Kerry Dixon - Up Front--My Autobiography--Kerry Dixon
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- Year:2016
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Up Front--My Autobiography--Kerry Dixon: summary, description and annotation
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Big, blond and a goal-scoring machine, Kerry Dixon delighted Chelsea and England fans during the 1980s. Yet his fall from grace, from the pinnacle of a playing career that had few equals, has been, by his own admission, spectacular.
Kerrys life in recent years has been bedevilled with problems with gambling, drugs and, worst of all, a prison sentence in 2015 after he was convicted of grievous bodily harm following a fight in a pub. At that point, one of footballs golden boys finally hit rock bottom. This book is the honest, unflinching account of his rise and fall, and of the new life he is now slowly and patiently building.
His memories of playing in a more robust era of the game, before the days of multi-million-pound salaries and all the rest of the modern football circus, will appeal to plenty of nostalgic football fans, as well as to all those who remember him as one of the games all-time greats. Equally, his unflinching recollections of his darkest days, culminating in his time in prison, are about as far from the Beautiful Game as anyone can imagine, and as fascinating as they are sometimes uncomfortable. In the end, however, his stunningly successful career at Chelsea has ensured that he remains loved by fans, despite his troubles.
The world is all too familiar with tales of once-famous sportsmen and women falling from grace. Kerry Dixons story, however, is unique at once for its flashes of humour in adversity, its clear-eyed reflections on a different age of football, when leading players could all too easily be treated as disposable, and for its humility. For Kerry Dixon, as this often moving autobiography shows, the only way is up.
with a foreword by Frank Lamparrd and contributions from Harry Redknapp and Pat Nevin
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Special thanks to Mum, Dad and sister Jane, also to Michele for putting up with me for thirty years, my children Gemma, Kelly and Joe, and to all relatives and friends who have helped me throughout my life and football career. Thanks, Joe, for picking me up from prison with Kim, that was a wonderful feeling!
Id also like to thank Ron Fullbrook, Brendan McNally, Maurice Evans, John Neal, Bobby Campbell and, yes, Ken Bates, even though I left the Bridge just a handful of goals short of Bobby Tamblings all-time scoring record!
More recently, though, I have been looking for another chance after all the good, the bad and the football that has coloured my life in so many shades. To that end I want to show my appreciation to Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and benefactor Roman Abramovich for their support and understanding, Professional Footballers Associations Bobby Barnes, who visited me in prison, David Pleat, my manager at Luton, who sent a supportive letter with Perry Groves, Steve Surridge of Eclipse Sports Promotions Ltd, who helped get me some work with personal appearances at lunches and dinners and for always being a great bloke; former World Cup teammate Alvin Martin, who gave me some almighty stick at my first public appearance. (I missed that sort of banter, so thanks Alvin!) All showed me massive support at a time I needed it the most.
True friends: Les Harriott, Mick Justin, Denis Diggin, and Eddie Woods. Its been a long journey from school. Also Dave Blanchett, Nigel Domenique, Gary OReilly and Neil Barnett. Thanks for still being with me.
Finally, I cannot leave out the Harris family: journalists Harry and Linda Harris for helping me to write my life story, and their daughter Poppy for the picture taken at Pazzia in Sunningdale (venue for a number of writing sessions). Plus everyone at Blake Publishing Ltd John Blake, editor Toby Buchan and finance director Joanna Kennedy. Also Jane Moore and Caroline for your support as always. The Tanner family from Chatham in Kent, brilliant all of you. Mick from Gillingham for helping us both while in prison. Cas Knight for great support. Julie Carr, for massive help while in prison.
Dave Folb of Lashings. Thank you for everything in the last few years. Mark Wyeth and James, my legal team we cant win them all, thanks for everything.
And a special thank you to Kim who is in this with me and, without who, I undoubtedly would have struggled. The support, and love, has been great, and hopefully it can be paid back time and time again over the future years.
Christian Seunig from Austria, Bobby Barnes of the PFA and Mickey Bennett.
To all the people who wrote letters and sent them while I was in prison.
