Michael Richard Adams (born 8 November 1961) is an English former professional footballer and football manager. As a player, he was a full back, and made a total of 438 league appearances in a 19-year professional career in the English Football League, including five years with Southampton at the highest level. He began his managerial career as player-manager for Fulham in 1996 and has led several teams at varying levels with mixed success, being named Manager of the Season twice, and earning four promotions for the teams he has managed.
Born in Sheffield, Adams was part of the youth team at Sheffield United from the age of twelve until released in 1977. He turned professional at the Third Division team Gillingham in 1979, where he established himself in the first team, winning a move in 1983 to Coventry City who were in the First Division. He spent four years at Coventry before being sold to Leeds United in 1987. Southampton bought him for £250,000 in 1989, where he enjoyed five years of top-flight football. He was loaned out to Stoke City in 1994 before he signed with Fulham later in the year. Appointed as Fulham's player-manager in March 1996, he led the club out of the Third Division in 1996–97 and was named as the Third Division Manager of the Season. Dismissed by Fulham despite his success, he resigned from Swansea City after less than two weeks in charge and instead took charge at Brentford in November 1997. He was dismissed after the club were relegated at the end of the season. At this point, he ended his playing career.
He joined Nottingham Forest as assistant manager, taking charge for one Premier League game in a caretaker capacity. He returned to management with Brighton & Hove Albion in April 1999. He led the club to the Third Division title in 2000–01, winning the division's Manager of the Season award for a second time. He then moved to Leicester City as an assistant before finally being named the club's manager in April 2002. He took the club to the Premier League as First Division runners-up in 2002–03. However, he tendered his resignation in October 2004, failing to keep the club in the top flight. He took charge at former club Coventry City in January 2005, though he lost his job in January 2007.
He returned to Brighton in May 2008, though his second spell in charge only lasted for nine months. He was appointed manager of Port Vale in June 2009 before departing for Sheffield United in December 2010. He failed to prevent United from being relegated into League One and was dismissed in May 2011; this enabled him to return to Port Vale as manager. Despite starting the season in administration, he led Vale to promotion into League One in 2012–13. He resigned as Vale manager in September 2014 and took charge at Tranmere Rovers the following month. He left Tranmere with the club bottom of the Football League in April 2015. He managed Irish side Sligo Rovers for three months starting in August 2015. After leaving management in 2015, he started his football consultancy business.
Adams was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and was an associate schoolboy with Sheffield United from the age of twelve, where his boyhood idol was Tony Currie. He was a favourite of manager Jimmy Sirrel. However, Adams was released from the youth team set-up a few months after Harry Haslam replaced Sirrel as manager in September 1977.
United's youth team coach John Short also left the club and became a coach at Gillingham, and so Adams then travelled 240 miles (390 km) out from home to join Gillingham as an apprentice in August 1978. During his time as an apprentice he won four caps for the England youth team, and competed in a tournament in Yugoslavia. He went on to sign as a professional at Gillingham in November 1979. Due to his natural pace, Adams started his playing career as a left-winger before manager Keith Peacock converted him into a left-back after he was found to lack the technical skill necessary to beat opponents. Coming through the club's ranks at the same time as Steve Bruce, Adams later cited Buster Collins as a major influence upon his career. In 1982–83 he was named in the PFA's Third Division Team of the Year.
Coventry City and Leeds United
After 103 appearances for Third Division Gillingham he moved on to top-flight Coventry City in 1983 for a fee approaching £85,000. He struggled with injury during his time at Highfield Road, and was never popular with the fans. Keith Houchen also recalled that he did not get along with manager John Sillett and was prone to sulking when left out of the team. Despite this he managed to play over 100 games for City over four years before Leeds United manager Billy Bremner took him to the Second Division for a £110,000 fee. Near the end of his first season at Leeds, he played in the club's FA Cup Semi-final defeat to former club Coventry at Hillsborough, as Coventry won 3–2 in extra time. Leeds suffered further heartbreak in 1987 by losing the play-off final to Charlton Athletic, again after extra time.
His return to First Division football came in March 1989 when Southampton offered Leeds £250,000 for his services. Adams made his debut for the "Saints" on 25 March 1989, taking Derek Statham's place at left-back in a 3–1 defeat by Arsenal. Adams retained his place for the next seven games before losing out to Gerry Forrest for the last few matches of the season. Adams played the first seven matches of the 1989–90 season before losing his place through injury to Francis Benali, who then began to form a useful full-back partnership with Jason Dodd. In April 1990, Adams was recalled alongside new signing Oleksiy Cherednyk, and they played out the remainder of the season together.
Adams began to establish himself as the first-choice left-back at the start of the 1990–91 season, partnered first by Cherednyk and then Dodd, and finally by Barry Horne on the right. Once he had overcome the niggling injuries of his first two seasons at The Dell, Adams' consistency began to ensure that the left-back position was more or less his own, with his energetic forays along the touchline helping to give the side an extra cutting edge. His first goals for the Saints came in the 1991–92 season against Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. Against West Ham on 14 April 1992, he scored the only goal with a far-post volley in the 88th minute after Matt Le Tissier had created space to whip over a cross: the goal was described as "a moment of true class in an otherwise ordinary game".
During the inaugural season of the Premier League, Adams missed only four games, making 38 appearances with four goals, with his right-wing partner now being Jeff Kenna, with manager Ian Branfoot playing Dodd and Benali further forward. He was sent off for dissent on 19 August 1992 against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, during the second game of the season. The 1993–94 Premiership season was Adams' last in the top flight; he started the season as the preferred choice at left-back before losing out to Simon Charlton. He featured in 19 out of 42 league games that season as Southampton finished 18th and narrowly avoided relegation. His final game for Southampton came in a 1–0 defeat at home to Norwich City, immediately following which Branfoot was sacked as manager to be replaced by Alan Ball.
Adams never played under Ball and was loaned out to Stoke City in March 1994 until the end of the season. He scored three goals in ten games for the "Potters" but did not join the club permanently as the management staff refused to allow him to help out as a coach at the club's academy. In his five years with Southampton, Adams made 174 first-team appearances, scoring seven goals.
In July 1994, he joined Fulham on a free transfer where he was reunited with Ian Branfoot in preparation for the "Cottagers" 1994–95 season. Fulham had just been relegated to Division Three (the bottom tier of the professional league) for the first time in their history. He signed up with the club with the understanding that Branfoot would teach him the ropes of coaching. They finished seventh in the league that season, but due to a restructuring of the league, which saw one less promotion place in the three lower divisions, Fulham missed out on a play-off place. When Branfoot became general manager in March 1996, Adams was appointed player-manager of a Fulham side on course for their lowest-ever finish – 17th in Division Three.