Huddy

One of the finest players football has ever seen, Alan Hudson is still revered at Chelsea, Stoke City, Arsenal and Seattle Sounders, and yet his professional success was dogged by injuries and enormous personal challenges. His love of the glitzy 'footballer lifestyle', dominated by hard-drinking and glamorous women, saw Alan descend into rampant alcoholism, depression, and frequent brushes with authority. Huddy - his official biography - reveals for the first time, the full story of the real Alan Hudson, the man behind the lurid newspaper headlines and booze-fuelled anecdotes. A straight-speaker who doesn't suffer fools gladly, he has as many enemies as close friends. Speak to either and you'll get a vastly differing perspective on just who the man is. Even his team-mates were evenly split; they either loved or loathed him. The one thing that couldn't be taken away from him, however, was his talent for the beautiful game. Some years after retiring from the sport he loved, Alan embarked on a new career in the media but, on December 15, 1997, he was the victim of a 'hit-and-run' car accident near his East London home and his 'life well-lived' changed forever. He sustained injuries that the medical profession thought would kill him. Huddy, lovingly written by his friend Jason Pettigrove, describes Alan's determined fight for life and how his single-mindedness enabled him, along with the brilliance of the NHS and the support of his closest family and friends, to recover from his horrendous injuries and rebuild his life. Alan Hudson's fascinating story is one that has never been fully told ...until now.