Sober by Tony Adams

Author:Tony Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471156762
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

11

Loyalty

Being a one-club man as a player has its benefits but also drawbacks. As a player, I was often lauded for my loyalty. It probably ranks alongside leadership as the quality most associated with me and I am often cited as a rare beast, one coming close to extinction in modern football.

When it comes to wanting to be a coach or a manager, it can work against you. You don’t, after all, have a lot of clubs where you are remembered fondly and knowledge of you as a character, along with your record and reputation, might give you a chance of an interview at least.

So what is loyalty? In my case, it could have been very different at Arsenal but for circumstances and experiences. I could have begun at another London club, for example, but chose Arsenal because my dad recognised what a good youth set-up they had and I liked the look of their facilities.

I then stayed with them out of convenience. The training ground was accessible from Essex and I could be near my family. Arsenal liked me and I liked them, and I was too scared to ask for any more money and create waves. I was no trouble to them – on the pitch at least. I guess because we were having success, they put up with the off-field stuff. It meant I could happily indulge my drinking for a long time.

It felt right; there was nowhere else I wanted to go. And we were successful. It was the same as when I was a kid at Dagenham United. The team scored 140 goals a season and conceded one. Where was I going to go?

You develop a feeling for your environment and colleagues when you start so young at a club. I was in that class of ’82 with Martin Keown, Michael Thomas, David Rocastle, Niall Quinn, Paul Merson, Gus Caesar and Martin Hayes. We came through to the first team. We looked out for each other. There was also a great working-class, and work, ethic around the club that would be fostered later by George Graham.

So it wasn’t hard to turn down any Manchester United overtures in 1991. I was simply too young and too scared to leave the comfort zone of Arsenal where I could do the two things I loved best: play football and drink. Although somewhere deep down I would have said that Arsenal was my club, that was masked by the way I was living my life. I think I would have to say I was probably trapped rather than loyal.

That all changed when I got sober in ’96, when I turned down Manchester United for different reasons. It was then that I got in touch with my true self and my real feelings about the game, my club and my life. I was clear of mind and free of fear.

Then you can call it loyalty. In fact, over the final six years of my playing career, I became the most loyal man I knew in football.

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