The one-time soccer legend sat with a glass in front of him yesterday afternoon staring silently into space surrounded by hangers-on.

Even when a fan came to shake his hand he couldn't muster a single word.

It was Seaham where he lived between 1998 and 2000 during a stint with Middlesbrough.

He was wearing the cream blazer, patterned T-shirt, jeans and shoes he was photographed in over 24 hours earlier, acting strangely outside his father's home in Dunston, Gateshead.

In February the ex-England star, 40, was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act after an incident at a Newcastle hotel.

Previously in January 2005, he was hospitalised with pneumonia and last year he underwent emergency surgery for a perforated stomach ulcer after being taken ill as he was celebrating his 40th birthday.

He was arrested for an alleged assault on a photographer outside a Liverpool city centre hotel in 2005. The charges were later dropped.

A former player with Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Glasgow Rangers and Middlesbrough, he was sacked after 39 days as manager of Kettering Town in 2005.