The Martin Keown Ward at Oxford General And Other Ways To Make England Great At Football
PANIC over. Martin Keown, the once formidable Arsenal enforcer, has created “blueprint” for England football. The only worry is that he’s has chosen to make his masterplan public via the Daily Mail. The odds on foreigners looking in are high. The plan might be undone before it can be made real. Still, we’ll take a look.
I remember seeing a Japanese man standing on the touchline at our Arsenal training sessions. He was there for the best part of a year, furiously scribbling in his notebook come sun, wind and rain. He was desperate to learn how Arsene Wenger trained us, hoping to pick up tips and secrets – and take them back to Japan. But in all my time at the club winning trophies in a team that played such attractive football, I never saw anyone from the FA doing the same. It’s madness.
Number of World Cups won by Japan since that note-taking? None.
After that into, Mart outlines his vision, which we will distill into bullet points:
* Keep the ball
* Less foreigners.
* All young players should play at Wembley.
* England should have a youth academy tam that will take on the beat academy teams in Europe. This England team will, presumably, be made up of player not good enough to play for the top clubs’ academies.
* Why can’t the FA, Premier League and Government build inspiring sports facilities named after our heroes? Football is a rich industry. The Steven Gerrard Centre in Liverpool, the Rio Ferdinand Centre in Peckham, the Alan Shearer Centre in Newcastle. We have blue plaques up all over the country celebrating writers and poets. Let’s get our footballers’ names somewhere too.
Maybe he can open the Keown Ward at Oxford General?
Posted: 14th, November 2013 | In: Sports Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
