In a week where the media have painted the picture that an England Captain is suppose to refrain from any wrong doing, we have decided to highlight on their blatant double standards by focusing on the past England captains and their anything but squeaky clean past.
The Arsenal legend made 65 appearances for England, spanning from 1987 to 2000, and was the last England player to score at the old Wembley. Adams lead the side from 1992-1996, before being stripped of the captaincy by Glenn Hoddle after Euro 96, who preferred to have Alan Shearer to lead the side.
He may have been a great leader for Arsenal and England, but Adams was hardly a poster boy for English football. The defender battled alcohol addiction, which ran from the mid-1980’s to 1996, before Adams admitted he was an alcoholic and sought help with his addiction.
The early 1990’s saw Adams as a magnet for controversy because of his alcohol demons. He was involved in various fights in nightclubs and was found to be four times over the legal limit when he crashed his Ford Sierra into a wall in 1990. A prison sentence followed, as did further incidents such as playing a match whilst being hungover and letting off fire extinguishers in a Pizza Hut with team-mate Ray Parlour, after being taunted by rival fans.
After admitting he had a problem in 1996 and getting clean, Adams went on to play for England at the World Cup 1998 and Euro 2000, retiring when Sven Goran-Eriksson took over the reins as England boss. Even though he may have been a rock at the centre of the England defence for a decade, the fact is that Tony Adams was no angel as England captain, and if Fabio Capello was in charge back then, the Arsenal legend would have been permanently banished from the squad.
