Last week it was confirmed that Tony Adams had been handed the sporting director role at La Liga side Granada.
The former Arsenal captain completed the move to Spain after spending last season working with Chinese Superleague side Chongqing Dangdai Lifan who, like the Andalusian side, are owned by Shanghai-based businessman Jiang Lizhang.
Granada are currently second bottom of La Liga and face an uphill struggle to retain their top-flight status, however, Adams insists his main focus is setting the club on the path to a sustainable future based on a strong youth academy.
“Every day I’m working with the coaching staff at Granada CF, looking to the future,” he told Grenada’s official website.
“Our aim is that our squad will contain mostly Spanish players next year, whatever level the team is playing in next season.
“I’m here to put the Spanish structure in place, with players who will belong to Granada CF and who will fight for Granada.
“We inherited 106 players, of whom only 44 actually belong to Granada CF. Our aim is to return Granada CF to Granada so the people here can identify fully with their team and their players.”
Adams also confirmed that his Grenada role sits alongside his responsibilities as vice-president of Lizhang’s DDMC Football Club Management Company, which appears to have long-term aims of raising awareness of Chinese football across the globe.
“I believe that with patience, the structure we are setting in place will be able to take the club where we want it to be, once more,” continued Adams.
“We want to be a mid-table team in LaLiga with players who belong to Granada CF, with a world class Academy developing local and Spanish players, with world class training facilities.
“If there’s a Chinese player playing with the first team eventually, then that would be the icing on the cake for the president, but he’s certainly not going to insist on that. All these things will take time, as sometimes you need to take one step back and clear up all the problems, before you can take two steps forward.
“However, our main concern right now is to concentrate and focus on our last ten games of this season. We all need to support [manager] Lucas Alcaraz and the team, making sure that everyone is fighting for safety in La Liga in every game, right to the end.”
Since retiring as a player in 2002 Tony has certainly been something of a footballing nomad, accumulating experience in both coaching and technical roles across the globe.
In addition to managerial stints with Wycombe and Portsmouth, he’s also coached and advised Azerbaijani side Gabala, taken in work experience stints with a host of top European clubs and worked with Arsenal’s youth team prior to last year’s move to China.
Weird but for some reason this headline brought up visions of Tony Adam and John Thor screeching round a corner in a caramel brown 3 litre 3000 GT.
The Aim is to be mid table!? Once he becomes more ambitious and thinks about top 4, he can come back to Arsenal.
Given where Granada sit currently (2nd from bottom) mid-table seems a high but reasonable ambition for that club.
Ambition needs to have some level of being achievable else it’s not taken seriously by those involved.
Once they achieve mid table they can then think about the next step.
Coming back to Arsenal is not the default destiny of all former players. Adams remains an Arsenal Icon no matter what.
Guess that wasn’t as funny as it sounded in my head.
I definitely understood your tongue in cheek comment. But, unfortunately or fortunately not everybody thinks alike.
Seeing as I ‘bit’ first, I guess I will apologise for not reading your post in jest. ?
Good on yer Tony, wish we had the likes of him in our current dressing room. Pinning this weak, mard, over paid bunch to the wall after every match-lol
COYTA
Every time I see something about Tony Adams I always have a hope that he will be really successful somewhere and then return to his beloved Arsenal. That would be ace..
I love Tony like I love my mother. And I have a fantastic mother.
“I’m here to put the Spanish structure in place. To return Granada CF to Granada.” the Englishman brought in said.
Age of Spin.
So frustrating. I don’t understand why Wenger doesnt realize we need those kinds of symbols in the club managment. He’s an intelligent man, but these things really show that he has become stubborn and even close-minded.
Really annoying to se Arteta coaching at Shitty.
So is it Granada or Grenada?
It’s always nice to see Mr. Arsenal involved in football. I’d love him to build on this before returning to us in some capacity.
owner- president