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Is this Arsenal legend’s assessment of his former club an accurate one?

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Tony AdamsTony Adams fears Arsenal are still ‘miles off’ from winning the Premier League – this coming after the board rejected his help to find Arsene Wenger’s successor.

The Arsenal legend offered to help sort out the mess at his old club but never received a response and insists they are not well prepared to replace Wenger, should the Frenchman leave at the end of next season when his contract expires.

Adams was quoted in The Sun today:

‘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.’

Furthermore, the former Gunners captain was left stunned when the club named 73-year-old Chips Keswick as the club’s new chairman following Peter Hill-Wood’s recent resignation, saying the appointment lacked imagination:

‘Chips is a great guy but not a very imaginative choice by the owner. And he is 73.

‘If they just wanted a figurehead, they should have gone for me. It would have been a better visionary decision than Chips.’

Wenger, who hasn’t won a trophy in the past eight seasons at Arsenal, is being heavily tipped to become Paris Saint-Germain’s new manager when his contract expires next summer. And Adams firmly believes the board should be lining up a new manager should Wenger not sign a new deal at The Emirates.

Adams added:

‘They should be lining up the new manager. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis is in a tricky situation and could do with some help.’

Is Adams right – Are Arsenal ‘miles off’ from winning the Premier League title?

Was Keswick’s appointment the correct decision from the board, or should they have hired a man like Adams instead?

Should the club be better prepared just in case Wenger calls time on his Arsenal tenure?

Personally, I don’t think we are miles off from winning silverware. If Wenger makes the right signings and keeps what we have at the club then we have a shot.

As for Keswick, I don’t really know anything about the man. I would’ve probably preferred someone like Adams, who loves the club and knows it inside out, to be appointed in this position.

Moreover, the club certainly need to be lining up potential candidates for the Arsenal hotseat, just in case Wenger leaves next summer.

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14 comments

  • John says:

    Adams isn’t fit to be a Chairman…he’s just desperate to get back into football any way he can…bit like the time he announced that he was about to become Celtic manager forcing Celtic to announce that they hadn’t even approached him!!

    He’s obviously still bitter that wenger has cut him out of joining the back room staff, but u’d think that if he really had the making of a decent coach some club in England would have picked him
    Up…instead he wasted a few years over in Azerbaijan “coaching”…but came back to England complaining because they didn’t speak English over there!!
    I think big Tony might shortly begin to rival Stewart Robson for the gig of kicking Arsenal every time they are down…sure we might not have won something in 8 years..,but has anyone asked the question, how many premier league clubs have won something in that time? Spurs have only won a league cup, Newcastle & west ham have been relegated about 3 times each, Liverpool won a freak champions league final…but not much more…and let’s be honest, if a club spends a billion £ & to win a premier league & an FA cup..,in 2 seasons then most footballing fans should begin to realise that success is relative to how much debt a club is willing to get into.
    Adams should look to build up his coaching & managerial skills with a club in league 1 or 2 & make a real project, it’s got to be more productive than running to the papers telling them that you were happy to make tea for the Arsenal board & that they didn’t even bother replying to you!!

  • Mike Sealy says:

    I have a few questions.. 1. Why does Tony Adams think Arsenal owe him a Living 2. Why does he think he can be chairman of a global company . He was a great player and our best ever captain for Arsenal a club who stuck by him through many of his misdeameanours. Once again another ex player who his rubbishing this great club wnd hiding behind his so called passion and concern. I am sure he also thinks he is the next great manager of Arsenal although he had tried and failed several times. Like everyoe else he is welcomed to his opinion but pkease dont pretend you have the experience and qualifications to take on such mammoth tasks. You are a legend who should get behind the club that gave you a life and priveledge that few enjoy.

    • Chris says:

      What a ludicrous comment. Of course T.A. does not think he is owed a living. And of course it is high time we won something. Why can’t you Arsene lovers work out that ex players DO KNOW what has been going on. Arsenal coaches can’t say shit they would lose their job. (like Robson did). Adams would know, for example, how much scope Bould is allowed to do his job … which at times last season was … very little. Ex (experienced international) player after player has said Wenger did great things for the club – BUT he is ” no tactician ” or ” no coach ” or ” not one to allow a shadow over him … ” Or ” I would love to go back to the Arsenal but Arsene would never allow the essential changes to be made.” These guys have played under the man. What we should have had was a new progressive Chairman who can stand up to Wenger … in preparation for the end of Wenger’s contract at age 64. What we have is a safe pair of hands and the prospect of Wenger going on and on. T.A. disagrees and he is probably right. He only wants what is good for the club – which has won nothing for 7 or 8 years. Why should he not say so ?? Because you, personally, don’t like it.

  • brian says:

    We may have had some great footballers in our time but too many of our ex-players are a total embarrassment in their media efforts.Adams is possibly the worst of the lot as he comes across as an ignorant fool. Ray Parlour on the radio makes me cringe with his lightweight,in-articulate comments and please lets not even discuss Frank Mclintock or the hapless{but wealthy}George Graham.

