Thread by @CoachesVoice

A THREAD! 👇 Tony Adams (@TonyAdams) on Wenger's arrival at Arsenal, the financial backing behind the club's success and having to play deeper to maximise the pace of Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka 🔴 #Arsenal

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "Pat Rice was caretaker manager. Then Arsène swanned into town against Borussia Monchengladbach in the UEFA Cup and demanded Pat took me out of the back three we’d been playing and use a back four. We lost, and then he left.

"I was absolutely livid."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "On his first day of work, I showed up ready for a massive fight, but you know Arsène. He’s so charming – he’s wonderful, and spiritual – and he didn’t like confrontation."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "Me and Arsène sat down, and he said: 'What do you think?'

“'We’ve been playing with a back three. We’re fourth in the table and have a lot of central defenders at the club. We’ve just got used to this.'

"He said: 'I agree.'"

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "In effect, he let us run it. That was his style of management. 'Go play – go do your stuff.'"

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "We had a way of doing things – about behaviour and standards around the club, and punctuality, and respect.

"We ran the club with a set of values and I believe Arsène went: 'This is great. Get on with it.' He didn’t interfere. I think he bought into our Arsenal DNA."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "The catalyst for everything was the finance and the great players who came in. The French market was untapped at that point, and we got all the best players from France."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "When you put that chemistry with the back four that’s already in place… in 1998, I thought we could win everything. We should have done more than just the double."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "Arsène’s philosophy around finance – no player was ever bigger than the club – was something else I really admired. Later with Nicolas Anelka he stood by the club’s philosophy.

"I suppose he got lucky with Thierry Henry but it was an Arsenal principle he stuck to."

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "As a team, we dropped off a little bit, because with the pace of Anelka – and Thierry afterwards – we needed space in behind other teams. If we went and pressed, we weren’t playing into the hands of our star players, so we went back another 10 yards.

@TonyAdams 🗣️ "Arsène wanted us to win the ball back in the defensive and middle thirds, and to counter-attack. We let teams have the ball, robbed them in midfield, exploded, and put balls through. Teams also had to boot it long, because we were so good at winning the ball back."