Euros: Tony Adams on his secret battle with alcoholism as England's 1996 captain

it's impossible to look at these euros without reflecting on that amazing time 25 years ago euro 96 [Music] in the build-up to these euros i kind of gone back 25 years with two guys who are really strong memories we've got one up front and another one at the back the captain they all look to didn't realize tony i didn't realize how much earlier than 96 you'd made your debut for england you'd been in the picture and then was out the picture and then back in it what so what was the story there yeah i did play very early um we'd won the the littlewoods cup i think that year as well is a very good year 87 for for arsenal and me personally broke into the team kenny sampson was captain at the time you know viv ansem's unbelievable right back for the club two european trophies with uh nottingham forest and um uh and big butch alongside and i had horrific tournament in 88 and um the tournament was both on and off the pitch really um i think damaging and in a lot of respects you know one fear uno young player of the year so i've gone from having a fantastic little woods cup beating liverpool and black making my debut to then go into a year later into the the 88 and and be blamed in effect i was so young you know 22 years of age you know playing against the marco van basten probably the the greatest player at that time on the planet and and you know and and getting turned inside out for a couple of goals and it's like all the blame was coming towards me but i was so what's the word after the rejection and the hurt of 88 and personally i'll give you one story where i did you know my alcoholism alongside that you know i was a a frightened little boy off the pitch um no tools and every time i drunk alcohol i usually weave myself so i remember you know having a good drink after we went out of the tournament uh and and we in the bed and i remember the chamber bait going down and finding my bed but when i went in for breakfast to the the squad all the lads and managed everyone stood up and they're going pee pee pee pee like humiliation and the shame of that was i laughed it on i put the front up you know they all it was part of the kind of kind of machoism kind of building product but inside that really did hurt that really that really killed me i was so sensitive off the pitch i you know my drinking career my football career was going side by side so every kind of holiday period i was getting smashed and my drinking wasn't two glasses of wine you know it was getting smashed it was going side by side my football career so i think you know i won the league in 89 and i won the league in 91 and that team 91 squad at arsenal was phenomenal we should have done better gaza stopped us doing the double that year we lost one game and i was in prison you know so so you can see just by that statement i was imprisoned there was a guy that was struggling with with his addiction and i think there was an element it's why i didn't go to 1990. so what was it like watching that semi-final then the 1990 what was that but i was smashed i was at me i was in a social club in in just around where i lived in rain and drinking drinking and getting smashed and were you emotionally engaged in the game though i don't think i knew emotion at that point i was completely oblivious to it all okay it was like completely oblivious so you couldn't be further away in a sense from england having played for them two years earlier correct and six years on correct where are you where are you in terms of your your health mental and physical well in the build up to euro 96 i think it's just you know it's a progressive illness alcoholism for me and and it took its toll and and there were certain events that made it spiral i think george and joe's residential in in 94 when i've not got a boss in effect spiraled again you know i think it's really interesting that we won the league in 91 with arsenal and we didn't win the league again until i got clean and sober in 98 so i could get up you know there'd been long periods of abstinence you know when i'm totally focused on my job but i see i picked up my first drinker at 1783 and by 93 you know i'm you know last three four years of my drinking i was kind of out of control what about talking in hong kong were you white knuckling were you off it correct 96 was a monumental year you know of my life you know personally um privately and professionally really but there was a little boy that kind of was going hold on game's up here a minute i keep i keep getting smashed i keep having blackouts i've been to prison you know i've been to the intensive care it stopped being fun the consequences were melting up in the february i dangled my leg in training in the march i pass out especially looking after my three kids i pass out on one room one sunday afternoon drunk six seven of bottles of chablis and pass out and my mother-in-law's making me round the face takes the kids off me um and then in the april i've kind of come to the place where i knew something was up but it was something about that tournament and i kind of went right okay i'd stayed not drinking drinking through football so i think all i'm going to do all i'm going to do is train train train play play play i'm going to do this and we flew to hong kong and don't forget i've got this mask on i've got this wall of denial i've got this macho i'm the skipper i'm the captain so when they're kind of said to me would you want to go down to that club with a dentist's chair and all that i said oh no no when we win it when we win i have a good drink when we win it but go on you can have fun and i was just scared to death i was just absolutely because i knew at that point adrian if if i had the first drink i didn't know i couldn't stop and i i knew somewhere deep inside of me i had no tools to stop you know i i knew that i would there was no tournament for me you know i was