WE played a friendly in Bordeaux shortly after I signed, which we won 2-1. We went out on the lash afterwards.

I scored and celebrated as though it had been the winner in the European Cup final. Before I knew it I was absolutely plastered. I was rooming with Alan Harper and eventually said: ‘I need to go to bed, Al.’

I remember him and Kevin Ratcliffe taking me to bed and laying me out.

I woke up in the night and felt absolutely freezing. I leant over to pull the quilt over my body and grasped thin air. I thought: ‘Where is it?’ I was groping desperately for this quilt and as I did so I heard a bell ring. I opened my eyes and an old couple emerged from a lift in front of me.

Harper and Ratcliffe had carried me out of my room completely naked and laid me on a settee right outside the lift.

I looked up and the old lady, who was English, exclaimed: ‘Oh my God! I’ve seen some sights but nothing ever like this.’ I ran back down the corridor to my room completely starkers. It was a case of ‘Welcome to Everton.’