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Tony Adams
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2004 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Tony Adams, the great servant of Arsenal Football Club, is the only player to captain a championship-winning side in three different decades.
Twice, in 1997-98 and 2001-02, Adams led his team to the Double. ‘An exceptional player who is highly respected because of his commitment,' Arsene Wenger said.
Adams lifted the championship trophy for the first time in 1988-89 after being appointed the club's youngest ever captain, at the age of 21. ‘He is my sergeant-major on the pitch,' said George Graham, the Arsenal manager at the time. ‘A colossus'.
Over a period of 19 years Adams played 421 League games at the heart of the Arsenal defence. A cult hero at Highbury, tickets for his testimonial sold out in two days.
Adams played 66 times for England , including 15 appearances as captain. David Seaman, the Arsenal and England goalkeeper, said: ‘He's a born leader and there's not many of those around.'
Off the field, however, an increasing dependence on alcohol blighted his private life, leading to a prison sentence for drink-driving in 1991. He publicly admitted his health problems five years later. Once sober, he established a charity in aid of players suffering addiction.
Adams made his debut in November 1983, at the age of 17 years and 26 days, making him the second youngest player to appear in an Arsenal shirt.
‘I was so nervous I put my shorts on the wrong way round,' Adams recalled. ‘I didn't play particularly well, and the team lost, but it was a start.'
He soon learned. In 1987 Adams was voted Young Player of the Year. ‘If we had that boy,' one First Division manager said privately, ‘we'd conquer the world.'
After taking over as manager at Highbury in May 1986, Graham founded his challenge for the championship on a sound defence, with Adams at its core. Discipline would be the key.
Rigorously applying ‘flat back four' tactics, the Arsenal defenders compressed play as a unit as high up the pitch as possible in a bid to restrict space to opponents in midfield. Pushing up in a line, they relied heavily on catching forwards offside.
Hence the abiding image of Adams , standing, arm raised, appealing to the referee or linesman. ‘I thought their goal was offside,' he said after one match in 1991. ‘But then I always do.'
In the second ‘Double' season, 1997-98, injuries restricted Adams to 26 League appearances. But he did play in the final home game, and he even scored the fourth, celebratory, goal against Everton.
In 2001-2002 Adams played only 10 games, but again he was there to lift the Premier League trophy at Highbury, just as he had been in Cardiff when the FA Cup was won the week before.
The physical toll of playing for almost two decades finally caught up with Adams in 2002, when he announced his retirement. ‘He does everything 100 per cent,' Ian Wright said. ‘He's not one to shirk a challenge.'
Perhaps the most telling compliment, though, came from the manager of Arsenal's greatest rivals. ‘I can't wait for him to retire,' Sir Alex Ferguson wrote in 1999.
‘He's the defining spirit of their team, a classic English defender – brave, reliable and capable not only of fulfilling his own responsibilities superbly but of organising and inspiring others,' Ferguson said.
Bob Wilson, a member of the Double-winning side of 1971, said: ‘The greatest of all Arsenal men, as simple as that.'