Tony Adams

(footballer)

For other persons named Tony Adams, see Tony Adams (disambiguation).

Personal information
Tony Adams
Full name	Tony Alexander Adams
Date of birth	October 10 1966 (1966--) (age 41)
Place of birth	Romford, England
Height	ft in ( m)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Portsmouth (Assistant Manager)
Youth clubs
1980-1984	Arsenal
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984-2002	Arsenal	504 (32)
National team
1987-2000 1989-1990	England England B	066 0(5) 004 0(1)
Teams managed
2003-2004 2006- Present	Wycombe Wanderers Portsmouth (Assistant Manager)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Tony Alexander Adams MBE (born 10 October 1966) is a former English football player, who is currently assistant manager of Portsmouth. He spent his entire playing career of 22 years at Arsenal, and is considered one of the club's greatest players of all time by the club's own fans.^[1] He wore the number 6 shirt for Arsenal and 5 for England.

Club career

Adams was born in Oldchurch Hospital Romford in the London Borough of Havering, East London and joined Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980. Although born in Romford Tony was brought up in Foxlands Road, Dagenham and attended Hunters Hall Primary and Junior and Eastbrook Comprehensive School, a school that Fulham star Paul Konchesky also attended. He made his first team debut on November 5 1983, at the age of 17 against Sunderland. Together with Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Steve Bould, Adams was part of the "famous four" that lined up in Arsenal's defence, which under George Graham was renowned for its well disciplined use of the offside trap. On January 1, 1988, he became Arsenal's youngest ever captain at the age of 21; he would remain club captain for the next 14 years.

Their strong defence was a huge factor in Arsenal winning the League Cup in 1986-87 then the First Division trophy in 1988-89 and 1990-91. In 1992-93 Adams became the first player to captain his side to a League Cup and FA Cup double, lifting the European Cup Winners' Cup the year after.

Despite this success, alcohol problems increasingly blighted his life as he was reportedly often involved in fights in night clubs, was imprisoned in December 1990 for three months after being caught drunk-driving. He was four times over the limit when he crashed his car into a wall. He was involved in other drunken incidents during his drinking days, including playing in a match at the end of 1993 whilst hungover, falling down stairs and needing 29 stiches to an head wound, and letting off fire extinguishers with team-mate Ray Parlour. In September 1996 Adams admitted that he was an alcoholic and, after seeking treatment, found a more sensitive side to his character emerging, which included a return to education and an attempt to learn the piano. He is one of the most high-profile recovering alcoholics in the UK^[2]—his battle with alcohol is heavily detailed in his autobiography, Addicted, which was released in May 1998 to enormous critical acclaim.^[2]

His recovery and rehabilitation were helped in no small part by the arrival of Arsène Wenger as Arsenal manager in September 1996, who reformed the club's dietary practices and the players' lifestyles. Wenger stuck by Adams following his confessions about his drink problem, and the improvements in the regime probably extended Adams's career by several years. Adams rewarded his manager's understanding handsomely, captaining the club to two Premiership and FA Cup Doubles, in 1997-98 and 2001-02; he is the only player in English football history to have captained a League-winning team in three different decades.

After his second Double win in 2002, Adams retired from professional football altogether, his last match being the 2002 FA Cup Final. He played 668 matches for Arsenal (only David O'Leary has played more) and was the most successful captain in the club's history. The number 6 shirt that Adams wore when playing was not used from his retirement at the end of 2001/2002 to the end of the 2005/2006 season, but Philippe Senderos recently acquired this number. Nicknamed "Mr. Arsenal", he was honoured by Arsenal with a testimonial game against Celtic in May 2002 with many Arsenal legends playing, including Ian Wright, John Lukic and Adams' fellow back four stalwarts, Dixon, Winterburn and Bould. The game finished 1-1 with Lee Dixon, in his final appearance for the Gunners, getting their goal.

In 2004, Adams was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact on the English game.

Club honours

First Division/Premier League 1988/89, 1990/91, 1997/98, 2001/02
FA Cup 1993, 1998, 2002
League Cup 1987, 1993
Cup Winners' Cup 1994
FA Community Shield 1991 (shared), 1998, 1999

International career

Adams made his debut for England against Spain in 1987, and played in Euro 88. Adams' international career suffered a couple of setbacks after such early promise; he was surprisingly left out of the 1990 FIFA World Cup squad by manager Bobby Robson, and missed Euro 92 due to injury. However, he still maintained a regular place in defence, and after the retirement of Gary Lineker in 1992, Adams unofficially shared the captaincy of England with David Platt, though Adams got the job outright before Euro 96, as Platt's place in the side became less secure. England reached the semi-finals of Euro 96, before losing on penalties to Germany.

