For several years the self-styled Secret Footballer has offered a fresh take on a sport watched by millions. The Guardian columnist's first book, I Am the Secret Footballer, provided insight into a multibillion-pound industry that keeps tight rein on what information gets into the public domain. The project has worked thanks to the protection that a pseudonym affords and because of the author's forthright and atypical personality. How many other former English Premier League players would cite the American poet Anne Sexton or Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger as an inspiration? In the latest instalment he contemplates what to do as the end of his career approaches. His wife and former team-mates help him to disclose what life at the top is like, and anonymous agents and directors of football reveal secrets from the financial side of the game. Although this brisk, witty read is a little disjointed, it includes harrowing accounts of drug use and the depression that has plagued the player for much of his career.
