Weymouth reject Adams

The former England and Arsenal captain Tony Adams has been denied the chance to take his first step into coaching after Dr Marten's League side Weymouth rejected a proposal to take over the club from the consortium he was linked with.

Adams was to become their football consultant, training the players on a voluntary basis, but a £100,000 bid by the journalist Ian Ridley, co-writer of Adams' autobiography Addicted, was turned down by directors.

"I am sad that this plan has not worked out," Adams said. "I was looking forward to helping Ian turn Weymouth around. I think he would have been unlike other chairmen."

But the Weymouth director Mick Archer explained: "As a player we have great respect for Tony Adams but it is going to take more than big names to solve our problems and those of hundreds of other struggling semi-professional clubs.

"It's a different world to what he has been used to," Archer added.