completely off the planet off the wall it feels incredibly intense i mean it's intense for everybody but for you personally you're dry you're focusing everything in on it yeah so switzerland then you know the paradox of all this you know is the most proudest moment of my life you know leading out my country at wembley euro championships but personally a complete and utter wreck you know such a conflict going on and it was intense it was intense and i was you know if you if you saw any interviews around that time i'm like you know i'm so bent up with with stuff and uh it was so important not to lose that first game you know if you lose the first one you're up against it you know even if you make a point and and kick on you get it under your belt you you taste the atmosphere you know what it's going to be like you're in the competition you know it's a life so as long as like you say you don't use that first one so we pretty much went tick on with the next yeah you know that's what we did i mean it's so interesting i i interviewed the uh the man clothier used to call edward sheringham yesterday and i asked him i asked him a straight question about who were the who was the most influential figures in that team who was the key to it right have a listen to what he said he was our main man he was our captain he was our leader he he had that way of bringing people in you know if someone was sitting over there come over here come over here come and join in no don't don't be over there this is our team you know and he had that way so anything that around euro 96 and tony adams isn't involved in doesn't work right for me doesn't sit right because he was our leader and that that's how i think everyone looked up to him why are you you know somebody surprised because i i i don't know i just didn't i didn't know i met him before i didn't know he felt that way about you you know he said send him my love really i mean that but now i'm hearing you say what a state you were in so you're doing that you're being the leader and you're the promise of the fulcrum of the whole operation and then and yet you're in a terrible state yeah but football was the place i was comfortable in so that was all all my energies all my all my thoughts all my emotions whatever was going on was in the england team it was concentrating on them you know i'd won two league tofies by that stage you know european cup winners cup i'd been around the block you know i was 13 years into my professional career you know i was a seasoned pro i'd been captain at arsenal for nine years so i knew i think i knew what i was doing on the football fitch i didn't know what i was doing off of it but i knew what i was doing on it and and i focused in on helping teddy because if i knew i've got teddy playing if i knew i got insee playing if i knew i've got the goalie if dave seaman you know if i knew that and terry's new system if i knew that they knew it and we had some super players there alan shearer you know the great characters that didn't really need my import but just nan again with some some maybe some external stuff so yeah and it is about inclusion basically you talk about managing the team there's gaza and that's a different question of handling gazo the way teddy said you all were sort of supervising gaza to some extent yeah i was wrapped up himself and i think me and gaza has always had a a relationship i tried to get him a few years ago and i've enabled all the way for the last 20 at a certain point he's crossed my path and i've tried to drag him in um and i think it was those two guys that were were extremely talented uh footballers but two guys that probably off the pitch didn't know whether they were coming or going um and um because of that you know i think there was a uh a commonality that there was a there was an understanding you know and he just just i'd let him be let him have his head we always used to say you know let him have his cigar and his dressing gown and we just you know just walk around the place and uh and yeah because we knew he was a fantastic talent and could do i i tolerated it you know if he hadn't delivered then maybe terry and myself may have may have intervened maybe we should have pulled him up around that period and maybe we enabled him a little bit but there's no doubt in the guy's talent and um he certainly was a uh exceptional professional around the burnham beaches where where we stayed the training ground so the scotland game you know with your rose-colored hindsight spectacles you know the tournament was a complete triumph and never in that sort of labored slightly against switzerland in the first half against scotland was tricky wasn't it yeah they don't give it a go i think you can't turn teams over straight away maybe and uh i think i think the talent you know that came to the top eventually and and we took control of the game later on um i give a penalty away for instance so i give him a chance my grandfather must have been very pleased with me being a scottish banks we won't mention that as england captain will we or my great grandmother being german we forget those two things but uh this england captain felt very ashamed and i just the minute i did it i kind of went ah just a little bit of miss time and go to grandma too too early and all of a sudden they've got a penalty but uh the goalie did me proud and i went across and gave him a big kiss on his four what about the holland game then what do you remember of that i don't think we were particularly great we weren't good don't get everybody wrong we played him off the pitch but sometimes you look back and i remember dennis missing a couple of chances first half where the game couldn't be completely different but over and above that i think that just the way that we created the goals that we did have rotation and and the way that we constructed and and it was just my redemption to be honest with you from 88 and losing heavily you know a