Publications
Partners
England - Portsmouth reportedly fired manager Tony Adams on Sunday after less than four months in charge, the former Arsenal captain paying the price for a dismal run in which the Premier League side has not won since November.
Broadcaster Sky Sports and Portsmouth publication The News said the former Arsenal captain was fired from his first topflight job 24 hours after his side twice threw away a lead over Liverpool and lost 3-2.
Immediately after the match Adams, 42, said he intended to continue as manager and that he had the club's backing.
"At the moment everyone is saying they want me to do the job, so I'll get on with it," Adams said. "We've got 13 games to go and have to play the teams around us. March on."
Chief executive Peter Storrie used the matchday magazine to insist that Adams' job was not in danger, and there was no immediate response from Portsmouth to Sunday night's reports.
Adams has won just two of his 16 league matches since being promoted to the top job in October on a 2-year contract when Harry Redknapp joined Tottenham. In that time the club has slipped from seventh to 16th in the 20-team league and is just a point clear of the relegation zone.
Adams, who had been Redknapp's assistant since June 2006, last enjoyed a league win Nov. 30 against Blackburn.
Adams was the only man to captain a team to the English league title in three different decades.
Chosen as Arsenal captain in 1988 at age 21, Adams spent his entire playing career with the Gunners and made 66 appearances for England.
A top managerial job looked unlikely to come when he resigned following a poor spell at lower-league Wycombe in November 2004.
But Adams followed his yearlong coaching debut, which included relegation to League Two and a poor run in the following season, with stints in the Netherlands, helping train a Feyenoord youth side and joining the FC Utrecht first team as a trainee coach.
Redknapp then took him to Portsmouth, where he helped the club win last season's FA Cup _ the club's first trophy for 58 years. But under Adams, Pompey's cup defense ended in the fourth round last month with a defeat to second-tier side Swansea.
Adams has won admiration for his strength of character as well as his playing and coaching abilities.
In September 1996, following a lengthy drinking binge that followed England's elimination from the European Championship semifinals, Adams publicly acknowledged that he was an alcoholic. He successfully fought an addiction that caused a four-month jail sentence for drunk driving.
His rehabilitation continued under Wenger, who built his first sides on Graham's defense and whose introduction of a new dietary regime and training methods was credited with extending Adams' career.
Such was his longevity that in 1998 and 2002 Adams added the double of Premier League and FA Cup to the league titles he won in 1989 and 1991.
