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| managerclubs = [[Wycombe Wanderers F.C.|Wycombe Wanderers]]<br>[[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]]
| managerclubs = [[Wycombe Wanderers F.C.|Wycombe Wanderers]]<br>[[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]]
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'''Tony Alexander Adams''', [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] (born 10 October 1966 in [[Romford]], [[Greater London]]) is an [[England|English]] [[Association football|football]] [[Coach (sport)|manager]] and former [[Defender (association football)|defender]]. He was the manager of English [[Premier League]] side [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] until he was sacked on February 8th, 2009.
'''Tony Alexander Adams''', [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] (born 10 October 1966 in [[Romford]], [[Greater London]]) is an [[England|English]] [[Association football|football]] [[Coach (sport)|manager]] and former [[Defender (association football)|defender]]. He is the manager of English [[Premier League]] side [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]].


He spent his [[One club man|entire playing career]] of 22 years<ref name="testimonial">
He spent his [[One club man|entire playing career]] of 22 years<ref name="testimonial">
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| date = 2008-10-28
| date = 2008-10-28
| accessdate = 2008-10-28
| accessdate = 2008-10-28
}}</ref>
And was fired on 9 Febuary 2008<ref name="fires_Adams" /<Ref>{{Cite news
| url = http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2009-02-08-217970790_x.htm
| title = Reports: Portsmouth fires Adams after 4 months
| work = The Associated Press
| date = 2009-02-08
| accessdate = 2009-02-09
}}</ref>
}}</ref>


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{{updated|8 February 2009}}
{{updated|8 February 2009}}


<sup>1</sup> Adams first game as manager of Portsmouth (a 1-1 draw with [[Fulham F.C.|Fulham]]) was in the role of joint caretaker manager alongside [[Joe Jordan (footballer)|Joe Jordan]], and prior to his appointment as full manager of the club. His 3-2 defeat to liverpool was his last in charge of Portsmouth FC and he was sacked a few days later on monday 9th February 2009.
<sup>1</sup> Adams first game as manager of Portsmouth (a 1-1 draw with [[Fulham F.C.|Fulham]]) was in the role of joint caretaker manager alongside [[Joe Jordan (footballer)|Joe Jordan]], and prior to his appointment as full manager of the club.


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 00:21, 9 February 2009

For other people named Tony Adams, see Tony Adams (disambiguation).
Tony Adams
Personal information
Full name Tony Alexander Adams, MBE
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s) Defender

Tony Alexander Adams, MBE (born 10 October 1966 in Romford, Greater London) is an English football manager and former defender. He is the manager of English Premier League side Portsmouth.

He spent his entire playing career of 22 years[2] at Arsenal, and is considered one of the club's greatest players of all time by the club's own fans[3] and was included in the Football League 100 Legends. He wore the number 6 shirt for Arsenal and 5 for England. With Arsenal, he won four top flight division titles, three FA Cups, two Football League Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and three FA Community Shields.

Club career

Tony Adams was born in Oldchurch Hospital, in Romford in the London Borough of Havering. He grew up in nearby Dagenham and was a pupil at Hunters Hall Primary School from 1971 to 1978 and then Eastbrook Comprehensive School from 1978 to 1983.

He signed for Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980. He made his first team debut on 5 November 1983 against Sunderland in the First Division, four weeks after his 17th birthday. He became a regular player in the 1985-86 season, winning his first major trophy in 1987 when he played in the Football League Cup final triumph over Liverpool at Wembley.

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 1 January 1988, he became Arsenal captain at the age of 21[4]; he would remain club captain for the next 14 years until his retirement.

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 gained the distinction of being the captain of the first English side to win the League Cup and FA Cup double, lifting the European Cup Winners' Cup the following year.

Despite this success, a battle with alcoholism (which started in the mid 1980s) increasingly blighted his life as he was reportedly often involved in fights in nightclubs. On 6 May 1990, Adams crashed his Ford Sierra into a wall near his house in Southend-on-Sea, and when breathalysed he was found to be more than four times over the legal drink-drive limit. On 19 December that year, at Southend Crown Court,[1] he was imprisoned for four months (being freed after half of his sentence on 15 February 1991) but after being released, his alcoholism continued and he was involved in further alcoholism-related incidents, including playing through a match during the 1993-94 season despite being hungover, falling down stairs and needing 29 stitches to a head wound, and letting off fire extinguishers with team-mate Ray Parlour in a Pizza Hut where they were being taunted by supporters of rival clubs.

Finally, on 14 September 1996 Adams admitted to the public 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 became one of the most high-profile recovering alcoholics in the UK[5]; his battle with alcohol is heavily detailed in his autobiography, Addicted, which was released in May 1998 to enormous critical acclaim.[5]

His recovery and rehabilitation were helped in no small part by the arrival of Arsène Wenger as Arsenal manager in October 1996. Wenger 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 title-winning team in three different decades.

In August 2002, just before the start of the 2002-03 season, Adams retired from professional football after a career spanning almost 20 years, his last match being the last league game of the season at home to Everton (the 2002 FA Cup Final was unusually played before the last league fixtures). 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 again until the 2006-07 season, when it was assigned to Philippe Senderos.

