Hooked (Paul Merson, Rob Bagchi)

Paul Merson (Rob Bagchi ghost writer)
Hooked

An honest (I assume) and all laid bare history of Paul's addictions that covered alcohol, cocaine and gambling. Although all interconnected it's interesting that gambling is the one that he sees as the hardest to kick (excuse the pun) and the most devastating to his wellbeing and life. Coke is the easiest for him to stop. It's written in a convincing and engaging manner which I assume is largely due to the ghost writer Rob Bagchi. The first part documents how Paul falls into drinking, gambling and then cocaine and how they take over his life exasperating feelings of low self esteem with the only relief coming from his 90 minutes on the football pitch. As an aside he was one of the best players of his generation and a key member of the league and cup winning Arsenal team. The middle part continues with his addictions and his latter years as a play post Arsenal but here I feel he loses his way and goes off into moaning about managers and players sometimes quite critically which is uncalled for in my opinion. And uncritically of a certain manager that left a certain south coast team deep in the financial mire. The latter part picks up again on what the book is about in how hard Paul finds it to quit gambling and losing literally all his money. The ending is optimistic in that he is a well regarded pundit and has a loving wife who has complete control over his finances to prevent him gambling it all away. The big take away for me is how devastating a gambling addiction is and how little is in place to help addicts which is something that Paul references too.