Debate: is Adams the right man for the job?

Portsmouth are expected to name Tony Adams as their new manager at a press conference at Fratton Park at 1pm today.

Adams replaces Harry Redknapp, who left to take over at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, and will take full charge for the first time in tomorrow’s match away to Liverpool.

Adams, 42, the former Arsenal and England defender and captain, who steps up from assistant manager, became the heavy favourite yesterday to replace Redknapp, who had said last season that he would like Adams to succeed him as Portsmouth manager.

Times Archive, 1983: Tony Adams' Arsenal debut

Adams, a 17-year-old, got an early pass, nervously lost control, and the ball went to West, who hit a speculative long shot past Jennings

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• Debate: is Adams the right man for the job?

Although Adams’s only previous experience as the man in charge was an unsuccessful spell at Wycombe Wanderers during season 2003-04, since then he has studied coaching methods at home and abroad – with Feyenoord and Utrecht of Holland – before becoming Redknapp’s assistant in 2006. He has added practical experience under Redknapp to the ideas he took from working with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, where he won four league titles and three FA Cups, and said last season that he felt ready for another crack at management.

The fact that the club has a new manager in place - and one who will be a popular choice to judge by chants of "Tony Adams's blue and white army" from the Fratton End at Sunday's home match against Fulham - could defuse any awkwardness when Redknapp joins his former players to receive the freedom of the city later this afternoon.

The appointment makes sense. Adams offers continuity to the players assembled by Redknapp, and has been widely credited with Portsmouth’s defensive improvement, particularly from set plays – even though he was wise enough not to accept too much of that credit while Redknapp was still manager.

Adams will also be keenly aware of the club’s financial position, and the early appointment gives him the maximum possible time to calm any concerns among the playing staff that there will be upheaval, with the prospects of mass departures in the January transfer window.

On a practical level, promoting from within will allow Portsmouth to save most of the estimated £3 million per annum that Redknapp was paid – a not inconsiderable sum for a business recently estimated to pay more than 90 per cent of turnover in staff wages.

The media will welcome the decision. Adams is a relaxed communicator, who comes across as calm to the point of being almost comatose, but it may be of concern to the club that he can appear unguarded in his dealings with reporters. Comments he made in August to the effect that the squad was short of quality in some areas are understood not to have gone down too well at board level.