Andy McLaren Criticises Morton

I've just received a text from a friend who says that Andy McLaren has criticised Morton in tomorrow's Sunday Mail. The criticism appears in the first part of the serialisation of McLaren's autobiography Tormented.

I haven't seen the extract yet but the text I received says: "Inside back page [of the Sunday Mail] is all about a meeting with Jim [McInally]. He told him he'd been abused as a kid and got punted days later. He says the club owe him 30 grand."

McLaren's book is ghost written by Mark Guidi who is chief sportswriter at the Sunday Mail. The book is published by Mainstream Publishing and is due to be released in October sometime, rrp £9.99.

Mainstream's website includes the following blurb on Tormented:

"Andy McLaren is a professional footballer with an extraordinary story to tell. While playing for Reading in 2000, he failed a random drugs test and was immediately banned from football. He was forced to admit to being an alcoholic and cocaine abuser, and checked in to the Priory Clinic in Glasgow. After working hard to overcome his addictions, he resurrected his career with Kilmarnock later the same year and gained his first national cap when Scotland played Poland in 2001. But what had made him resort to drink and drugs?

In Tormented, McLaren reveals how he discovered through psychoanalysis that he had been a victim of abuse in childhood, and how this had led him down the path of alcohol and drug abuse. He documents his difficult journey to sobriety, during which he contemplated suicide, and explains how he coped with the shocking revelations from his past.

Tormented is a powerful, honest tale of a man whose career never hit the heights that his talents merited. It is the most revealing book written by any footballer, and his remarkable life story, laced with hope and humour, will be an inspiration to men and women in every walk of life."

*UPDATE* Read the article here: http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/sport/football/tm_headline=lowest-of-the-low%26method=full%26objectid=19833726%26siteid=64736-name_page.html

Scroll down the books for the information on McLaren's book: http://www.mainstreampublishing.com/private/forthcoming_titles_sport.html