Tony Adams hardly made the most auspicious of starts. Thousands of miles from home and in a tiny town that he surely had not heard of at the beginning of last year, he watched his ticket to managerial redemption threaten to flutter away. After three matches of the Azerbaijani league season, Gabala FC had failed to pick up a point.

The reaction in England was predictable. If there had been general incomprehension that Adams, the former Arsenal and England titan, had signed an initial three-year contract at a footballing outpost, then it moved to derision in some quarters. He had declared his intention to transform Gabala over a five- to 10-year period. "There was a piece in one of the papers that said: 'Ten years? He's going to be there 10 minutes,'" Adams says.

He was not worried, though, and this is not a case of being wise after the event. He had been attracted by the principles and vision of Gabala's youthful owner, Tale Heydarov, and he always knew that he was entering a different world. Even the mood at his first post-match press conference had been reassuring.

"We'd lost 1-0 at Khazar Lenkoran and I'm expecting 30, 40 journalists, cameras, everything," Adams says. "There was one cameraman and two journalists. First question: 'Do you like our supporters?' I said: 'Yes. They made lots of noise, there was 4,000 there, I was very impressed.' And the second question: 'D'you like our stadium?' I said: 'Yes, it's a very nice stadium, a template for the whole country.' End of questions. I said to myself: 'Yes, thank you very much. I've come to the right country.'"

Adams paints a rosy picture of his challenge away from the Premier League asylum. There is no hostility or pressure, apart from that which he places on himself; he is determined to push for the league title, if not this season then routinely after that. Moreover, there is a long-term plan in place, patience from Heydarov and plenty of cash in further support. Heydarov's father, Kamaladdin, is the government's emergencies minister, whose influence is matched by his wealth.

Adams's Gabala finished seventh in the 12-team top flight and the glass at the club is decidedly half-full. Adams speaks earnestly and excitedly about the 13,000-capacity stadium that is under construction, while the training ground and academy are being revamped. He describes the former as being "as good as anything in Europe" and it is hoped that the latter, home to 130 boys, can develop young Azeri talent. There is also the wider issue of the football club serving as a driver for tourism and commerce.

"We've got a plan, we've got a budget and we're going to respect it," Adams says. "Building a stadium, a training ground and a team ... that doesn't happen overnight but it's going to plan. There's no pressure on me to win the league, other than my own pressure and I have time.

"I said to Tale Heydarov at the very start: 'Give me 100 million, I'll win the league and I'll go home.' But that's not what we're about. The highlight of my first season was that I feel I've been able to develop, to make mistakes but learn from them and go home without 400 interviews, the fans calling for my resignation and the chairman coming in, saying: 'What is going on?'"

Adams was burned by his angst-ridden spell in charge at Portsmouth, which followed the unsuccessful stint at Wycombe Wanderers in his first managerial job. There is the sense that he has sought to rebuild his reputation under the radar at Gabala, which is somewhat ironic given the club is nicknamed "the Radars"; the town is home to a huge anti-missile facility that was built in Soviet times.

He denies this, claiming that he would have moved anywhere for the right chairman but, rather like Steve McClaren post-England, he realised it was prudent to emigrate. Adams is back in England on a pre-season tour with Gabala and he feels that the game in this country deserves the sort of monstering he once gave to centre-forwards.

"I've seen it written that I have gone out on a limb with the move to Gabala but I really don't see it that way," Adams says. "I think that I've actually gone out on a limb if I take a job in England, particularly with the tenures being what they are."

He has the statistics to hand. "Your average tenure in the Championship, would you believe, is six months," he says, "and in the Premier League, it's 1.3 years. I think that since I went to Azerbaijan on 8 April last year, over 50 of the 92 managers have been sacked or have resigned. It's quite astonishing.

"That's why I feel we need to repair the credibility of British coaches. Nobody is given time, even in the lower leagues, where owners used to be patient. Football coaching and the management profession is being ripped apart by owners and chief executives. After my Portsmouth experience, I was definitely going to go for the owner in my new job."

Since his arrival in Gabala, Adams has kept a daily diary. Indeed, he has chronicled many of his experiences since the publication of his autobiography, Addicted, in 1998, which detailed his battle with alcoholism. "I'll have been sober for 15 years on 16 August," he says. "The next book will be called Staying Stopped."

He has been frank about his problems and there was a flicker from his former life when he told the tale of John Jensen's arrival at Arsenal in 1992. The Dane had the reputation for being a hardened beer drinker and so Adams and the boys took him out to "lunch". "By three o'clock, he was slumped forward, asleep," Adams says.

His life in Gabala city (population: 13,200) sounds almost monasterial. His wife and three youngest children did not move with him last season – they will do so next month – and, with distractions limited, Adams has simply immersed himself in the job.

"Wherever you take yourself in this world, you've got to take yourself with you," he says. "I like the area, it's very beautiful, with beautiful mountains but, no disrespect, I could live anywhere. I'm OK with myself today, I can live on my own. It's not loneliness, it's solitude. It's a fantastic job and I can actually do this one. It's workable."

Adams's Azeri journal features insight into the cultural, religious and linguistic diversity he has found. It might also contain anecdotes, from those about the primitive facilities his squad have endured in some places to the club's 100-strong band of drum-beating away supporters. He likens the standard of the league to Scotland "without Rangers and Celtic or maybe the Spanish and Italian second divisions".

For Adams, the ultimate ambition remains to manage Arsenal. "It's a very easy job compared to the one I have got now," he says. "The resources that Arsène [Wenger] has got ... give me that tomorrow. Yes, please. I love that club dearly. I'm not ready yet. Maybe one day."

The legacy he intends to create in Gabala would allow him to dream.