Everyone has seen the photograph. Vinnie Jones, mid-match, has a hand clamped on Paul Gascoigne's testicles, and Gascoigne's face does the rest. It may be the best-known image English football has produced, and it sums up Jones rather neatly.
He was the enforcer of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang, a side built on intimidation and not shy about it. Jones played international football for Wales, and between 1984 and 1999 his club career took him from Wealdstone to Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea and QPR. He was proud of being the hardest man in the game, and a great many opponents feared him.
The record has a few entries worth repeating. He was booked 3 seconds after kick-off, said to be the fastest booking in football history. He collected 12 red cards over his career. He also released a video called Soccer's Hard Men that celebrated violent tackles, and the FA fined him £20,000 for it.
From the Crazy Gang to Hollywood
After retiring, Jones found a second career playing villains in films: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and X-Men. The casting directors had clearly watched him play. Nothing he did on screen was as alarming as what he did on a football pitch, and Gascoigne would probably back that up.
The Gascoigne grab and the rest
Tomorrow: number four.
