Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133921 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

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

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.

Customer Reviews

Best football autobiography I've read
Someone bought me a copy of this for Christmas, and although I'm not an Arsenal fan I've always admired Tony Adams so I was happy to read it. It's as brutal and frank as everyone says, and it also made me look at myself and some of my friends in terms of the way we act with sport, competition and alcohol. Details of how TA found any excuse to drink alcohol, be it celebrating, drowning sorrows or whatever, made me realise how close many of us are to slipping down the same route. After reading this and being totally blown away by it, I picked up autobiographys by Dennis Wise, Harry Redknapp, Chris Waddle, Ian Wright, Paolo DiCanio and Bobby Robson. All interesting in their own way, but in comparison to this they fell way short. Wright, DiCanio and Wise in particular just prattle on about how great they are, and how everyone else had it in for them for no reason. Unlike TA they are unable to accept that they have any flaws. It's that brutal honesty and self assessment that makes this book rise above the rest. I'll be reading it again for sure.

Don't Call Him Donkey
'Addicted' is a thoroughly enjoyable read, Tony Adams delivers one of the most engaging and brutally honest autobiographies in print. In many autobiographies, particularly those of footballers, the subjects are often at pains to portray themselves in a good light, skirt over indefendable controversies and pass the blame for their failings, this is not the case with 'Addicted'. Charting his descent into alcoholism, detailing his beliefs and thought processes of the time, with somewhat staggering honesty. The book really allows the reader a sense of the man, then in his darkest days, and also of the recovering athlete re-enagaing with his first love. Some readers may feel there to be too much space and detail afforded to match descriptions and routine footballing information, however this serves to highlight the incredible acheivements and longevity of his career whilst all the while abusing his body to extreme levels. 'Addicted' is essential reading for football fans, and in fact anyone as it encourages self evaluation through its brutal honesty whilst charting the career of one of Englands finest defenders, which also consequently renders the subject, former England captain Tony Adams both intriguing and endearing.

back four
Most open and canded sporting biography ever written.

what could he have achievd in life and football if he did not drink?? mind boggles.