Arsenal legend Tony Adams has revealed that he had issues with Lauren as a person, but after dealing with his alcaholism he was able to work with him.
The former club captain is known for his use of alcahol whilst being a top performer for Arsenal FC, although his performances on the pitch were of the highest order.
Whilst Arsene Wenger helped Adams to overcome his issues with Alcahol, he is also believed to have helped him to adapt to work with different people in the changing room, whilst admitting to issues he had with former right-back Lauren.
‘I realised that the make-up of the dressing room is all different and we had a lot of foreigners come into the game in our time, different cultures and different languages,’ Adams told The Micky & Woody Show’s Podcast.
‘It’s lucky I did clean up and get a bit of recovery because if I’d put that animal back into that with all those people I would have just come up against it all the time.
‘We had a full-back from Africa, Lauren. He was African Footballer of the Year, an awesome player and he just didn’t like me and I didn’t like him but we’ve got to get a working relationship and luckily I had someone else to talk to that I actually worked this thing through and was able to work for myself to stay free and to go: “Okay, this is it!”
‘I’m not going to go for a cup of tea with him and we’re not talking now. But at the time I needed a working relationship with the guy, I needed to interact with him, I needed to communicate with him in some way.’
Adams later added that his issues with the star were actually down to struggles that his team-mate was dealing with at home, not that such news was known to anybody at the time.
He continued: ‘I realised later on that his wife was having a really bad time. ‘I think she was really ill and you go, “Oh, Jesus Christ! I thought he was just a miserable so-and-so!”
‘But you don’t communicate this stuff and you see this guy walking around, arrogant and detached from the group, and you can come to judgements that are not true.’
It is difficult to understand what is going on behind the scenes in peoples lives, but it shows how strong a captain Adams was to admit that he managed to communicate with Lauren despite their issues.
Do we think a number of players in teams will later admit to not getting along? Is there room for negativeness in the backroom?
Patrick
Arsenal News 24/7
