Tony Adams

Where is Tony Adams now?

After 22 years playing at Arsenal, 14 as captain, club legend Tony Adams finally retired from playing professionally in 2002 at the age of 36.

During his illustrious Highbury career, he won a number of trophies including two First Division titles, two Premier League titles, the FA Cup three times, the League Cup twice and the European Cup Winners Cup.

Individually he also won the 1987 PFA Young Player of the Year Award as well appearing in the top league’s team of the year on four occasions.

He was also a regular for the England national side winning 66 caps and representing the side in the 1996 UEFA European Championships as well as the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

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Upon retiring from playing Adams studied for a degree in sports science at Brunel University before a surprise appointment as manager of Wycombe Wanderers in November 2003.  However, unable to keep the side from relegation, Adams resigned a year later for personal reasons.

After a spell coaching in Holland within the Feyenoord and Utrecht academies Adams joined Portsmouth in 2006 as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp before taking over as first-team manager after Redknapp left for Tottenham Hotspur. This role only lasted until 2009 when he was sacked due to a run of bad results in his first 16 games in charge.

In May 2010, he joined Azerbaijani club Gabala FC of the Azerbaijan Premier League as manager before moving into a sporting director role where he stayed until 2016. During his time at the club he had minor heart surgery after experiencing acute chest pain whilst exercising.

In June 2016, he was offered a job by Arsenal as assistant coach of their academy’s under 18’s team, following former Arsenal team mates Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg who also went into the academy coaching set up. The role which was originally offered to Thierry Henry was also rejected by Adams who took on a new job as sporting director and head of youth development at Chinese Super League side Chongqing Lifan.

Chongqing Lifan had links with Spanish La Liga side Granada and in early 2017 Adams was asked to go to Spain and temporarily take on the vacant sporting director’s job there.

In April 2017 following the dismissal of Granada’s manager after a string of poor results, Adams was appointed as interim manager until the end of the 2016/17 season. Unfortunately he was unable to keep his side up and Granada were relegated from La Liga just four games into his tenure and he returned to his role behind the scenes at the club.

When Adams published his book Sober: Football. My Story. My Life in May 2017, he revealed that he had suffered a mental breakdown a year earlier after looking at himself in the mirror and finding his reflection ‘scary’. He also said that despite giving up alcohol 20 years ago, he still had demons and went from ‘one emotional breakdown to the next’.

In December 2018, he was appointed as president of the Rugby Football League with whom he had already been working with through his Sporting Chance charity. He left the role in July 2020 after his one-year tenure finished.

After a spell working as a pundit on Malaysian sports channel Stadium Astro, Adams was literally thrust in the spotlight once more when he was signed up to the 2022 series of BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing.

Despite a difficult start to the series where he was branded ‘wooden’ by the judges panel, Adams improved significantly week-on-week but unfortunately had to withdraw from the programme after eight weeks due to an injury.

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#One2Eleven (4-4-1-1 Formation)

Tony Adams was a guest on Sky Sports programme The Fantasy Football Club in December 2015 where he picked the eleven best players he had ever played with in their #One2Eleven section of the show.

Tony Adams One2Eleven

GK – David Seaman – a calm goalkeeper who just goes about his business.

RB – Lee Dixon – brilliant player as part of a unit and loved to get forward and get crosses in.

LB – Nigel Winterburn – good, honest and strong full-back that did a fantastic job.

CB – Steve Bould – excellent at just winning the ball and distributing it.

CB – Tony Adams – included myself as worked well as a defensive unit with the other players selected in my team.

CM – Emmanuel Petit – strong, technical and athletic, could run all day long.

CM – Patrick Vieira – worked in perfect balance with Petit and gave great protection.

RM – David Beckham – fantastic work rate and delivery of the ball.

LM – Robert Pires – very fast and unbelievably low centre of gravity.

No 10 – Dennis Bergkamp – tremendously gifted player.

Striker – Thierry Henry – natural goalscorer coming in from the left with right foot finish.


Tony Adams: Premier League Statistics

NationalityEnglish
PositionDefender
Appearances255
Goals12
Yellow Cards36
Red Cards4
Premier League Teams Played forArsenal

Statistics courtesy of www.premierleague.com

Last Updated on 20 January 2024 by Admin