When England manager Glenn Hoddle gave Alan Shearer the captain's armband in 1996, his decision both surprised^[3] and angered Adams^{[citation needed]} as well as leaving many England fans^{[attribution needed]} puzzled. Adams continued to play for the national side, however and he finally appeared in a World Cup finals in 1998. His international swansong was England's largely unsuccessful Euro 2000 campaign. With Shearer retiring from international football after the tournament, Adams regained the captaincy. However, within months, England lost a World Cup qualifier to Germany in October 2000, the match being the last to be staged at Wembley Stadium before the stadium was torn down for rebuilding. That match was Adams's 60th Wembley appearance, a record. With Sven-Göran Eriksson eventually taking the helm and under increasing pressure for his place from the emerging and improving Rio Ferdinand, Adams retired from international football before Eriksson picked his first squad.

Managerial career

After starting a sports science degree at Brunel University, Adams became the manager of Wycombe Wanderers in November 2003. He was unable to prevent the club's relegation to League Two that season, and although the club were top of the table in August 2004, a loss of form saw them fall down the table.^[4] He resigned from Wycombe in November 2004, citing personal reasons. He was succeded by John Gorman.

On 7 July 2005, Adams accepted a trainee coaching role with Dutch side Feyenoord with special responsibility for its Jonge team, which is a reserve/junior side. Adams later had a short spell seconded to Utrecht as a first team trainee coach, between 15 January and 2 February 2006.

On June 28 2006, Adams joined Portsmouth as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp, a position left vacant by the departure of Kevin Bond.

Charitable work

In September 2000, as a result of his own experiences with alcoholism and drug addiction, Adams founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, a charitable foundation aimed at providing treatment, counselling and support for sports men and women suffering from drink, drug or gambling addictions. The clinic, which works to the twelve-step programme philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous is based near Liphook in Hampshire and includes Kate Hoey, Alex Rae and Elton John as patrons, and is supported by the Professional Footballers Association. Adams's former Arsenal and England team mate Paul Merson, himself a recovering alcoholic, is also a patron of the charity.

He also played in the Soccer Aid charity match co-organised by Robbie Williams on behalf of UNICEF in May 2006.

Personal life

Adams married Poppy Teacher in December 2004, with whom he has had one son, Atticus (born February 7, 2004), Adams also has a son and a daughter from his first marriage to Jane Shea on 11 July 1992. They are Oliver (born on 28 February 1992) and Amber (born on 26 January 1995). He also has a step-daughter from Jane's earlier relationship called Clare who was born in 1985.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	L	D	Win %
Wycombe Wanderers		November 5 2003	November 9 2004	53	12	20	21	22.64

References

Adams, Tony. Addicted. (London: CollinsWillow, 1998) ISBN 0-00-218795-7

^ Referendum: Is Thierry Henry Arsenal's greatest ever player?. Arsenal Land.
^ ^a ^b Paul Whittaker (March 1998). Adams turns his back on alcohol. Alcohol Works. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
^ Nigel Clarke. "HODDLE'S SNUB FOR ADAMS; He wasn't told of captaincy", The Mirror, September 25 1996.
^ Adams resigns as Wycombe manager. BBC Sport.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Kenny Sansom	Arsenal F.C. Captain 1988 - 2002	Succeeded by Patrick Vieira
Preceded by David Platt	England football captain 1995-1996	Succeeded by Alan Shearer
Preceded by Lawrie Sanchez	Wycombe Wanderers Manager 2003-2004	Succeeded by John Gorman
Awards
Preceded by Tony Cottee	PFA Young Player of the Year 1987	Succeeded by Paul Gascoigne

England squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Seaman • 2 Campbell • 3 Le Saux • 4 Ince • 5 Adams • 6 Southgate • 7 Beckham • 8 Batty • 9 Shearer • 10 Sheringham • 11 McManaman • 12 Neville • 13 Martyn • 14 Anderton • 15 Merson • 16 Scholes • 17 Lee • 18 Keown • 19 L. Ferdinand • 20 Owen • 21 R. Ferdinand • 22 Flowers • Coach: Hoddle

Persondata
NAME	Adams, Tony Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Former professional football player and assistant manager
DATE OF BIRTH	October 10, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH	Romford, London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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