IT was not just England’s dismal performance against Denmark that had alarm bells ringing for Alan Shearer on Thursday.
Because the former Three Lions captain, 53, was also caught up in a fire drill at his hotel before the game – along with a group of interestingly dressed West Ham fans!
BBCAlan Shearer had an eventful day before England took on Denmark[/caption]
Pundit Shearer, who later was scathing in his assessment of Gareth Southgate’s side against the Danes, explained on the Rest is Football podcast: “All was going great until we got to our hotel.
“I’m just checking in and I hear a noise behind me and there’s a big group of nine, ten guys and they’re all in West Ham shirts on a stag do. The stag is dressed up in a gimp suit, with a gimp mask on, the lot!
“It was like, my goodness me. ‘Shearer! Can we have a picture?’ I thought, ‘Oh God, here we go’.
“So I had pictures with them all. They were all fine, all great, and I thought that’s the last I’ll see of them.
“I go upstairs and think I’ll have an hour or two’s sleep. I doze off and then the fire alarm of the whole hotel (goes off). And it was a proper loud one.
“I was lying there thinking, I’m waiting for a minute, it (must be) a false alarm. Two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes. I’m thinking, this is not going off. And I’m on floor 12.
“(A sign says) do not use the lift. So I look over my balcony and I can see the whole hotel outside and I can also see nine or ten West Ham guys with a gimp suit and a gimp mask and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t want to f***ing go downstairs again! But I’m going to have to’.
“I’m on floor 12, down I go. By this point, I don’t know whether there was or not, but I’m thinking I can smell smoke. So I’m thinking it must be something serious.
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“I go downstairs, I walk straight in… ‘Shearer! Shearer!’ It’s the bloke in the gimp suit, f***ing hell, that’s all I need!
“There wasn’t a fire. Ten minutes later I was back in my room.”