- Martin Keown
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Martin Keown Personal information Full name Martin Raymond Keown Date of birth 24 July 1966 Place of birth Oxford, England Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Playing position Defender / Defensive midfielder Youth career 1980–1984 Arsenal Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1984–1986 Arsenal 22 (0) 1985 → Brighton & Hove Albion (loan) 23 (1) 1986–1989 Aston Villa 112 (3) 1989–1993 Everton 96 (0) 1993–2004 Arsenal 311 (4) 2004–2005 Leicester City 17 (0) 2005 Reading 5 (0) Total 586 (8) National team 1987–1988 England U18 8 (0) 1991 England B 1 (0) 1992–2002 England 43 (2) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).Martin Raymond Keown (born 24 July 1966 in Oxford, England) is a former English footballer. Widely regarded as one of the best man-markers of his generation,[1][2][3] Keown played for six different football clubs during his career but it was with Arsenal that he will be best remembered. Keown made over three hundred appearances for Arsenal and won nine major trophies. Keown was also part of the squad that reached the Uefa Cup Winners Cup in 1995 and the Uefa Cup in 2000. He retired from professional football in 2005.
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 teammate Tony Adams at both club and international level.
Keown represented England at four major international football finals including the 1998 and 2002 World Cup.
He is now a part-time scout and coach for Arsenal, as well as a pundit for the BBC, TV3 Ireland, and Al Jazeera Sports +3.
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Club career
A tough and uncompromising 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.
Keown's 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.[4]
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. He helped them secure their 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.[5]
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. However, their form ebbed away after Christmas and they could only manage 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 the 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 £2,000,000 return to Arsenal in February 1993.[6]
Keown didn't 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 defender 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[7] (although he did play a part in the overall campaign after appearing in earlier rounds[8]) 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.[9]
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.[10]
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,[11] because of the manner in which he had earlier allegedly attempted to get their team mate Patrick Vieira sent off.
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 – and it came during the season when Arsenal achieved the rare distinction of completing a league season unbeaten.
He signed for Leicester City, but left after less than six months (it was rumoured he had fallen out with Leicester boss Micky Adams), and signed for Reading in January 2005 until the end of the season, after which he retired from the game.
International career
Keown played U16 and U18 for England. When it was learnt that both his parents were Irish, Jack Charlton enquired about his availability to play for the Republic of Ireland but found that he was not eligible due to his underage games.[citation needed] 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.[12] 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).[13] In 2007–08 Keown was also a coach for the Oxford University Blues Football team on a part time basis.[14]
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
- Barclays Premier League: 1998, 2002 & 2004
- FA Cup: 1998, 2002 & 2003
- UEFA Cup Winner's Cup: 1994
- FA Community Shield: 1998, 1999 & 2002
- UEFA Cup: Runner-Up 2000
- FA Cup: Runner-up 2001
- UEFA Cup Winner's Cup: Runner-up 1995
- 43 England caps
References
- ^ england v germany a tactical preview, soccerlens.com. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ^ Frustrated Totti falls victim to The Rash, telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ^ Arsenal who's who, bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ^ "Martin Keown - Arsenal FC - Football-Heroes.net". Sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=41357. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ "Martin Keown - Aston Villa FC - Football-Heroes.net". Sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=41358. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ "Martin Keown - Everton FC - Football-Heroes.net". Sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=41359. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ "UEFA Cup Winners Cup 1994". Archived from the original on May 26, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080526180303/http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ecwc/news/kind=8192/newsid=3436.html. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
- ^ "Arsenal Appearances 1993/94". http://www.arseweb.com/history/stats/94.html. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
- ^ "Martin Keown - Arsenal FC - Football-Heroes.net". Sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=41361. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ "Martin Keown - Arsenal FC - Football-Heroes.net". Sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=41362. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Keown calls time". BBC Sport (BBC). 22 June 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/team_pages/england/newsid_2059000/2059066.stm. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Mercer, Nathan (16 May 2006). "Arsenal's New Guard". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4771963.stm. Retrieved 31 May 2006.
- ^ "Blues lose out in tough season opener". http://www.ouafc.com/news/136. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
External links
England squad – UEFA Euro 1992 
England squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup England squad – UEFA Euro 2000 England squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup The stars of TV3 Ireland News and current affairs Siobhan Bastible • Vincent Browne • Claire Byrne • Paul Byrne • Alan Cantwell • Dyane Connor • Elaine Crowley • Brian Daly • Colette Fitzpatrick • Ursula Halligan • Jerome Hughes • Geraldine Lynagh • Jenny McCudden • Sybil Mulcahy • Stephen Murphy • Brian O'Donovan • Sharon TobinEntertainment Amanda Byram • Mark Cagney • Lisa Cannon • Brendan Courtney • Bill Cullen • Sinead Desmond • Ray Foley • Glenda Gilson •Lorraine Keanereplaced by Sean Munsanje • Patrick Kielty • Karen Koster • Aisling O' Loughlin • Nora Owen • Una Power • Laura WoodsSport Packie Bonner • Tony Cascarino • Aidan Cooney • Matt Cooper • Sinéad Kissane • Martin Keown • Mark Lawrenson • Kieran McSweeney • Tommy Martin • John Toshack • Trevor WelchWeather Martin King • Alan Hughes • Anna DalySee also: List of programmes broadcast by TV3 Ireland Categories:- English footballers
- Arsenal F.C. players
- Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players
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