Tony Adams at 50: Titles and trophies, boozing and jail time… Arsenal legend’s 50th birthday
Portrait of an icon: the extraordinary life of one of the greatest defender's of all time
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TONY ADAMS. Legend, leader and winner.
Undoubtedly one of the greatest ever players to pull on an Arsenal shirt reaches his half century today.
The former central defender has a place in every Gunners heart after driving the club to glory on numerous occasions throughout his storied career, the majority of which came wearing the captain’s armband. He was made Arsenal's youngest ever captain at the age of 21 in 1988.
Between 1983 and 2002 Adams made 669 appearances for the north London side and led them to 10 major trophies.
Only David O'Leary played more games for the Gunners, with 722 games in the famous colours.
Adams remains the only man to captain teams to league titles in three separate decades.
The figures however do not tell the whole story. He bridged the very different reigns of George Graham and Arsene Wenger.
As the club was revolutionised by Wenger, Adams did much more than just survive, he flourished.
And it was not only at club level the defensive colossus earned legendary status. He won 66 caps for England, scoring five goals, and skippering his country on 15 occasions.
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But Adams’ career was not all the stuff of fairytale.
Despite all of his success on the pitch, his life away from the field was mired in controversy during the early part of his career.
The Romford-born icon fought a battle with alcoholism. It was a different age then, when a few beers on the coach home and regular days on the booze with team-mates was considered the norm.
Adams, however, was blighted by the drink more than most and in May 19990 he crashed his Ford Sierra into a wall in Rayleigh while four times over the legal drink limit.
In December that year he was sentenced to four months in jail, of which he served two, but even that did not deter him.
Mr Arsenal: Gunners' trophies under Tony Adams
First Division/Premier League: 1988/89, 1990/91, 1997/98, 2001/02
FA Cup: 1992/93, 1997/98, 2001/02
League Cup: 1986/87, 1992/93
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1993/94
Community Shield: 1991, 1998, 1999
Further alcohol-related incidents occurred, including falling down stairs and needing 29 stitches to a head wound and letting off fire extinguishers and firing a flare gun into a disabled lavatory with team-mate Ray Parlour in a Pizza Hut.
Releasing his career and life were on the verge of being ruined, Adams admitted to the public in September 1996 that he was an alcoholic and seeking help.
Without doubt his recovery was aided by the arrival of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal that October.
The Frenchman introduced a lifestyle and dietary practice into the club that Adams embraced and helped transform the fierce centre-half into a more sensitive soul who returned to education and also learned the piano.
Adams seemed to get better and better with age on the pitch after fighting off his demons.
On retaining Adams as captain upon his arrival, Wenger said: “He was a mixture of a laid-back player who was very fierce and strong pride.
Play for the name on the front of the shirt and they'll remember the name on the back
Tony Adams
“He could always find that when he was bad like he had a bad ankle you wondered if he could play at the day of a competition.
“This is the guy that always found the resources to be at his best. This was the brand of the back four when I arrived, they were all the same and like that.
“You wondered sometimes during the week if they would be available but they always surprised you and they were always much better than you predicted they would be.”
Adams' attempts at management have failed to live up to the heights of his playing career.
He studied a sports science degree at Brunel University to prepare himself, and was appointed manager of Wycombe Wanderers in November 2003.
However he left after a year, citing personal reasons. After a spell coaching at Dutch side Feyenoord, Adams was made assistant manger to Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth in 2006, moving into the manger's job in 2008.
But Adams failed at Fratton Park and was sacked in February 2009 after just 16 games in charge, after Portsmouth picked up on ten points.
A professor of defence... Tony Adams in quotes
THE MAN HIMSELF
Fergie (Sir Alex Ferguson) said I was a Manchester United player in the wrong shirt... I said he was an Arsenal manager in the wrong blazer
Play for the name on the front of the shirt and they'll remember the name on the back
I will sign every contract Arsenal put in front of me without reading it
Those that say it is the taking part and not the winning that is important are, for me, wrong. It is the other way round
I don't actually like people. I'm a longer and if I had my way I'd just walk my dogs every day, never talk to anyone and then die
.
OTHERS ON ADAMS
I first say him aged 16 and I don't think I have ever seen a player of that age bossing a game in that way. It stayed with me for a long time - Harry Redknapp
If you are looking for leaders in your team, Tony Adams is your man – he was a leader among men and a great defender - Les Ferdinand
If a young Tony Adams were to come on the scene now, any club in the Premier League would be happy to pay tens of millions for him - Jimmy Greaves
Colossus. Proper centre half. Men-of-men. In our England team we were all men, we were all big characters and big men but he was men-of-men - Paul Ince
A professor of defence - Arsene Wenger
He worked in Azerbaijan as the manager of Gabala FC and is currently head of youth development at Chinese side Chongqing Lifan after turning down the chance to coach the under 18s at Arsenal.
Adams was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition in 2004 and a statue of him is placed outside of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
He was an amazing player. But perhaps it is the way he transformed his life from spending time in the cells to becoming the only man in English footballing history to captain a title-winning team in three different decades that make him even more of icon.
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