Awards

• Long-listed for William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2014.

Overview

It was 22nd April 1980, the eve of the European Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Juventus in Turin and Paul Vaessen had a dream, a dream in which he came off the bench to score the winning goal, silencing the Stadio Comunale and catapulting himself to overnight fame. The next day he lived the dream, heading in Graham Rix's cross with only seconds left to score one of the most memorable goals in Arsenal's illustrious history. It was Paul's moment, a moment of supreme elation, a moment he would spend the rest of his life trying to recapture. Because the dream would soon turn into a nightmare as, eight months after his exploits in northern Italy, Paul would suffer the knee injury which would eventually curtail his career at the age of twenty one. Paul was on the scrapheap. And he was poorly equipped for life without football. After a comeback with non-league Fisher Athletic was aborted, most job offers were too mundane for him to even contemplate. Nothing could give him anything like the buzz he was looking for. Nothing, that is, except drugs. Paul would spend most of the following fifteen years battling drug addiction, eventually dying alone and anonymously in his Bristol flat in August 2001, a manic depressive and schizophrenic facing up to the likelihood of amputation. His knee caused him agony, a constant reminder of what he'd once been and how high he'd once flown. He told those close to him that he wouldn't make forty. He was thirty nine when he died. There were, though, good times along the way, as we hear from former team-mates such as Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton, Alan Sunderland, Graham Rix, Brian Talbot, Brian McDermott and Kenny Sansom. Fellow apprentice, Nicky Law, relives the mischief of the early years and we meet Paul's school friends, teachers and family. But this is primarily a sombre tale, a tale of seduction and abandonment. Tony Adams, who has written the foreword for this book, is just one of many who have acknowledged the importance and relevance of this cautionary tale. Every now and then, especially when Arsenal and Juventus are drawn together in competition, Paul's name crops up again. And so does that goal, that moment with which Paul will always be associated. That moment in which Paul Vaessen will always be stuck.

Full Product Details

9781909050068

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Reviews

SHORT-LISTED FOR 2015 CROSS BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS (NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR). LONG-LISTED FOR THE 2014 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD. ...a brilliant and cautionary tale... (The Mirror). The most affecting pece of fotball writing in 2014 (The Offside Rule). Tragically...a tale worth telling... (When Saturday Comes Magazine). ...a gripping read. 5 Stars (442 Magazine). ...the story of Paul Vaessen, perhaps the most powerful and tragic tale of them all. (Arsenal Magazine).

Tragically...a tale worth telling... When Saturday Comes Magazine ...a gripping read. 5 Stars - 442 Magazine ...the story of Paul Vaessen, perhaps the most powerful and tragic tale of them all. Arsenal Magazine

LONG-LISTED FOR THE 2014 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD. Tragically...a tale worth telling... (When Saturday Comes Magazine). ...a gripping read. 5 Stars (442 Magazine). ...the story of Paul Vaessen, perhaps the most powerful and tragic tale of them all. (Arsenal Magazine).

Author Information

Stewart Taylor's published work dates back to the mid-90s when he was an illustrator for the Arsenal fanzine, 'The Gooner'. His cartoon strip, 'I'll Be There When Jenson Scores', ran successfully until 31st December 1994 when Jenson, rather inconveniently, scored. His description of that event was published in 'Arsenal - Memories and Marble Halls', a collection of short stories published by David Sims in 2000. Stewart has since written for the official Arsenal Magazine and Backpass magazine for whom he wrote an article about Paul Vaessen in 2010. At that point Stewart was already two years into his research for 'Stuck In A Moment: The Ballad of Paul Vaessen', a project which has taken five years to come to fruition. Stewart, an economics graduate and civil servant, has supported the Gunners since Cup Final day 1979 and is a self-confessed child of George Graham. He once proudly represented Arsenal as a Junior Gunner, playing in a 5-1 thrashing by the Junior Hammers. He is married to a very understanding wife and is determined that at least one of his three young sons will take up the Arsenal baton some time in the near future.

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