Arsene Wenger was an addict who could not let go, says Gunners legend Tony Adams – and it’s cost us too much
or a bet.” Among the Premier League stars known to have had gambling issues in the past are Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend, who admitted to losing £46,000 in one night.
And Brian Rice, the head coach of Hamilton, was this week banned for 10 matches for betting offences by the Scottish FA. He admitted to having a gambling addiction.
Adams revealed that of the 653 footballers who contacted the PFA last year, about 60 per cent were current players.
He said: “At Sporting Chance we had 1,200 sports people last year. The year before it was 1,000.”
TONY ADAMS claims Arsenal’s last 10 years have been “bloody depressing”.
The Gunners legend fears for the club’s long-term future with the side stuck in mid-table and facing another year without Champions League football.
He believes it has gone wrong because Arsene Wenger became an “addict” and was unable to give up his job, and was not as successful as Sir Alex Ferguson because he could not delegate.
But Adams, who had a glittering career as part of Arsenal’s famous back four, also says the club has lost its foundations built on a strong defence and producing homegrown youngsters.
Now, he says, they are cahoots with super agents.
Former skipper Adams, who set up his own Sporting Chance clinic after his battle with alcoholism, said: “It’s been bloody depressing the last 10 years.
“I think all us Arsenal fans are like, ‘Oh my God, Jesus Christ, we concede so many goals’, going from the extreme that we were so fantastic in that department in to actually what we have been seeing. Like anyone else I’m there observing, I’m an honest type of guy and say it how it is. It’s really frustrating but I don’t think I’m alone there.
“I think Arsene has so much identification with me because, at the end of the day, he was probably an addict. He couldn’t let go at the end, he’s a typical addict, he’s not letting go.
“He’s completely obsessed with the game, every single minute. It maybe cost him relationships and maybe other stuff, and I think it cost him his job.
“More than staying on too long, I think the legacy could have been different if he had done things a bit more open and got in a few more people around him. I honestly feel he needed to be more open and needed more winners around him.
“But then he was incredibly loyal to the staff he already had and that is a big dilemma for anyone who has had as much success as he had, to actually turn round to lovely friends he’s been with for 20 years and say, ‘Look guys, I need to freshen this up because we’re going nowhere.’
“That’s the difference between him and Sir Alex. I think Ferguson rekindled his coaches and he got some new perspective on it and he kept it fresh and he created three squads during that period, while it fizzled out under Arsene.”
Adams (above with Wenger) came through in the mid-80s at Arsenal as one of a crop of academy graduates, including David Rocastle, Michael Thomas and Martin Keown.
But Adams fears that Arsenal is losing its traditions in youth development, with the new regime of technical director Edu and head of football operations Raul Sanllehi wanting to buy talent rather than make it.
“The recruitment has been very poor,” Adams added. “You get players two ways – academy or buy them in. We haven’t had the money to buy them through the transition and I don’t think we have had the network to be honest. And I don’t think running with agents is the way to do it.
“There’s 17 backroom staff gone, six scouts gone, Stevie Morrow gone, probably the best academy scout in the country been sacked. To bring players through agents, it might be the way the game is going but not how I would build.”
The recruitment has been very poor. And running with agents isn’t the way to do it