LIGHTS! CAMERA! ADDICTION!

Many years since our last chat, FFT spent two weeks with Paul Gascoigne to get to know him as he is now. Conversations veered between the serious and the comical - from the dark side of fame, to a win bonus for a mouse...

- Words Chris Flanagan

"F**king hell, I feel like a frog!"

There’s a broad grin across the face of Paul Gascoigne, as he’s asked if he might be willing to lean forward in his chair, while he poses for a photoshoot with FourFourTwo. It’s not something we'd considered beforehand, but the body shape is a little bit frog-like, now that he points it out. His grin is followed by laughter - our photoshoot started mere seconds ago, but already the banter has begun flying. Gazza is in a very good mood and he's having fun.

Just hours before England book their place at the 2026 World Cup with a 5-0 win in Latvia, FFT have travelled down to Bournemouth to meet with one of the Three Lions’ greatest ever players - arguably, the most popular of them all.

We've been offered a rare opportunity to spend a couple of weeks getting to know Gazza, as he is now - it’s been over a decade since we last spoke to him and we've been keen to catch up for some time. The publication of his new book Eight offers the chance that we've been waiting for - for a long time, it seemed like this moment might forever prove elusive, but here he is sat in front of us, laughing, posing for photos and taking the mickey out of us, like only Gazza could. Never meet your heroes, people say - when Gazza is in a mood as jovial as this, they couldn't be more wrong.

Yesterday, he'd been happy to bump into his old Rangers pal Ally McCoist on a visit to Talksport as part of his book promo tour. Earlier that day, he’d also made a rare television appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, although only after a dental emergency. “The night before, I was at home thinking about what I'd say on the TV, I bit into some liquorice and my tooth came out - I thought, ‘Oh my God!’” he recalls. “We had to get the dentist to open for me.”