ago when he warmed the hearts of the nation with his tears in Turin as England bowed out of Italia 90 and Gascoigne emerged as our most naturally gifted player in a generation.

Then, national coach Bobby Robson, who had conceded that the young star was "as daft as a brush'', could not have known how painfully prophetic his affectionate assessment would be.

As someone once said, you can take the lad out of Dunston, but you can't take Dunston out of the lad.

The self-destruct button is never far from Gascoigne's reach, but if anyone can pull him away from it, Walter Smith is the man.

It was Smith who brought Gascoigne back to Britain from Italy to help cement Rangers' domination north of the border.

Now he is hoping to be his saviour, but there is no denying that, even on a free transfer, the Everton boss is taking an enormous gamble.

The maxim that a talent unfulfilled is the greatest waste of all, has rarely been more apposite than in the sad case of Paul Gascoigne.