little young boy um of 22 getting uh ridiculed and um and and um it was just a little bit of a bit of revenge that must have been emotional there it was really emotional really emotional way personally you know looking back i never felt anything at the time so i was a president next game next spain yeah i'm not doing nothing but actually looking back and i've felt it you know in recent years um just a huge huge pleasure in uh in playing that game and uh a bit disappointed in keeping clean sheet and climate come on and scored and yeah but there you go we did uh um we did play him off the pitch and uh revenge so spain what were you feeling by then were you wanted for stuart pierce how on earth could come back for it if he if he hadn't scored that one you know what i i'm so self-obsessed you know i'm not into everybody else's stuff now everyone else from the outside may be looking at these monumental kind of kind of stuff but um it's it's not my um it wasn't my you know i was so close bizarre exactly the opposite was also true that's why they loved you you were their leader you were looking out for them all right i know what you're saying you're self-absorbed but yeah but it was a way of dealing with what was going on it was a way of dealing with what was going on you know and like i said i've got a certain amount of tools and and how i was there you know shouting at them and you know and and when it gets to penalties don't forget i i'm looking back and i've analyzed it since um i did make some cracking tackles during that tournament oh my god there is some real classics in there this is either a penalty or tackle of the century i loved that quote i think it was a tackle of the century so you wrapped up yourself you're right i am yeah i'm wrapped up in myself and you know and when you get to the penalty stage i thought we played okay against spain we were lucky on one of the offsides i had my arm up again shouting at them so i don't regret doing that because we got we got someone offside and if it was var today then maybe it might have been a goal but um there was monumental happenings during that tournament and one of them was stuart pierce's redemption from 1919 getting up and smashing it and going to the fans uh hallelujah and you know i'm so proud of stewart because he totally deserves that so you're wrapped up in yourself but you were were you aware by then what it meant to the country were you singing three lions for example and all that we were completely i i was completely isolated in that training camp and the only vibes that we were getting was probably on the coach going i was getting on the coach going down to playing the matches you know we saw the streets were with england fans good luck well done type of stuff and we were doing interviews like this and you were telling me my god you know this is happening in this company and you know we were doing interviews that was the only kind of film we're going well actually we're practicing a bit of rotation today and i'm watching a bit of tv with teddy you know i've got me flip-flops on and um i'm having a massage tonight yeah you know and i think that i'll always say this i think the public had a better time so germany do you think we felt as if we could win that do you think you at the the absolute core the heart of the team did we still kind of think out the germans will always find a way of beating us in the end um i i just remember muller making the runs from midfield and is he not going with them and i more or less played probably one of my best games i've ever played for england that game i i play bloody well you know and i think that's all you can do yeah i think that's all you can do in life so um the gaza eighth of an inch you know the half a shoe size away from scoring and that what were your thoughts golden goal isn't it you know it's such a fine line between us just walking off the pitch you know it's it's kind of goosebumps at the end you know i still get goosebumps now it's like actually if he just toes it a little bit more i don't know what he did with it we're walking down the tunnels in the finals you know it's such a fine line isn't it what do you remember of the penalties apart from the ghastly end of it uh we had the five and um we had them terry had them one two three four five and i'm standing with i'm standing with terry and i and i'm ready i'm ready and gareth comes over and said i'm gonna take it or words to that effect you know i'm next up to start when i looked at terry and terry looked at me and went um away you go so it could have been you well i think it was going to be me i think it was a little bit when you get to that stage you've got five and then terry's shipping around going who fancies one you know it's one it's one of those kind of things you think well you've done five so i i'm i was you know i've taken two my career two out of two you know which is great although i'm not a good penalty taker and i don't think defenders should take penalties anyway because they're not used to it if you don't get a chance to put the forwards in i'd rather do that but i was ready to take it and um and gareth was so positive i just remember i don't know if it was true or not but he came he's with me and terry and he's you know i i want it i it's mine he's gonna take it and boom off he goes and that's history and and to avoid feeling i have focus on other people so i went straight up to gareth come on sun and his visions of me kind of going well don't worry son that's the way i dealt with it but you're even portraying that act of kindness as a selfish act on your part well i i don't think i actually kind of at any time wanted to acknowledge the pain you know i was all my life i i've been frightened to death of fear and pain and all that and all of it was to avoid you know so it was all external stuff yeah listen i'm not gonna pipe myself on the back here i am quite a kind human being yeah but and it might have