Martin KEOWN

Graham Taylor's habit of calling up the more inelegant sector of top flight England players occasionally brought out an individual who proved the embattled England coach right. Martin Keown fell into this category, although he took a little while to convince his many detractors after an early career with Arsenal, Aston Villa and Everton which had labelled him as a grafting stopper with no real class beyond his aggression. But Taylor, who had employed Keown at Villa, knew there was more to the central defender's game than hard tackles and hard stares, and put him in the team for a friendly against France in February 1992 which also saw debuts for Rob Jones and Alan Shearer. Keown partnered Mark Wright with aplomb and confidence and stayed in the side in a reshaped three-at-the-back system for a 2-2 draw in Czechoslovakia (see photo above).

One of the quirkiest moments of any football career happened that night in Prague, as Keown scored England's late equaliser with a vicious 25 yard drive after staying up from a half-cleared set-piece. He had never scored for Everton - and never would in four seasons - yet had opened his England tally in only his second match. Taylor liked him and the media, though less welcoming, were off his case as he stayed in the team for the rest of the warm-up period prior to the 1992 European Championships, for which England had qualified prior to Keown's summons. It was correct that Martin made the squad for Sweden - his form and the comfort he had shown in adapting to England's game merited it - though all of Taylor's defensive planning was shattered by the withdrawal through injury of all three of his specialist right backs. Keown ended up playing in all three group games but the latter brace he spent in the unfamiliar right back position and England were unceremoniously dumped from the tournament after two dismal goalless draws and a defeat to the host nation. Martin then found himself out of Taylor's favour for the commencement of England's qualification campaign for the 1994 World Cup, preferring to get hardened experience and leadership into his back four after the shame in Sweden.

Wright and Tony Adams returned to the fold - Wright had missed the European Championships through injury while Adams had been inexplicably ignored by Taylor - but Keown was recalled for the important visit of Holland to Wembley in April 1993. The formation was odd, with Martin asked to play in the left back position on a tactical basis only, although it nearly worked with the Dutch forced to come from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-2 draw. By now Keown had rejoined Arsenal to replace the retiring David O'Leary, becoming the final recruit to club football's most famous defensive unit, but even though his prowess as a commander of a defence was clearly improving at Highbury, Taylor would not try him again, beyond a peppercorn outing as a late sub against Germany during the ill-starred USA tour of 1993. Taylor didn't pick Keown again and would himself leave the England scene after the World Cup qualification campaign died with defeat in Holland. Terry Venables didn't once consider Martin during his two and a half years in the job and it seemed that a 30 year old Keown's international career had ended after just eleven appearances. (Matthew Rudd)

After seeing the improvement in Martin Keown's discipline within a watertight Arsenal midfield, new England coach Glenn Hoddle consulted his old mentor Arsene Wenger and gave Keown a recall to the England squad, after a nigh on four-year exile, for a friendly against Mexico in March 1997. Keown played well as one of three central defenders in a wing back system and began a five-year Indian summer as a regular member of the squad as Arsenal began to re-establish their authority on the English game. England's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup was already well underway and Hoddle had his plans for each opponents and a team already in place, so Keown was a content and committed squad member, receiving calls and caps in non-competitive games and proving his absolute worth as a sturdy back-up to the likes of Adams, Gareth Southgate and Sol Campbell. Martin started two of the matches in Le Tournoi de France in June 1997 and, after England secured their place at the World Cup in France, picked up three caps in the preparatory games prior to Hoddle announcing his 22. Keown, who had just won the Double with Arsenal, was one of five specialist centre backs in the squad, accounting for Hoddle's facility to operate with three central defenders, but he was at least fourth in the pecking order behind Adams, Southgate and Campbell, with only the teenager Rio Ferdinand deemed less likely to see any action.

And so it was the case, as neither Keown nor Ferdinand stepped on to a pitch as England exited on penalties in the second round. Martin was unrepentant about his inactivity, given that he was 32 years old and had just achieved the highest domestic honours and had been to a World Cup. He continued to declare his availability for England and had his unfussy loyalty repaid by Kevin Keegan when he took over the job following the farcical circumstances of Hoddle's exit. Keegan, aware of the abundance of experienced and capable central defenders at his disposal, chopped and changed his pairings depending on form and fitness, and Keown played in four of the remaining qualifiers for the 2000 European Championships, occasionally partnering his club captain Adams. Martin was selected for the away leg of England's play-off for the finals against Scotland - they won 2-0 - but then replaced by Southgate for the Wembley return which saw England scrape through after a dismal 1-0 defeat, yet at this stage he was England's form centre back. Keown played in three of England's four warm-up games (the photo above is during the 1-1 draw against Brazil) for the tournament in Holland and Belgium, picking up his 30th cap in a 2-1 win in Malta and scoring his second international goal in the process, a whole eight years after his first. (Matthew Rudd)

Martin Keown emerged from the 2000 European Championships as probably England's most impressive player. After coming on as a sub for the injured Adams in the opening 3-2 defeat to Portugal (by which time the Portuguese comeback from two down was already complete) he started the remaining group games and spent much of England's slipshod defensive displays throwing himself - sometimes literally - into tackles and blocks which were heroic enough to have the England supporters chanting his name. This was especially the case in the final game against Romania which, after victory over the Germans, England needed only to draw to go through. Sadly, a late penalty sent England home and, although Keegan's team was typically gung-ho and lacked pragmatism, Keown emerged a genuine hero. He was now almost 34 but Wenger had further plans for him at Arsenal so Martin opted to remain available for England, knowing that Keegan rated him highly enough after the European Championships to make him part of his plans for the 2002 World Cup. Keegan picked Keown for a friendly in France and then the opening qualifier against Germany in Wembley's last scheduled match, but the 1-0 defeat prompted Keegan's instant resignation and again the future of a 34 year old defender looked insecure, particularly when Adams also decided to give up the England scene, thereby taking away reasoning that Keown was a worthy England partner to the man whom he paired up with to such great effect at club level.

Sven Goran Eriksson omitted Martin from his first three sides upon appointment, including two World Cup qualifiers, but brought him back for the friendly with Mexico at Derby which at least suggested to the veteran defender he still had something of a future. With Adams gone and Eriksson scotching ideas of playing three at the back, Keown's chances were dwindling but he kept making squads regularly. He played in a qualifier in Greece which England won 2-0, then stayed in the side for a friendly defeat to Holland at Tottenham. By the time the massive return game in Germany came along, Martin's place looked less secure, and indeed Eriksson chose a pairing of Campbell and Ferdinand - one which would dominate his thinking for the years ahead - as England destroyed their great rivals 5-1. Injury to Campbell prompted Eriksson to add Keown's name to the teamsheet for the infamous 2-2 draw with Greece (the photo above is during the game) which finally sealed England's place in Japan and South Korea, though England's whole performance owed everything to David Beckham and little to its defence or off the ball instincts.

Still, it earned Keown his 40th cap and he stayed in every squad up to the World Cup, winning his 43rd cap in the final warm-up game against Cameroon in May 2002. Eriksson picked him for the squad but again he looked less than likely to play, with Ferdinand and Campbell set in stone as the main partnership. Keown and his fellow reserve centre backs, Southgate and Wes Brown, watched every minute without setting foot on a pitch as England exited in the quarter finals to Brazil, with Martin becoming only the second outfield England player - after his ex-Arsenal team-mate Viv Anderson - to travel to two World Cups without featuring on the pitch at either. Though he stayed at Arsenal for a further two years, winning more domestic honours, he decided that at 36 years of age his England career had reached its natural end and he announced his international retirement after the tournament ended. (Matthew Rudd)