Adams: I offered to join the Arsenal board... I would have even made the tea and worked for free...

[Gunner Since Time Began - born to moan]

Adams: I offered to join the Arsenal board... I would have even made the tea and worked for free... but they went for 73-year-old Chips


Arsenal legend Tony Adams has revealed how he was snubbed by the club he adores after he offered to help revive their fortunes.

The 46-year-old wrote to chairman Peter Hill-Wood after he revealed they needed young blood to shake the club out of its lethargy.
Offer: Arsenal legend Tony Adams was desperate to help out his former club

Offer: Arsenal legend Tony Adams was desperate to help out his former club

Adams - the greatest captain in the Gunners' history - felt he ticked all the right boxes and offered to join the board for free.

But Adams claims he did not receive a reply from the club.

And he was stunned to hear American owner Stan Kroenke had appointed 73-year-old Chips Keswick as chairman.

Adams told The Sun: 'Look, I would make the tea for Arsenal Football Club, but I thought I ticked all the boxes.
Step up: New Arsenal chairman Sir Chips Keswick


Fear: Adams says Arsenal are ill-prepared if Arsene Wenger decides to leave

'I don't need the money. I would put the good of the club first in every case and I could mediate well within the club.

'Chips is a great guy but not very imaginative choice. And he is 73.'

Adams fears Arsenal are 'miles away' from winning the title.

And he claims they are ill-prepared to replace boss Arsene Wenger if he decides to leave at the end of next season.

He added: 'It's time Arsenal won something again, even the FA Cup or League Cup. But I can't see it, to be honest.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2346680/To ny-Adams-I-offered-join-Arsenal-board--I-tea-worked-free--we nt-73-year-old-Chips.html#ixzz2X0eHLodx (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2346680/Tony-Adams-I-offered-join-Arsenal-board--I-tea-worked-free--went-73-year-old-Chips.html#ixzz2X0eHLodx)
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[Fast Eddie :L:]

but he's a bit too much of a weirdo, no?

[Alexism - Atheoist]

Shake it off and on with the game sort of thing.

Not sure what he could offer to the board though. He might want to think about that bit. Arsenal pedigree perhaps when the board is in such short supply of it?

[Jock Gooner]

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

And he may have been too :-D

[redgunamo]

Of course, Adams isn't one of those either so, ironically, he is forced to trade on his supposed "Arsenalness".

Wenger and Gazidis aren't Arsenal fans, either, so far as I can judge. They are employees, hired professionals.

[redgunamo]

;-)

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

[Islington Exile]

who thinks everyone owes him a living. He is someone who seems to always need to be loved and wants a circus around him. While i recognise he probably wrote very little of it but Addicted was obsessive in saying ow great he thought he was

[ArseMart - Enjoy every sandwich]

[redgunamo]

making the tea, so to speak, upstairs. Then he'd be just about ripe for a decent administrative job by this point.

All the big clubs seem to have a former-player presence in their back offices.

[redgunamo]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[ArseMart - Enjoy every sandwich]

[ArseMart - Enjoy every sandwich]

When I say "our" I mean "The Shareholders" obviously.

And when I say "success" I mean "profits".

Ker-Ching.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

running the club.

tbf Dein, Friar and Fiszman were all those, even Hillwood, although he was far from professional. Gazidis, Kronke and Keswick may be professionals but do they really have the club's best interests at heart or the interests of the clubs financial health?

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[redgunamo]

[redgunamo]

[Mc Gooner]

so I think he still has AFC in his blood :-)

[One Wilf Copping]

As you say, constantly referring to 'we' in relation to the club and always 'The Arsenal' - never just Arsenal. He'll have learned that from the likes of Terry Burton and Don Howe on the way up through the ranks. Even George Graham was prone to referring to The Arsenal, too.

Love it.

For all the brilliance of Bould, the athleticism and power of Sol and the (slightly demented) combative fervour of Keown, we're unlikely to see another defender quite like Adams. He really was a magnificent captain and a genius at organising the defence (and the midfield in front of him). He taught Manu Petit - a run-of-the-mill French left-back (the poor man's Manuel Amoros) - to be a world-class defensive midfielder, shouting out when to drop deep, when to press up the pitch, and always to keep fighting.

After he left, Adams definitely had a period of about four or five years when he sounded bitter towards the club, but seems to have got over that now. Even this latest 'snub' doesn't seem to have wounded him that much.

The idea of Adams as Arsenal chairman (or even manager) is ludicrous, but the fact is that his achievements for us should guarantee him a job for life. I get the feeling that Adams needs to be busy and needs to feel useful. Without that there's always a danger that he will lapse into past habits or into depression.

We should involve Adams more in the scouting set up, (which he's already been helping on) or as a club ambassador. Involving past legends like Freddie or Pires as ambassadors and we should have more of these figures travelling around the globe representing the club or taking coaching clinics etc.

Adams needs to be given a role somehow.


(Bayern Munich had a similar problem with Gerd Muller, like Adams a recovered alcoholic, who needed to stay involved with the club and to have a structure in his life. They involved him for years in basic coaching, more as a motivator almost, and involve him on matchdays and at club events. There was never a remote chance he'd be given more responsibilities as with Uli Hoeness or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, but it gave him pride, self-esteem and a purpose and showed Muller that he was loved and respected.)