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Tony Adams became one of the most high-profile recovering alcoholics in the UK when he revealed details of his battle with drinking in the 90s while still the captain of Arsenal. His former team-mate Nigel Winterburn reveals to FourFourTwo how came as a massive shock to the squad.
The drinking culture within football prior to the turn of the millennium has been well-documented, with Arsenal‘s famous ‘Tuesday Club’ arguably the most synonymous example.
With the squad routinely given Wednesdays off, Adams tended to lead heavy drinking sessions on a Tuesday accompanied by most of, if not all, his team-mates. Winterburn suggests this was normal at the time, though they didn’t realise the issue with alcoholism among the group.
“We weren’t really aware of it, because we were all drinking at the time and that was the culture in football,” Winterburn tells FourFourTwo. “When Tony initially came out and revealed he was an alcoholic, I think there was a bit of disbelief because everyone liked to go for a drink and I’d never discussed it with him directly.
“We just accepted it and knew we’d be without him for a while. But we also knew we’d have an unbelievable player returning to our squad once he got out.”
That he was. After leaving prison in February 1991 (Adams’ blood alcohol level was four times over the legal drink-drive limit when he crashed his car into a wall in May 1990) Adams went onto captain Arsenal to seven trophies over the course of the next 11 seasons of his career, including two Premier League titles, three FA Cups, a League Cup and the 1994 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Not only that, the centre-back earned Arsenal’s Player of the Season award for 1993/94, highlighting just how right Winterburn was.
Adams’ autobiography, Addicted, released in 1998, earned rave reviews, detailing his battle with alcohol. The Englishman went sober in mid-1996, and has since founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, which is aimed at providing treatment and support for sportspeople suffering from drink, drug or gambling addictions.
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