Ex-Arsenal captain reveals he was drunk non-stop for 44 days!

Tony Adams is a true Arsenal legend, as he spent his entire professional career with the Gunners from 1983 to 2002, winning many trophies along the way.

However, his private life was in a mess for quite some time, battling with alcoholism for years.

He reached the abyss in 1996 when his mother-in-law took away his children.

"I was 29 years old and I didn't want to be on the planet," recalls Adams, whose injury in February 1996 triggered even more drinking issues. "I knew I was completely trapped and that is the worst place I have ever been. In March, they took my children. I did not drink around them, but I passed out on one Sunday night. I drank seven bottles of alcohol. So the mother-in-law took the children."

A few months later, during the Euro 1996, he managed to isolate himself from this lifestyle. However, once Gareth Southgate missed that crucial penalty against Germany in the semi-final, the Englishman recollects that "alcohol was back in his hands for 44 days, non-stop".

"At the end of my drink, I've seen things come out of the closet. I was paranoid. I thought there was someone in the house. I thought he was killing people."

That same year, the ex-Arsenal captain started going to Alcoholics Anonymous and there his life changed once and for all, a fact for which he heartily thanks his mother-in-law: "She saved my life."

Just before Arsene Wenger's arrival at Arsenal, Adams stopped drinking alcohol and the French tactician supported his captain with this addiction.