Exclusive: Martin Keown interview

Born Offside were pleased to be invited to the McDonalds Coaching Masterclass event held at Wembley on November 20.

The event saw 12 youth football teams get to kick the ball around on the hallowed turf, while their coaches were put through their paces by experienced former professionals, including Gareth Southgate, Andy Cole, Pat Jennings and Martin Keown, and ex-Manchester United coach Eric Harrison. Oh, and World Cup winner Geoff Hurst.

We were fortunate enough to score two exclusive interviews at the event, and first up, here’s our chat with tough-tackling former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown, who filled us in on what England need to do to catch up with Spain, and Rio Ferdinand’s future.

Rik Sharma: So Martin, how did you get involved with today’s events?

Martin Keown: I’m particularly interested in coaching and McDonalds have asked me along here to help out, and I think what they do is outstanding. The amount of finance and support and organisation that they put behind this grassroots coaching scheme is fantastic really.

We’ve seen the figures, the amount of people they’ve helped to come through. 20,000 people, and looking to get another 10,000 by 2014 and there’s over 400,000 volunteers they’ve helped to develop their coaching knowledge.

It’s really important that young kids get the right sort of education – it’s no different to being in the classroom at school. If the teachers aren’t qualified, then God help the children. It’s no different.

RS: Who will gain most out of this?MK: Mostly the coaches that have come along for the various teams; it’s about what they learn. It gives them more structure to what they’re trying to do. It’s about giving the coaches good habits and that takes a lot of time. There needs to be a lot more of this sort of thing to try and help them out.

RS: You’ve got your coaching badges haven’t you…

MK: Yes that’s right. I’ve done my UEFA B-license and my A-license and it took me three years to do that.

RS: H0w are you planning to use them?

MK: I’m not using them at the moment. I worked with Arsenal for a year then I worked with Oxford University where I managed a team, which was very enjoyable. You have your own style and your own way of picking up things and having played the game you knew what you benefited most from, and what you didn’t benefit from, so you try and apply that in coaching.

RS: Well, do you have any plans to dust them off?MK: Not any time soon. My son is playing the game and I try and help him as much as I can, and I get great pleasure from that. I’m learning a great deal as well about what to say and what not to say. When you’ve got your son playing you’re entrenched in it.

RS: So just how do you spend your time?

MK: I do a lot of work in the media now, and that’s my footballing fix. If that was taken away then you’ll see me drifting back into the game.

RS: Which media houses do you work for?

MK: I have done Match of the Day 2 in the past, and I do Final Score and Football Focus. I do a lot of work for ESPN, Al Jazeera and Irish TV and on top of that, a piece for the Daily Mail a couple of times a week. And that really makes you concentrate and makes you more opinionated. You’ve got to really concentrate. You’re looking for differences of opinion and subtle bits that people miss, so I enjoy looking for that.

I also enjoy looking for talent out there. There’s so many good players now coming through but it’s about how we get young players to compete with the likes of Spain, when it comes to passing the ball and their movement. That’s the next challenge for the English game.

RS: So what do you have in mind?

MK: I think people talk a lot about technique, but it’s also the tactics. Spanish players run into areas they want to get into, but we just run to beat opponents. We’re not playing as intelligently as they are. They’re much more collective in the way that they play.

They also have this special movement off one another, whereas we tend to be a bit rigid. I think their use of their wide players is very interesting. Particularly Barcelona. Their wide players come off the line and it makes them very difficult to pick up, and their full backs will step up and play like wingers.

It seems when watching young English teams, there’s no one for the back four to give the ball to. And when there is an option, it’s just the one option. So we have to work on that and then when we get the ball, we need to be technically advanced enough so we can deal with the ball and be confident in using it properly.

RS: What sort of player does England need ? Like someone to play in-front of the defence and take it forward?

MK: Not necessarily. Look at [Sergio] Busquets. He comes deep but very rarely does he get it. Xavi and [Andres] Iniesta come and receive it in the full back area, so it can be a purely defensive player. Who can we use? We played Phil Jones there the other day. He looked competent in there but I’m not sure he’s quite busy enough, or that his feet are quick enough, but he’s only 19 years of age andwhat he’s achieving is nothing short of extraordinary. But he’ll probably end up being a central defender.

RS: Looking ahead to Euro 2012, and England’s defensive options, would you take Rio Ferdinand?

MK: Well it’s either him or [John] Terry isn’t it? One or the other. And to me it looks as like they’ve gone with Terry now. They’ve nailed their colours to the mast. We’ll have to see if that’s a mistake or not. I feel Rio’s got a great deal to offer. He’s not able to train now like he was in the past after a succession of injuries. It’s unfortunate he didn’t get a lot of support from the manager.

I take on board the criticism about him losing a yard or two. We’ll have to see how he does this season, but I think he’s got a year to go on his contract. It seems like his career at Manchester United is reaching towards the end, but he’s at a club where the manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] will always get the most out of people, and he knows when people are finished.

He’s got Ryan Giggs there, who’s fast approaching 38 years of age, so you’d like to think Rio’s got a chance. If he’s good enough, he’ll get the contract.