Adams about to hang up boots after long career

Life without Tony Adams officially begins for Arsenal this Sunday in the Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield), but it will not just be his presence on the pitch which will be sorely missed.

This is the first season for 19 years that the Gunners have been without their veteran defender and his influence throughout the club in that time has been immense.

Adams has yet to officially announce his anticipated retirement from the game but his failure to report for pre-season training has led Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to accept the inevitable. Namely that at the age of 35, with years of toil and strain on his body Adams has decided enough is finally enough.

Having joined Arsenal as an apprentice and signed a professional contract in 1984, he went on to make 673 appearances for the club in all competitions, winning four titles along the way.

His priorities now seem to be to spend more time with his family, while a course in sports science could also be an option ahead of a possible return to the game in a coaching or managerial capacity.

At Highbury, the former England captain, who won 66 international caps, was an inspirational figure virtually without modern-day parallel.

Arsenal have, of course, coped without Adams for a short period before, when he served a prison sentence for drink-driving amid his ongoing battle against alcoholism.

However, either in the dressing-room or on the pitch, his forceful personality has been felt in much the same way as that of Roy Keane at Old Trafford, cajoling and inspiring his team-mates in equal measure.

Primarily it is Sol Campbell who must rise to the challenge, showing that he has not only grown as a player since his move from Tottenham but also as a leader. At White Hart Lane, Campbell captained his club more by actions rather than words.

At Highbury, both qualities are needed as he partners Martin Keown in Wenger’s first-choice central defensive partnership, while new signing Pascal Cygan has arrived to boost the squad.

Adams’ departure, allied to that of Lee Dixon, has spelt the end of an era at Highbury, with only David Seaman and Martin Keown remaining from the great defence that underpinned the club for more than a decade.