11 OCTOBER 1997, Page 32

Gazza goes off

THIS time last year Barclays was busy boosting BZW — scattering seven-figure cheques like toffee papers as it hired and fired staff, renting a marble penitentiary in DocIdands, bringing in the pugnacious Bill Harrison from Robert Fleming and putting him in charge. 'We are building a business here,' he said, 'I hope for the long term.' At the time I reported the judgment of an old BZW hand: 'It's like making Gazza captain of the England croquet team.' Now the team is on the transfer list and the captain has walked off the field. It's a game of two halves, or maybe not so many.