Ralph Varle, thanks for all the help over the years. Mick Colquhoun (my cousin), who has been great before, during, and after my time in jail.
To Andy Clark of Oakray. Thank you for giving me work when I so needed it.
To Lenny and John of Oakray, for helping me settle in there.
All CFC supporters for still believing.
BY FRANK LAMPARD
B elieve me, scoring nearly two hundred goals for one club is hard. It takes huge talent, commitment, dedication, the will to play through pain, the belief to keep going when everything turns against you.
And I guess thats what this book is about. The belief to keep going when everything seems to turn against you. I think this is a lesson in life for us all, and not just in football.
I got to know Kerry well when I started closing in on his 193 goals total at Chelsea. He was always generous in his attitude to me, encouraging, appreciative of how I played. My father would tell me many times that Kerry had approached him during games and spoke so positively about me, no matter how I was performing. I always appreciated that support. He was just a real football fella and became more than a Chelsea colleague to me, also a good friend.
But I can understand how the buzz of that goalscoring life can be missed when its gone. We can sometimes take things for granted on the pitch but life is much more than that. Now some things have gone wrong in his life, and theres been some heavy cost for him and for other people as a result.
The Kerry I know would want to put that right. Hed want to get back to that life where he can have a laugh and love his football. For all the drinking and gambling and everything else, thats his bottom line: have a laugh, love football. Nothing complicated. I can really relate to that.
Its like his game used to be. Nothing complicated. Get the ball in the area, hed put it in the net. Pass it early, goal! Cross it, climb and head, goal!
Theres a lot of Chelsea people like me who have been blessed to meet Kerry when hes been in the football environment in which he thrives. I hope his life can focus back on that. I believe writing this book can help, and I have huge respect for him in talking so candidly about his life.
And I look forward to the next chapter.
BY PAT NEVIN
M y earliest memories of Kerry came when he joined Chelsea, just a few short days after me. We were already at pre-season training in Aberystwyth when he strolled in, probably not carrying quite the level of confidence he affected. It was the dawn of a new era at the club, though we didnt know that at the time. Nigel Spackman, Joe McLaughlin and Eddie Niedzwiecki were other new boys and we were all out to impress in our own ways.
He might not have sparkled on the long-distance runs along the beach but everywhere else he quickly showed his class. I realised in that first week that he was deadly in the air at the back post, I never forgot that and it led to quite a few goals. Then his passion for scoring shone through, while his knack of being in the right place at the right time, the power of his shot and his timing enabled him to score all sorts of goals from all angles.
His pace was as impressive as any of those other gifts. Oddly he didnt look that fast and it often came as a shock to defenders when he opened up and blazed away from them. No one at our club could get near him in any sprints from twenty to a hundred yards. In short, he was pretty close to the perfect centre-forward.
He was also tall, blond, good-looking and soon to be an England striker. In fact, with all that going for him you would think he would be easy to hate! The thing is, though, that you couldnt dislike the Golden Boy because there didnt seem to be a bad bone in his body.
As everyone now knows there were problems underneath with addiction, which he will talk about here. He kept it well hidden in those early years; many of the players liked a flutter and he seemed no different, but we all know that for some it becomes a bigger problem because it is an illness.
There was one occasion that Kerry might have forgotten. He asked me for a loan of 200, which was a lot of money for me then but I knew it took a lot for him to ask me. I said I would go to the bank and get it for him after training. I did just that and came back knowing there was no guarantee I would see it again soon, if ever. I went to hand it over and he said No, just keep it Pat, and walked away. That must have taken a huge amount of self-control, if he really needed it. I admired his fighting spirit then and there. I know it has been a fight ever since, one that will never stop but can be won only on a day-to-day basis.
Kerry still managed to have a phenomenal career; the goals flowed and he became unquestionably a Chelsea legend. Whatever you do in life, if you can say that you are a Chelsea legend then that it is something of which to be eternally proud.
BY HARRY REDKNAPP
K erry Dixon was a great goal-scorer, a really good centre-forward, a player I thoroughly enjoyed watching in his prime. But he played in an era when a clubs history meant something to the players: it was special.
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