The biggest news today is the views of former captain Tony Adams. In a nutshell, he said he was disappointed that he was snubbed by Arsenal after applying for the role of Chairman, and is quoted as saying Arsenal are “miles away” from winning a trophy.
He told The Sun:
“Look, I would make the tea for Arsenal Football Club, but I thought I ticked all the right boxes for the board.
“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.”
There’s no doubt he loves Arsenal, but Tony Adams has divided Arsenal fans on more than one occasion since his retirement in August 2002.
He wasn’t present at the last game at Highbury when all of the Arsenal legends were present to wave goodbye to the stadium, and he’s been absent from other historic days in Arsenal’s history since.
Some people say it’s because of work commitments, while others say he has a problem with the current Arsenal setup.
It’s hard to say what the current relationship is between Arsenal and Tony Adams. Some people believe that Arsene is a control freak and won’t allow previous players to come and “help” the club, because he want’s all of the credit for how Arsenal perform under the managers tutelage. There was the famous season where Martin Keown apparently gave players like Senderos, Flamini and Toure specific defensive drills and tutoring which helped us have one of the best defensive records in the Champions League and managed to get us to the final against Barcelona. Reportedly, Arsene’s nose was bend out of shape when people would give Keown the credit.
On the other side of the coin, some people believe Tony Adam’s has distanced himself from the club and hasn’t been happy at how Arsenal is being run, hence his absence from certain Arsenal events.
You can accuse Tony Adams of many things, but not being honest is not one of them. He is someone who will speak his mind, and he probably would say things which are in the best interests of the club – but that is part of the problem. Tony Adams wouldn’t be someone who would “toe the line”. He would say it how it is and that wouldn’t necessarily be to Arsene Wenger’s taste. So appointing him as Chairman would be counter-productuve.
And to the comments about Arsenal being “miles away” from winning the title.
“It’s time that Arsenal won something again, even the FA Cup or League Cup. But I can’t see it, to be honest.
“They are still not good enough in certain areas of the team. And they are miles off the title.”
That may be the case, and with 8 seasons of ending up empty handed this would play on the minds of those frustrated Arsenal fans who are paying the highest ticket prices in the country and have nothing to show for it.
But we can’t be certain about what our title chances are until the transfer window is firmly closed shut and we know which players have joined Arsenal before analysing the potential of the squad. At the moment, the signs are positive so it is too early to see how many miles away we are from the Premier League title.
At the end of the day, you either see Tony Adams as one of the greatest players ever to wear an Arsenal shirt, whose views are more valid than any other fan who comments on the club, or a player who was fantastic for Arsenal but has done little else in the game since, and someone whose track record in football since retiring from the game is not good enough to be advising a massive club like Arsenal.
