Graphic: slow starters

Tony Adams took over as manager of Portsmouth yesterday and immediately displayed the sort of no-nonsense approach for which he was famous in his days as an uncompromising centre back. The former Arsenal and England stalwart said that any player who wanted to leave would be allowed to go in the January transfer window, but if any member of the squad is sold against his will, he hinted that he would walk away.

Adams has signed a 2½-year contract, succeeding Harry Redknapp, who left to join Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. Redknapp had suggested that the club’s financial situation would force player sales, but Adams, his former assistant, insisted that any departures would have to be with his blessing. “If they want to go, I will let them go,” he said. “I want people who want to play for Portsmouth. If they don’t, they will do you no good in the long run.”

Adams will not countenance wholesale asset-stripping. “If they are going to get rid of all my players, I would go and do your job,” he told journalists. “They would cut my throat if the chairman does that or the owner starts selling all my players. I haven’t got a chance then, have I?”

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

• Times Archive: Sport

Related Links

• Analysis: Tony Cascarino

• Adams will be a success, says Wenger

• Change is the last thing Portsmouth need

Multimedia

• Fans are right to fear Portsmouth player exodus

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

Adams, 42, had 12 months in charge of Wycombe Wanderers from November 2003, during which time they were relegated to League Two, and had junior coaching roles with Feyenoord and Utrecht before becoming Redknapp’s No 2 in 2006 and was champing at the bit to be his own boss again. He would have been “gutted” to have been passed over, although he was not necessarily expecting to get a job in the Barclays Premier League.

“The Premiership is an unbelievably tough league,” Adams said. “An opportunity has come and I am going to take it. I’m scared to bits, of course, but I’m excited.”

Adams disagrees with those who say he failed with Wycombe. “There’s not a person at Wycombe who doesn’t think I did OK,” he said. “We had no money, so we had to cut the wage bill. I had to get rid of everybody and save the football club.” Perhaps not so different from his new job, then.

The appointment was well-received by the players. “It’s a big job but he’s capable of filling those shoes,” Peter Crouch, the England forward, said. “Stability helps. We know Tony and I think we will all be looking forward to working with him.”

Adams’s first match in charge is against Liverpool, the league leaders, at Anfield tonight. He hopes that Joe Jordan, the head coach, will stay on and is understood to want to bring in Martin Keown, his former defensive partner at Arsenal, as his assistant.

Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, wished his former Double-winning captain well. “It is a good opportunity for him,” Wenger said. “He is at the age now where you have to start in this job and I think he is ready. I believe he has the qualities and that is why I am very positive about it. I would bet that he will do well.”

Paul Ince, the Blackburn Rovers manager and a former England team-mate, also welcomed Adams’s appointment. “It’s good, another English manager in the Premier League,” Ince said. “We don’t want to have to keep looking overseas [for England managers]. If you’ve got four or five in the Premier League, you’ve got more choice when [Fabio] Capello goes.”

Adams later joined Redknapp and the Portsmouth players to receive the freedom of the city. Adams was cheered and Redknapp initially jeered by a minority of the crowd. “My timing has never been very good and, this week, it could never have been worse,” Redknapp said.