MADRID, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Former Arsenal and England defender Tony Adams was on Monday named as the new coach of struggling Spanish Liga Santander club Granada until the end of the season in a surprise move.

The 50-year-old, who has coached Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth with little success and has not worked in coaching since leaving Azerbaijan club Gabala FC in 2011, replaced Lucas Alcaraz, who was sacked on Monday morning in the wake of Granada's 3-1 defeat to Valencia 24 hours earlier.

That defeat leaves Granada seven points adrift of safety with just 20 points from 31 games and looking clear favorites for relegation.

Adams has a working relationship with Granada's Chinese owner, Jiang Lizhang and is vice-president of his DDMC Football Club Management Company.

"After assessing the situation the team is in, Granada CF has decided to part company with Lucas Alcaraz and his coaching staff ... In his place, the club has total confidence in Tony Adams, vice-president of DDMC, as head coach of Granada CF until the end of the season."

Adams had only been appointed as Granada's Director of Sport last week, saying that he hoped that "with patience, the structure we are setting in place will be able to take the club where we want it to be, once more." He said the club would work to build a sporting academy with "world class training facilities."

He also said he would like to incorporate a Chinese player into the squad, saying that "would be the icing on the cake for the president, but he's certainly not going to insist on that."