Tony Alexander Adams (born 10 October 1966) is an English former football player and manager. Adams played for Arsenal and England, captaining both. Known as "Mr. Arsenal", he spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre-back there, making 672 total appearances and winning four English league titles. He is considered one of Arsenal's greatest-ever players and is also included in the Football League 100 Legends.
With Arsenal, uniquely he captained a title-winning team in three different decades, won three FA Cups, two Football League Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and two FA Community Shields. Adams is one of six people honoured with a statue outside the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal's home ground. He won 66 caps for England between 1987 and 2000 and played at four major tournaments.
When his playing career finished, Adams went into football management, spending periods in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, Portsmouth, Azerbaijani side Gabala and Spanish side Granada.
From early in his career Adams was an alcoholic. He was sentenced to four months in prison for driving while four times over the limit for blood alcohol, after crashing his car. From 1996 he recovered completely and became involved in helping sportspeople with drink, drug or gambling addictions by founding the Sporting Chance Clinic.
Born in Romford, Greater London, Adams grew up in Dagenham and was a pupil at Hunters Hall Primary School from 1971 to 1978 and then Eastbrook Comprehensive School from 1978 to 1983. His cousin is fellow professional footballer Steve MacKenzie.
1983–1989: Early career and Anfield title
Adams signed for Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980, and made his first-team debut on 5 November 1983 against Sunderland, aged 17. He accidentally put his shorts on back-to-front before the match. Then, with virtually his first touch of the ball during the game, he gave it away, leading to Sunderland's opening goal. He put the ball into the opponents' net, but the goal was disallowed. Adams became a regular player in the 1986–87 season, winning his first major trophy that season when playing in the Football League Cup Final win over Liverpool at Wembley.
On 1 January 1988, he became Arsenal captain at the age of 21, remaining as club captain for the next 14 years until his retirement.
Adams's strong discipline of the defence was considered a factor in Arsenal winning the League Cup in 1986–87 and then the First Division championship twice; the first in 1988–89 after a win over Liverpool in the final game of the season; the second in 1990–91, losing once all season.
1989–1996: Arsenal's famous back four
Together with Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Steve Bould, Adams was part of the "famous back four" that lined up in Arsenal's defence, which, under George Graham, was renowned for its well-disciplined use of the offside trap. These four remained formidable for over a decade. Arsenal notably conceded just 18 goals during their title-winning 1990–91 league season, and the four players amassed over 2,000 appearances for the club.
In 1992–93 Adams was the captain of the first English side to win the League Cup and FA Cup double. In 1994, Adams led Arsenal to their first European trophy in 24 years by defeating favourites Parma 1–0 in the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Copenhagen.. On 13 August 1994, he was rewarded with a testimonial at Highbury against Crystal Palace. With an attendance of only 12,348, it was generally considered poor timing by the club.
Despite this success, alcoholism increasingly blighted his life from the mid-1980s. He was reportedly often involved in fights in nightclubs, and on 6 May 1990 crashed his car into a wall in Rayleigh; his blood alcohol level was found to be more than four times the legal drink-drive limit. On 19 December that year, at Southend Crown Court, he was sentenced to four months in prison, and freed after half of his sentence on 15 February 1991, but continued drinking for another six years. Adams later said that in early 1996, aged 29, he was in a very dark period, not wanting to live when not playing football, unable to "do life". He suffered a serious knee injury in February that year and did not play for Arsenal again in the 1995–96 season. One Sunday evening he drank seven bottles of chablis, so his (first) mother-in-law took the children.
From mid-1996, with help from a man he named only as "James W", he became one of the most high-profile recovering alcoholics in the UK; his battle with alcohol is detailed in his autobiography, Addicted, which was released in May 1998 to critical acclaim. BBC News reported in 2001 that he had become tee-total.
1996–2002: Wenger's arrival and retirement
Six weeks into Adams's sobriety, Arsène Wenger arrived as Arsenal manager in October 1996. Adams reflected in 2020 that Wenger understood his psychology, and knew of the dangers of alcohol, as his parents ran a pub. Adams rewarded his manager's understanding handsomely, captaining the club to two Premiership and FA Cup Doubles, in 1997–98 and 2001–02.
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 2002 FA Cup Final. He played 674 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.