Macmillan, 2005. Signed by Robbie Fowler. Small tear at top dustjacket spine, otherwise good secondhand copy.

Pronounced as the greatest goalscoring talent since Jimmy Greaves, seventeen-year old Robbie Fowler was immediately catapulted to fame and fortune. The thin, baby-faced Toxteth lad, who had trampled the same streets as the rioters, was now a millionaire, an idol and inspiration to every kid who kicked a football. Yet his incredible potential was never quite realised. Injuries and persistent rumours of drug abuse and depression meant that though Fowler remains one of the most celebrated of Premiership stars, he never became the world-beater so many predicted.

This is a fascinating and unbelievably frank insight into the beautiful game, taking us behind the closed doors of professional football to expose what really happens at both club and international level. This is a truthful and candid account of an incredible career, examining not just the records and the glory, but the low points and the miseries of a footballing life that many people now believe somewhere, somehow went wrong.

Brilliance and controversy have stalked Robbie Fowler from his five goal performance in only his second full game for Liverpool, to his snorting of the touchline in the Merseyside derby. In this utterly compelling autobiography, Robbie Fowler looks back on what was, what wasn’t and what might have been. This is the story of one of the game’s true icons, and the story of the modern game itself.