Happy birthday, "Mr Arsenal"

With his marriage failing, Adams was in the depths of despair, admitting: "The drink had stopped working. I needed another one. Amid the filthy state that was now my house, the first clothes that came to hand were a pair of jeans I had soiled a couple of days before.

"They were now dry and seemed in reasonable enough condition, so I put them on. A shower or wash did not occur to me. I left the house, not knowing where I was going", he revealed in his autobiography, ‘Addicted'.

There was much pain in England after the Three Lions crashed out of the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championships, but for Tony Adams, it was a moment of epiphany.

He kicked the bottle. He changed, and sought refuge in the arts and the theatre. To the amusement of his teammates in the Arsenal dressing room, he even learnt to play the piano.

The arrival of Arsene Wenger to the North London club in 1996 also proved to be serendipitous for the Englishman, as while Adams looked to reinvent his personal life off the pitch, the Frenchman worked to improve him on it.

The Englishman, speaking to the Independent ahead of a World Cup fixture in 1998, revealed the extent that Wenger had added to his game, crowing: "People say all I could do was head a ball; now I go forward and score beautiful goals.

"It's not as simple as that. If you go and look at the tapes you'll see I was a bit better than that, a player who could play a bit. I was playing a particular way because the boss (Graham) wanted me to and it was successful.

"My game might have been suffering but I was winning, so I thought, ‘why should I change?'"
He also praised Wenger for his help, saying: "I've changed now, but everyone does as they get older. I'm more experienced and the new manager has been wonderful for me."

Adam's revival, both in his personal life, and on the pitch, was encapsulated by his wonder goal for the Gunners, in a 3-0 win over Everton in 1998.

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