Martin Keown

Martin Raymond Keown (born 24 July 1966) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1984 to 2005 notably in the Premier League for Arsenal where he made over 300 appearances for the club and won nine major trophies.

He previously played for Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa, Everton, Leicester City and Reading. Keown made his England debut in 1992 against France and went on to win 43 caps for the national side over the next 10 years, gradually forming a respected defensive partnership with Arsenal team-mate Tony Adams at both club and international level. Keown represented England at four major international football finals including the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.

He is now a part-time scout and coach for Arsenal, as well as a pundit for the BBC, ESPN, TV3, and Al Jazeera Sports +3. He came out of retirement in 2012 and briefly played for Combined Counties League Premier Division side Wembley in their FA Cup fixtures.

Club career

Arsenal

A centre back from Oxford, Keown played for local sides and his local Gaelic football team as a boy, before joining Arsenal on a schoolboy contract in 1980, though he made his professional debut on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion in 1984. His debut for Arsenal came on 23 November 1985, when Don Howe was still their manager, and they drew 0–0 with West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns. He played 22 league games that season but when George Graham was appointed manager on 14 May 1986, he decided that Keown was not part of his plans to try and turn Arsenal into league title contenders and on 9 June 1986 he joined Aston Villa for £200,000.^[3]

Aston Villa

Keown signed for Villa after a season in which they had narrowly avoided relegation to the Second Division, a mere four years after being European Cup winners and five years since being league champions. Manager Graham Turner was under a lot of pressure, and after their dismal form continued into the 1986–87 season he was sacked on 14 September 1986 and succeeded by Billy McNeill. Keown appeared in 36 league games that season, but he was unable to save Villa from finishing bottom of the First Division and being relegated after 12 successive seasons in the top flight.

Graham Taylor then arrived at Villa Park to succeed the sacked McNeill, and Keown was very much part of his rebuilding plans as he missed just two league games and scored three goals as Villa finished second in the Second Division and won promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt. Keown helped the team secure its top flight status the following season, but was sold to Everton on 7 August 1989, just before the start of the 1989–90 season, for a fee of £750,000.^[4]

Everton

Keown had a fine start to his Everton career, and they topped the table for a while in late autumn and there was hope that they could win the league title, but their form ebbed away after Christmas and they managed only a sixth-place finish. Keown managed 20 league appearances that campaign and a slightly better 24 in 1990–91, when Harvey was replaced by Howard Kendall as manager in November. He missed just three league games in 1991–92, which brought another mid-table finish, and he played just 13 more league games for the Toffees before accepting a £2 million return to Arsenal in February 1993.^[5]

Arsenal

Keown did not feature in Arsenal's historic FA Cup and League Cup double of 1993 due to being cup-tied. However, he did manage 16 Premier League appearances, mostly at the expense of Steve Bould, forming arguably the most intense battle for central defensive positions in the Premier League at the time. He and Andy Linighan were high quality defenders competing alongside Bould and captain Tony Adams in the centre of one of the best English league defences of the 1990s.

Keown also missed out on Arsenal's Cup Winners' Cup Final win over Parma the following year^[6] (although he did play a part in the overall campaign after appearing in earlier rounds^[7]) however, he did start the final the following season when Arsenal were narrowly beaten by Real Zaragoza after extra time.

He rarely missed a game in his first four full seasons back at Highbury, though in the 1997–98 double winning campaign, the 31-year-old Keown was selected just 18 times in the Premier League by manager Arsène Wenger as he claimed the first two major trophies of his career after well over a decade of waiting.^[8]

Keown later became an integral part of Arsène Wenger's double Double winning sides of 1998 and 2002, remaining a first team regular until the end of the 2002–03 season, when the Gunners won their ninth FA Cup but blew the chance of a unique fourth double due to a late loss of form in the league.^[9]

On 20 September 2003, during Arsenal and Manchester United's match at Old Trafford, Manchester United were awarded a late penalty, with the score at 0–0. Ruud van Nistelrooy stepped up to take the penalty, and hit the bar with it. After the penalty, Keown and Ray Parlour confronted van Nistelrooy, and Keown hit him on the back of the head. Keown remained at Arsenal until 2004, winning another Premier League title, before being released on a free transfer. His final season brought 10 league appearances – the minimum to qualify for a title winner's medal.^[10]

Later career

He signed for Leicester City, but left after less than six months and signed for Reading in January 2005 until the end of the season, after which he retired.^[11]

Wembley F.C.

