ENGLAND coach Glenn Hoddle has warned Paul Gascoigne he is not certain of his place at the World Cup finals. The Middlesbrough star has been struggling with injury and has been in the news again after it was revealed that he smokes, and the England chief still has doubts about his key men.
Hoddle will be meeting with the Geordie ahead of the run-in to France 98 to discuss Gazza's injury, and said: ''I want to give Paul an opportunity to learn and open his mind a little and see what he can achieve. I think he is falling back a little now to be honest. I've had words with him and I'll have more words with him. But at the end of the day Paul is Paul and I know in our first session he'll be giving it the full monty.
There is little chance of Hoddle discarding Gazza at this late stage, though. He added: ''At the moment there are 30 players in the squad and I've got to whittle them down to 22. The last four performances Paul has put in have been tremendous for me. But since then, he's been injured at Rangers and Middlesbrough. He's not 100% fit so I can't say at this time he's 100% in the squad.
''Certain things worry me but there are certain things I see that show he's still got the genius in him. I've always said we're not out of the woods here with Paul. I've said that to him. He's got to come 50-50 with me and I'm sure if he can we'll have a good World Cup.''
Hoddle, who opened himself up to more criticism and scorn by once again bringing up the subject of faith healer Eileen Drewery, and actually crediting her with helping England reach the finals, also explained why he picked Ian Wright ahead of Andy Cole.
Wright has missed virtually the whole second half of the season through injury, while Cole finished as the Premiership's top scorer with 25 goals, but the Arsenal man still got the nod for the initial squad of 30, although he is by no means certain to make the final 22.
Hoddle said: ''Andy's had a very good season, but. sometimes you feel he needs four or five chances before he scores. At international level you only get one or two if you are lucky.
''Andy is unfortunate. I wanted to play him against Chile but he woke up on the morning of the game with a back problem and he didn't play. Then Switzerland came up and I wanted to go with Michael Owen. So the door closed.
''If Andy had gone on against Chile, played well, and scored a couple of goals he might have got in. There are opportunities that happen for people and sometimes they don't happen.
''Ian Wright has done well since he came back into international football and, although Andy's movement is excellent, Ian is the best mover off the ball I have seen in England . He took his chance very early for us, but he's still got some way to go to prove he is going to be able to sustain that for seven games."

STURRIDGE SPARKS GOODISON ROW Everton boss Howard Kendall is on a collision course with Blues chairman Peter Johnson. Kendall is desperate to bid for Derby's unsettled striker Dean Sturridge, but Johnson is refusing to finance the deal. The Rams striker has had a frustrating season and manager Jim Smith is now happy to do business, despite turning down approaches from Arsenal and Middlesbrough last summer. Smith is looking to bring in the money that will help him rebuild as Derby bid for a UEFA Cup place next season. Skipper Igor Stimac could also be on his way out of Pride Park, with Fiorentina likely to move for the Croatian sweeper. Kendall wants to sign the pacy striker, who he sees as the perfect foil for targetman Duncan Ferguson. But Johnson is refusing to back a £4.5m bid for the player. Kendall also faces a battle to hang onto Ferguson this summer. Boro boss Bryan Robson is keen to lash out a whopping £7m on the Everton skipper. The good news for Kendall is that Robson's bid was knocked back, the bad news is that he won't take no for an answer.

WIM WAS A DIM MOVE SAYS MCCANN CELTIC managing director Fergus McCann has put the seal on a week of acrimony at Parkhead by admitting he had reservations about appointing Wim Jansen in the first place. The Dutchman exercised a get-out clause in his three-year contract just 48 hours after guiding Celtic to their first Premier Division title for a decade, and since then the internal divides at Celtic have been made public. And McCann, whose initial observation was that Jansen might have been dismissed had he not stepped down, has made it clear he had doubts about the choice from the start. He said: ''On reflection we didn't have the right approach. Maybe we should have insisted we wanted someone for three years and not gone for Wim. I had concerns about his background and the fact he did not have a record of staying long at clubs." Jansen has indicated the breakdown of his working relationship with general manager Jock Brown was behind his departure, but McCann added: ''It's not about personalities, it's about planning for success and Wim didn't want to know. We wanted to plan ahead, we wanted to talk about taking Celtic up to a higher level, but he wouldn't come and talk."

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