The ex-Arsenal star Paul Merson has been talking about his addictive personality, which saw him drinking to excess, taking cocaine, gambling, in fact absolutely anything that he could become addicted to, he managed it!
He reveals that his coach Arsene Wenger also used to give him a tablet before games, and he had some yellow fluid injected into him which the club claim was simply multi-vitamins.
But Merson was addicted to anything that gave him a high, and he didn’t need any persuasion to take anything, even if they were dealt out by Wenger!
He said: “Just before kick-off for a game against Blackburn, Arsene gave us a dark tablet.
“It was pure caffeine, the equivalent of 10 cups of Starbucks. My heart started racing, 30 minutes later that was still the case.
“I had an addictive personality. Today, I’ve accepted it and I live with it. I try to reverse the problem.
“For example, if I eat chocolate, I know I can become addicted so I get addicted to resisting chocolate.
“It was very hard to get out of it. It’s a spiral where everything is linked. I started by gambling and since I would lose, I would go into a depression.
“So then I needed to drink. And to be able to drink a lot, often and for a long time, I’d take cocaine.
“It seems unimaginable to me now. I have no idea where I got the energy from to lead such a life and to play football.
“In life I never felt anything more powerful than the explosion of joy when you’ve just scored a goal.
“You fly high, very high, then the match stops and you tell yourself you’ll have to wait until next weekend to get the chance to relive such an emotion.
“From Monday to Friday a footballer’s life is very boring. I wasn’t able to stand it.”
Huh If he was playing now with footballers playing every three or four days for most of the season, perhaps he wouldn’t have got so bored.
I wonder if Wenger’s still dishes out little tablets to the players before games…….
No comments:
Post a Comment