On June 2012, he was one of several former professional footballers who agreed to join Wembley F.C. to play in their FA Cup campaign for the new season. Keown and fellow former-internationals Ray Parlour, Danny Dichio, Jaime Moreno, Graeme Le Saux, Claudio Caniggia and Brian McBride, plus David Seaman (goalkeeping coach) and former England manager Terry Venables (technical advisor), all came out of retirement to play for Wembley F.C. as the club endeavours to play at Wembley Stadium – all of which is to be featured in a television documentary.^[12] Wembley were knocked out in a replay by Uxbridge after initially setting up the tie by knocking Langford out in the previous round.^[13]

International career

Keown played U16 and U18 for England. When it was learned that both his parents were Irish, Jack Charlton made an inquiry as to his availability to play for the Republic of Ireland but Keown was not eligible due to his underage games. He made his England debut in 1992 against France. With an injury to Mark Wright he was called up into England's squad for Euro 92, and played in all three of England's matches.

Keown's early ascension to the England team under Graham Taylor did not continue under Terry Venables, who ignored him completely. Keown earned a recall from Glenn Hoddle in 1997, and went to the 1998 World Cup, but did not play. Keown became a regular under Kevin Keegan (captaining the side against Finland) and played in two of England's Euro 2000 matches.

By the time Sven-Göran Eriksson became manager, Keown's age was starting to count against him, though he went to the 2002 World Cup, again as a non-playing squad member. Keown retired from international football the day after England's exit at the hands of Brazil.^[14] In all he played 43 times for England, scoring two goals.

Management and career outside football

Keown joined the coaching staff of Newbury in August 2005, but is now coaching back at former club Arsenal where he is taking his coaching badges. He has been identified by former Arsenal manager Terry Neill as a key figure behind the success of Arsenal's inexperienced "new-look" defence (which the team resorted to after ongoing injury problems in the 2005–06 season, notably setting a record for minutes played without conceding in the Champions League).^[15] In 2007–08 Keown was also a coach for the Oxford University Blues Football team on a part-time basis.^[16]

Keown regularly appears as a pundit on the BBC's football coverage and Match of the Day, as well as covering the Champions League for Irish broadcaster TV3. He was also working for ESPN UK during the 2011 Emirates Cup.

Honours

Club

Arsenal

• Premier League (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
• FA Cup (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1993–94
• FA Community Shield (3): 1998, 1999, 2002

References

External links

• Martin Keown career stats at Soccerbase
• Daily Mail Column

England squads v t e England squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Woods 2 Curle 3 Pearce 4 Keown 5 Walker 6 Wright 7 Platt 8 Steven 9 Clough 10 Lineker (c) 11 Sinton 12 Palmer 13 Martyn 14 Dorigo 15 Webb 16 Merson 17 Smith 18 Daley 19 Batty 20 Shearer Coach: Taylor v t e England squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Seaman 2 Campbell 3 Le Saux 4 Ince 5 Adams 6 Southgate 7 Beckham 8 Batty 9 Shearer (c) 10 Sheringham 11 McManaman 12 Neville 13 Martyn 14 Anderton 15 Merson 16 Scholes 17 Lee 18 Keown 19 L. Ferdinand 20 Owen 21 R. Ferdinand 22 Flowers Coach: Hoddle v t e England squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Seaman 2 G. Neville 3 P. Neville 4 Campbell 5 Adams 6 Keown 7 Beckham 8 Scholes 9 Shearer (c) 10 Owen 11 McManaman 12 Southgate 13 Martyn 14 Ince 15 Barry 16 Gerrard 17 Wise 18 Barmby 19 Heskey 20 Phillips 21 Fowler 22 Wright Coach: Keegan v t e England squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Seaman 2 Mills 3 A. Cole 4 Sinclair 5 Ferdinand 6 Campbell 7 Beckham (c) 8 Scholes 9 Fowler 10 Owen 11 Heskey 12 Brown 13 Martyn 14 Bridge 15 Keown 16 Southgate 17 Sheringham 18 Hargreaves 19 J. Cole 20 Vassell 21 Butt 22 James 23 Dyer Coach: Eriksson