IN his heyday, Geordie legend Paul Gascoigne was universally acclaimed as one of the finest footballers ever to pull on an England shirt.

The wayward genius has enjoyed a largely successful career, taking him from his hometown club of Newcastle United to Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Burnley.

But away from British shores, Gazza's cheeky chappie approach has raised more than a few eyebrows - never more so than when he infamously belched into an Italian TV camera while playing for Rome giants Lazio.

So, it is with some interest that fellow North-Easterners will be keeping tabs on how the 35-year-old settles into his unlikely new surroundings - a remote desert corner of China.

Signing for Gansu Tianma - the team bottom of the Chinese second division - has taken Gazza to Lanzhou, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, a place that was once officially the most polluted in the world.

Perhaps not surprisingly, experts believe the man Sir Bobby Robson once branded "daft as a brush" and the heavily industrial province might not be a match made in heaven.

Professor Keith Pratt, of Durham University's East Asian Studies department, said: "It's not an area Westerners would go to put down roots, as they would in Shanghai or Beijing. Gazza certainly won't get the delights of the Quayside there."

But the erstwhile Geordie will find some home comforts. Many of the locals speak good English and lamb features heavily on the menu, with kebab-style food extremely popular in the area.

Prof Pratt added: "You can get Newcastle Brown Ale in the major cities, but whether you can get it in Lanzhou I don't know, so he may have to get that flown in."

But even with a reported £400,000 salary, homesickness could set in soon for Gazza.

"It will take a bit of adjusting to. How he'll come to terms with camel herding I don't know," added Prof Pratt.

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