Just before his retirement as a player, Adams had applied to become manager of Brentford (who had just missed out on promotion to Division One) after the resignation of Steve Coppell, but his application was rejected.[6]

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, and in 2008 he was placed 3rd in the "50 Greatest Gunners" poll on the club's website.

International career

Adams made his debut for England against Spain in 1987, and played in Euro 88. He was the first player to represent England who had been born after the 1966 World Cup win.

After a highly promising start to his international career, Adams suffered a series of setbacks during the early 1990s. 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 became England captain 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 took the Captain's armband from Adams and gave it to Alan Shearer it was a bitter pill for Adams to swallow. Speaking at a fans' forum in 2008 Adams remarked "I have some resentment over the way Glenn Hoddle gave the captaincy to Alan Shearer instead of me but I can let that go. I reacted positively. I disagreed with him [Hoddle] and he thought Alan could get more penalties being a centre forward. People know my reaction to that".[citation needed]

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.[7] He resigned from Wycombe in November 2004, citing personal reasons. He was succeeded 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 28 June 2006, Adams joined Portsmouth as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp, a position left vacant by the departure of Kevin Bond. In his first season as assistant, Portsmouth finished ninth in the Premier League - their highest standing since the 1950s and won the 2007-08 FA Cup. On 25 October 2008 Adams was appointed caretaker manager of Portsmouth, alongside Joe Jordan,[8] following the departure of Harry Redknapp to Tottenham Hotspur. He was subsequently appointed full-time manager on 28 October 2008.[8][9]

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.[10] 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.

His Arsenal testimonial match helped raise £ 500,000 for his charity[2], the Sporting Chance Clinic.

Titles and awards

Player

Arsenal

Statistics

Player

[11]

Season Club Division League FA Cup League Cup Europe Other[12] Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
1983-84 Arsenal First Division 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
1984-85 16 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 18 0
1985-86 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0
1986-87 42 6 4 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 55 6
1987-88 39 2 4 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 51 2
1988-89 36 4 2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 43 4
1989-90 38 5 3 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 46 5
1990-91 30 1 3 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 37 4
1991-92 35 2 1 0 3 0 4 0 1 0 44 2
1992-93 Premier League 35 0 8 2 9 0 0 0 0 0 52 2
1993-94 35 0 3 2 3 0 8 2 1 0 50 4
1994-95 27 3 1 0 4 1 10 0 2 0 44 4
1995-96 21 1 2 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 28 3
1996-97 28 3 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 35 3
1997-98 26 3 6 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 36 3
1998-99 26 1 5 0 0 0 4 1 1 0 36 2
1999-2000 21 0 1 1 0 0 11 0 0 0 33 1
2000-01 26 1 4 1 0 0 8 0 0 0 38 2
2001-02 10 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 1
Total 504 32 54 8 60 5 48 3 6 0 672 48

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 11 November 1987 Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia  Yugoslavia 4–1 Win Euro 1988 qualifying
2 23 March 1988 Wembley Stadium, London, England  Netherlands 2–2 Draw Friendly
3 18 June 1988 Waldstadion, Frankfurt, West Germany  Soviet Union 1–3 Loss Euro 1988
4 16 November 1988 King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  Saudi Arabia 1–1 Draw Friendly
5 31 May 2000 Wembley Stadium, London, England  Ukraine 2–0 Win Friendly

Manager

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win %
Wycombe Wanderers England 5 November 2003 9 November 2004 53 12 20 21 22.64
Portsmouth1 England 26 October 2008 Present 22 4 11 7 18.18
Total 75 16 31 28 21.33
As of 8 February 2009

1 Adams first game as manager of Portsmouth (a 1-1 draw with Fulham) was in the role of joint caretaker manager alongside Joe Jordan, and prior to his appointment as full manager of the club.

See also

References

General
  • Adams, Tony. Addicted. (London: CollinsWillow, 1998) ISBN 0-00-218795-7
Specific
  1. ^ "Tony Alexander Adams - International Appearances". Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  2. ^ a b "A night out for the Adams family". The Guardian. 2002-05-14. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  3. ^ "Referendum: Is Thierry Henry Arsenal's greatest ever player?". Arsenal Land.
  4. ^ Arsenal.com (5–19 May 2008). "Gunners' Greatest Players - 3. Tony Adams". Official Arsenal Website. Retrieved 2008-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  5. ^ a b Paul Whittaker (March 1998). "Adams turns his back on alcohol". Alcohol Works. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  6. ^ "Brentford snub Adams". BBC Sport. 27 June 2002. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  7. ^ "Adams resigns as Wycombe manager". BBC Sport.
  8. ^ a b "Adams set to be unveiled as new Portsmouth manager". The Guardian. 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  9. ^ "Adams appointed new Pompey boss". BBC. 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  10. ^ "Tony Adams to provide safe haven for alcoholic and drug-addict footballers". The Independent. 2000-08-21. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  11. ^ "Tony Adams". Retrieved 2008-10-25.
  12. ^ Includes other competitive competitions, including the FA Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup

External links

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