Addicted [Paperback]

Arsenal and England stalwart Tony Adams combines two very '90s preoccupations in these memoirs: football and the confessional. Alongside the story of Adams' hugely successful career for Arsenal and England, Addicted also charts his decline into alcoholism and subsequent efforts at rehabilitation. The combination works surprisingly well with Adams new-found self-awareness enabling a far more thoughtful and mature insight into his footballing life than you suspect would otherwise have been the case.

Thrust into the Arsenal first team at 17, his tenacity and enthusiasm made up for initial technical shortcomings and his leadership ability inevitably saw him made captain. But off the pitch things were not so straightforward. His marriage was in disarray and his drinking out of control. After a particularly intense period of "research into the illness"--a day-long bender following England's defeat on penalties to Germany in Euro 96--Adams sought help and while his account of his ongoing AA-aided recovery occasionally lapses into clichéd therapy-speak, there is a raw honesty to it that makes it both moving and affecting. Much has been made of Adams' apparent criticism of Glen Hoddle's handling of England's 1998 World Cup bid, but in reality the strength of this book comes not from the spilling of dressing-room secrets, but from its powerful depiction of the price one man continues to pay for success. --Nick Wroe --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“It is hard to recall another book… in which the author has spoken with such self-lacerating honesty.”
The Times

“It is a book that… lives up to the publisher’s claim,
‘open and inspiring’
”
Independent on Sunday

‘The most successful captain in Arsenal’s history symbolises everything the club traditionally stands for in terms of resilience, professionalism, pride and attitude’
FourFourTwo magazine

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Inspirational Arsenal captain and England international, Tony Adams is a legend of the modern game. But behind the on-the-field successes is the story of a man who has fought and continues to win a battle against alcoholism.

For the first time, Adams writes what it’s like playing with the best players in the game, from Gazza to Dennis Bergkamp; and working with some of the most successful managers, including George Graham, Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Arsene Wenger.

But above all, his story is that of a winner, a man who has brought the intense determination he has shown on the field to his recovery from illnesses off it.

Adams recalls graphically and openly his descent into alcohol addiction, which at one point saw him jailed for drink-driving. Just as he was finding his feet again after the slow rehabilitation process, problems with his marriage surfaced and soon after Adams found himself heading for a divorce. He talks honestly about that traumatic period in his life and also about the pressures and demands of being a top-class footballer in the modern era.

In a new chapter written specially for this paperback, Adams gives a detailed account of Arsenal’s 1998–99 season, and the mood in the Highbury dressing-room after last season’s double-winning success.

FULLY UPDATED FOR THE 1998/99 SEASON

Rejection. Loneliness. Panic. Fear. Anger. All emotions that Tony Adams has been through during his remorselessdescent into alcoholic addiction. But beyond the drinking binges, bed wetting and self deceit lies a moving story of how the Arsenal captain battled against all the odds to resurrect his life on and off the pitch to become even more indispensable for club and country.

More than a football book, his autobiography is a ground-breaking life journey to the gutter and back.

“Prison had told me I was a survivor. But I had run into something too powerful for me. Alone, I realised I could not master what had become my drug of choice.”
TONY ADAMS

“An impressive and candid memoir … it’s hard to recall another book in which the author has spoken with such self lacerating honesty”
THE TIMES

“Not only an extraordinarily frank and honourable book but an important one”
EVENING STANDARD

“So good, so scorchingly honest and revealing … we are certainly on fresh terrain here”
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Tony Adams was born in 1966 in Romford, Essex. He signed for Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980. At just 17 years and 28 days, he made his Arsenal debut, the second-youngest player ever. His full England debut came in 1987, when he also became club captain. He has won three League Championship medals, an FA Cup and European Cup-Winner’s Cup medal, captained his country, and was three times Arsenal Player of the Year.

Ian Ridley is football correspondent of the Observer, having previously written for the Independent on Sunday. He is the author of Cantona: The Red and the Black and Tales from the Boot Camps with Steve Claridge.