    • Chris says:

      So you don’t think McLintock, Graham, Adams, Keown, Petit, Wright (and a good few others) don’t know what they are talking about and do not have a right to say it ?? Even Cesc who loves Wenger and Arsenal said …. when he went to Barca he learnt about tactics. That’s because Wenger doesn’t have any. Either find out something about top football or read comments from ex internationals of great talent and experience ….. who DO.

  • Uncertain says:

    He may be right – but then he may be wrong.

  • Richard Wall says:

    Has Tony started drinking again?

    • Chris says:

      No … he is saying what so many others think. Just imagine … Wenger in his late 60s still in control. Surely you can’t want that ?

  • GoonerNW5 says:

    Tony Adams was a great player and captain of Arsenal football club, but that was many years ago and Tony has not really proved himself in management since leaving the club! He is entitled to his opinion about the appointment of Mr Keswick and the aged board at the club but to offer himself as a better replacement than Mr Keswick is Ludicrous! Keswick has a history of management at boardroom level that Adams can only dream of! His main criticism that Mr Keswick is to old does himself (Tony Adams) no credit at all, and reveals the exact reason why Tony would never be invited to sit on the board! He is ageist and reactionary! Not the stable, capable pair of hands the club need!

  • Moses Watasa says:

    Well put Mr. Arsenal Legend (Tonny). Higuain, Fellaini, Williams etc would be a super additions to Arsenal, in fact, any club – only that gunners’ fans are only dreaming again. Dreaming because it’s been a kool 8 years of such empty rumblings about star signings – as Arsenal’s power-men pile-up dead-wood summer, after summer after summer! Ironically, the same thick-skinned men have been ruthlessly auctioning off the club’s star players, summer after summer. Top quality like Higuain, Fellaini etc will NOT join Arsenal while Kroenke, Gazidis, Wenger & Co are in charge! These leeches are not thru with sucking dry the club’s coffers and will not free-up any funds to sign the caliber of players fans are dreaming about again. It is even possible these men are praying that Spurs sale Bale, in which case Arsenal would be safe in “their” fourth position without buying!!! A leopard will NOT change its spots after 8 years! How can it be that a club that escaped ”by the skin of their teeth” to finish fourth have not signed a single proven player by the end of June 2013? What will happen again is fans will wake-up on 1st September 2013 to the news that Wenger has signed another “Squillaci”, “Andre Santos” and “Park Chu Young”‘!! Difficult to do but hopefully one day Arsenal fans get “crazy” – and stay away from the ‘trophy-free zone’ (Emirates stadium) so that the leeches can watch a soccer match – on their own (without fans). Kroenke, Gazidis, Wenger & Co are so shameless, only drastic action (turning heat on them) will shake them out of dellusion. Meanwhile, the gang continues fleecing and fooling Arsenal FC fans. Jeeeeeeez!!!!!!

    • GoonerNW5 says:

      Hi Moses as a long time Arsenal fan I feel your vitriol towards the clubs players ( Good bad or indifferent) the management and the board does you no credit! A little history lesson! Arsenal football club are the only team in Europe and possibly the world where the club have always won a trophy in every decade since the club was founded. Sometimes the wait was longer than others< 19 years between 1989 and 1971 teams etc. But trophies were won in the seventies and eighties, also the nineties and noughties. So if Arsenal can win another trophy before twenty twenty then there remarkable achievement will carry on. It is this long term stability and history of success that first attracted me to the club in the seventies. Also it is this rich History that meant the team were awarded the team of the Century by EUFA. Have faith, the club will come good and will be competing for the major honours again, possibly as soon as this season!
      Gooner for life!

  • skysmith1 says:

    Adams is totally right, the team is really miles off winning anything, if you were a player who enjoyed success with a club you love then it will definitely crush your heart to see the same club with same manager go 8yrs without a trophy, this shows that the manager has lost track of his vision and has no more commitment and that’s why the legend of the clubs come out and voice their opinions cause it hurts them even a little more than it hurt us.

  • Twivil says:

    Notice how our ex-players never actually set down- exactly- what they would do given the chance. Talk is cheap. Quality players -who will turn us into serious contenders- are not. Do these pundits ever discuss tactical changes and players roles within contrasting systems? Not really. All we get is parroted diatribe and shallow platitudes at Year 12 level- which is about as much as radio and tabloids can cope with. It is sensationalism – or my Grandad used to call it- ‘my leg and Tommy Martin’- …no don’t ask! It is all hot air, rubbish and irresponsibility. Are they doing it for love or money? If it is love- can we have some serious discussion and suggestions please!

  • marshall says:

    if arsenal want to compete with the likes of man utd,chelsea man city they wil have to spend big,all these teams are signing superstars and arsenal are happy with under rated players. if arsenal don’t win a trophy next season wenger will surely leave the club coz he would be under a lot of pressure.and in my opinion tony is right the club will not see a trophy with this current players.

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