been you know and i've done it throughout my career if you know i feel that's a part of the the role of the captain to actually okay i'll go and break down later but first and foremost you're the captain of the team you need to go and help this person so so i'm trying to be modest here you know but if i was modest i'd only boast about it so suddenly it's all over you said you'll break down later you said once you've comforted gareth and you've discharged your captain's duties yeah it's all over for england and then what how it's all over for me yeah straight into precipitous was your decline then i mean where what happened there used to be a bar in the corner uh at wembley but it's a kind of the guy used to give out tapes and for you for your stockings and stuff and but after the game they had alcohol there and he gave me a and uh i want named the brand um and i was away about six week bender and i'd done everything that i'd in the previous 12 years of drinking you know we myself blackouts you know things coming out the the windows you know sorted places you know um i didn't go back to work i supposed to have gone back to pre-season i didn't go back they were trying to find me the physio the the manager bruce ryok again um i was due back on 7th of july i didn't go back i was getting smashed over there and i got to at the end and i was 29 years of age and just apologies if you've heard all this before but um i don't want to i don't want to live i don't want to be here anymore the pain was too much i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired so you if it wasn't euro 96 that drove you over the edge it was euro 96 by the sound of it delayed you getting to that so you were gonna get there but it just gave you a kind of a song almost maybe accelerated it a touch but i needed the wife removed the kids removed the career removed i needed everything gone really dignity self-respect all of it i needed it all gone um and i was 29 years of age and i started to cry and i started to cry and i had just streams and streams of of tears and uh it was just ah it was so wonderful it was so wonderful was anybody saying to you oh this is you know this is euro 96 you know it's been two months yeah but another one did what's wrong with you and then the insanity my last drink was a pint against with it with a brandy in it if i took brandy i'd just spew it up so i put it in the guinness to keep it down that's insanity yeah i can see that today but i didn't at the time anyway i've got that there and it's sitting there that's my last drink and of course for the six week bender you know i was i was getting pets on the back but i got all my self-esteem through what i did through football and not who i was and when that was removed i didn't have no tools after the euros would finish i didn't have no tools to keep me clean and sober there was nothing there supporting me so it all came out it all came out me so looking back on it now as a whole united states what are your general thoughts in a glittering career you want everything how precious is is that month to you it's the tops it's the tops you know it's uh for two reasons one i've kept in my country you know and um we're all gonna get tyria you know i'm proud englishman and uh to lead your country out it's not many people have done that on home soil and you know great bobby moore did it and uh i went down we got that close and i'll be forever grateful for that but it still hurts you doesn't it yeah and personally i had a significant shift in my emotional mental spiritual kind of experience that can completely change my life for the better so what you looking at this group now yeah what they haven't got is a load of hardened skippers you're right like yourself they've got plenty of talent but there's no you know on the pitch there's not a lot of adult supervision is that but um apart from that there's all an awful lot to be hopeful for well there's they're not they're a good group of players i think there's not sometimes you know the best individuals don't win tournaments you know sometimes that happens and uh um you need team spirit and they definitely got that i think there's there's loads of that and then if it comes from it's got to come from somewhere i can see gareth being you know he was part of the euro 96 and and maybe he would have taken some of that understanding into this tournament i think it's valuable um maybe i'd like someone else in the camp that had another experience of of a major tournament i did feel that way during the world cup uh that he was i love steve island i think he's fantastic but someone with a maybe a wiser head um like we had don howe with with with terry um may help him it might not but i thought just to create the right environment so i'm all about environments and they seem to have that they've got an extreme talent they've got some super players you know that are every bit as good as the as the euro 96 and you know technically you know look at the central defenders and we've got a wash with them yarrie mcguire john stones you know all talented mings you know he's bigger than me he's athletic he's strong you know he's got a better left foot than me you know you've got some extreme talent there so i'm i'm really positive and if you get that what it sometimes comes down down to tournaments is a bit of lack

Channel: The Sun

Views: 16,939

Keywords: The Sun, news, breaking news, Covid-19, euros, football, football's coming home, england, england euros, euro 96 final, euro championship 2021, euros 2021, euros highlights, tony adams, gareth southgate, paul gascoigne, paul gascoigne vs scotland, soccer, football news, euro 2020, england football, england squad, england euro 2020, southgate, premier league, uefa euro 2020, england squad euro 2020, football daily, england euro 2021, harry kane, euro 2020 predictions

Id: zq6tWf0iatQ

Length: 26min 8sec (1568 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021