Amazon.co.uk Review
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.
Synopsis
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 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.
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