Tony Adams
I look at four things in my life: finance, work, relationships and health. I strive for balance.Collection: Finance
Practice makes perfect, that is my way.
If a defender is not pressurising you, then he's not doing his job.
I am a bit of a freak. Only 10 per cent get 10 years sobriety.
My experience of the addict is: huge ego and low self-esteem.
This life is all we've got, mate. Right here, right now.
My nose must have been broken five times in my debut season.
Year in, year out the best goalkeeper wins the League.
Glenn Hoddle is probably one of the best technical coaches in the country. Top, top guy. I think he got the England job too early - he was 38 when he was managing England.
I used to play with Steve Bould. We used to play zonal defence. Steve was a zonal defender and he knew how that system worked. Playing with Martin Keown was different. He was a man-to-man marker and when I used to play with Martin, I used to play differently alongside him.
I was with Jose Mourinho at Inter, and he said to me that I was 10 or 20 years behind. Whilst I was winning all of those trophies with Arsenal, he was learning how to be a coach.
Back in the day I said in an interview coaching wasn't Arsene's strong point.
Perhaps Arsene thought I might be too challenging for him. He seemed to like an assistant such as Pat Rice or Steve Bould, both great club men who were not going to ruffle feathers. Arsene is so dominant that he was probably not going to like it if I said, 'We're conceding bad goals, I'm going to take the back four today and organise them.'
I think Ozil, he's a very calm, sweet man, so don't judge him too quickly. He is a talent, and half the job of a head coach is getting the best out of that talent.
That is the job of the coach to get the best out of his squad of players - not to avoid it and say: 'No good, don't want you.'
He said: 'I've turned down every club in the world.' But he would've been sacked after a year at Madrid. He would've had to go to from club to club. But, at Arsenal, he's got total dominance. The board do nothing. Arsene has a free rein.
I was married to the club for 23 years so Arsenal are like an ex-wife.
Arsene, essentially, is not a coach.
Don Howe taught me. Terry Burton taught me. Terry Venables taught me. George Graham taught me. They taught me how to defend, how to work lines, how to push up. ArsEne's a better physiologist than all of them. Better economist than all of them. I would say better psychologist than all of them. He is one of the greatest managers of all time.
My doctor said: 'A midlife crisis is completely normal.' But I felt, because I was supersober, I can't have these problems. Of course I can.
I drank for effect because I didn't even like the taste. But the thoughts and feelings are all the same, when I talk to a gambling addict it's exactly the same thoughts and feelings that I went through. The addict, in particular, is very complicated.
I think when I got enough pain and I was broken enough, and I got to my bottom, it enabled me enough to ask for help. But I needed a lot of pain.
Back in the day I said in an interview coaching wasn't Arsene's strong point. Actually in the original draft, I said he couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag. And though I modified that in the final article, it didn't go down well.
Until you were playing regularly as an Arsenal player, you weren't judged. Going into management is completely different. You still have to learn the job but... bang! It's on you.
My skin is quite thick now.
Players are not scared of managers any more. The clubs have done that. Society has done that. The game has done that. It has taken away the power of the manager.
It's too emotionally unhealthy for me to try and help people who don't want it.
The idea of giving up is really alien to a sportsman who's all about winning at all costs.
When I left Portsmouth, I vowed to only work for people I liked.
Captaining your country, going out at Wembley, captaining Arsenal to 10 trophies, playing your first game - they're all amazing things. But, phew, saving people's lives takes it out of all context.
Sometimes I have put myself on the cross in sobriety, definitely the early years.
When I was at the bottom, you see, football was off the radar.
Addictions within football, we're talking gambling. Premier League, it's a bit of an epidemic to be honest.
Food is a fantastic thing. It's my last joy, my last weakness, my guilty pleasure. I can have an ice-cream or burger and bloody love it.
I think the Emirates is the best stadium in the country.
My early memories are full of fear - of going to school crying, where food was very similar to prison food.
I regret my own parents not teaching me to cook.
I just think he's been the most successful Arsenal manager of all time. I don't want that spoiled and I see signs that he's incredibly addicted to football. I don't see that he's got a life outside of it. I just don't want him to go on too long and for it to crumble and end in tears, and all of us don't like Arsene. It would be so sad.
Talking therapy saved my life.
Childhood trauma is childhood trauma, whether you're a player or a forklift driver. They are the same feelings, and there are the same solutions.
I think business is more dysfunctional than sport. I thought the sports world was. It's quite interesting.
I noted all these businesses with massive turnovers and huge profits were not taking responsibility for their workers' mental health and addiction issues. There is a bit of tick-box exercising going on in companies with HR and managers, getting the legal side covered, so they're not in danger of doing anything wrong.
I don't actually like people.
I'm a loner and if I had my way I'd just walk my dogs every day, never talk to anyone and then die.
I'd love it if I had a nutty aunt or a nutty grandad.
I have a quick mind. Arsene Wenger always said that.
I was the captain of the club so I made sure that I bullied basically everyone else.
Wherever you take yourself in this world, you've got to take yourself with you.
Football coaching and the management profession is being ripped apart by owners and chief executives.
I've found that staying open to different cultures and not forcing your opinions on other people goes a long way.