Posts Tagged ‘martin keown’
Arsenal: Ozil’s ‘invisible’ injuries, spiteful Keown and mocking mental health
Arsenal’s players are “frustrated” at Mesut Ozil’s injury problems. Well, so says the BBC in a view echoed by the Mail. Given the Gunners season after season of injury woes, it’s odd to think of Arsenal players being irked by Ozil’s misfortune. Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsay, Santi Cazorla, Laurent Koscielny and Danny Welbeck have each been injured for months at a time. What is it about Ozil’s problems that upsets them?
Might this story have something to do with Martin Keown, the former Arsenal player now talking on cue for the BBC, BT Sport and the Mail? Only last week, Keown was saying that Ozil was “not fit to wear the shirt” and shedding “crocodile tears” after Arsenal’s defeat to a good Atletico Madrid side in the Europa League. Keown’s imprudent opinions and characteristic grabs for the headlines have make him a ubiquitous presence on football chat shows.
So when Keown guffed from his vantage point sat on office furniture about a shiny coffee table, a story brewed. Said Keown of Ozil:
“I haven’t been happy with him for some time and it seems as if he picks and chooses his games…
“I bet he doesn’t play again this season. He’ll have some emotional breakdown and won’t be able to play at the weekend. I don’t know how many illnesses he’s had this season, but the fella is not kidding me. That is not a proper performance.”
Aside from Keown’s grubby view being narrowed by his need to use Arsenal’s best player to promote his to-deadline views – Ozil was one of Arsenal’s better players in Madrid; only Aaron Ramsey won more tackles for either side on the night than Ozil; the Mail marked Ozil as Arsenal’s joint second-best player on the night; Ozil’s performance was far from being wretched – we wonder if Keown only cares about obvious physical conditions and not mental health – in late 2017 Keown wrongly stated that Ozil “psychologically, mentally” had “already left the football club”. Shame if Keown doesn’t think mental health is a vital part of an athlete’s wellbeing. After all, this is what Keown had to say about mental health on May 4 2017 in the Mail:
Q: Do you think mental health issues are taken seriously enough in football?
Martin Keown: There is a stigma attached to mental health that means people do not necessarily feel as comfortable asking for help. It can be doubly difficult as a footballer. Just because players earn huge salaries does not mean they do not suffer from the same issues and problems as everyone else… We need to recognise issues surrounding mental health as an illness, not a weakness.
Martin Keown might be talking nonsense, but he is setting the tabloids’ new agenda?
And so to the Mail’s story on Ozil. This is it pretty much the crux of it in full:
MESUT OZIL has angered Arsenal players with his shocking prima donna attitude. A number of the Gunners squad suspect Ozil is being allowed to pick and choose which games he plays in.
Isn’t that what Keown said?
Arsenal players are reported to be losing patience with top earner Mesut Ozil, after it was confirmed the Germany international is to be ruled out for the remainder of the Premier League campaign.
We are told of Ozil’s “mystery illnesses”. We’re not told where the story of dressing room disharmony was first reported. But something very similar was said in the Sun yesterday. The Sun reported:
SICK OF OZ-ILL – Arsenal players fed up with Mesut Ozil ‘injuries’ and prima donna attitude of Gunners’ highest-paid man. Winger is the highest-paid player at The Emirates after finally signing a new £350,000-a-week contract earlier this year..
It has not gone unnoticed that Ozil’s contribution has dramatically tailed off since he signed his new £350,000-a-week contract at the end of January.
Having your health discussed publicly must be horrible. And has it occurred to Keown and Ozil’s attackers that not all “injures” are visible…
Posted: 9th, May 2018 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: why pundits have it in for Ozil
It’s fair to say that Martin Keown is no fan of Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, offering to to-deadline opinion in October: “I think in some departments he’s already left. Psychologically, mentally, he’s already left the football club.” And on it went, Keown alluding to world Cup winner Ozil being a malign influence on teammates – “I think [Wenger] doesn’t want that sort of player around the youngsters in the group,” – and that Ozil has “downed tools”.
Pundits like to hammer home a point, even if it’s wrong. Ozil played superbly well in Arsenal 2-0 win over Spurs, putting in a man-of-the-match performance and earning a standing ovation from the fans. But Keown spots a hole in his Daily Mail column and offers: “This weekend, we have learned nothing new about Ozil.”
We who spotted Ozil’s record equalling 19 assists in the 2015-16 season, his 12 chances created when Arsenal played Sunderland in May and keeps Arsenal moving forward. But to Keown, Ozil invites the questions, “Will he work as hard on Sunday when Arsenal travel to Burnley?” Probably. Ozil ran further last season than every Arenal player bar Nacho Monreal. But Keown has the blinekrs on: “This weekend, we have learned nothing new about Ozil. We know he is immensely talented. But if he does not perform and Arsenal fail to get three points at Turf Moor, this victory will have been for nothing.”
No. It’ll have been for three points and bragging rights . Ozil will have been instrumental in defeating Spurs, a team billed as potential Premier League title winners and the coming force in English football. To make that worth nothing is to flush Ozil’s sublime play down the memory hole.
But we’re not looking at Ozil, who remains easy on the yes. We’re looking at Keown, whose opinions tell us much about his attitude to football: scream, shout, go in hard and show off your scars. The difference between Keown and Ozil is acute: whereas Keown was lucky to have a role in a pragmatic Arsenal side; a more progressive Arenal are lucky to have Ozil.
Mesut Ozil needs to be challenged every week to put in as special a performance as he did in the north London derby.
When you play Tottenham, you do not need any motivation. If anything, you have to keep your emotions in check. You have to play with your head, not your heart.
A cynic would say that Ozil’s performance merely guaranteed him his move in January. Will he work as hard on Sunday when Arsenal travel to Burnley?
If both Ozil and Alexis Sanchez perform as they did against Spurs for the rest of the season, they will be able to leave Arsenal with everyone’s blessing. They will have given their all until the last.
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil fired Arsenal to victory as they beat bitter rivals Spurs 2-0 +5
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil fired Arsenal to victory as they beat bitter rivals Spurs 2-0
Arsenal are a different animal at home but Arsene Wenger needs to equip his team to win on the road. They have lost four of their six Premier League away games, winning just once at Everton in Ronald Koeman’s last match in charge.
To get into the top four, Wenger needs to map out the upcoming fixtures and keep pushing Ozil to shine in every game.
This weekend, we have learned nothing new about Ozil. We know he is immensely talented. But if he does not perform and Arsenal fail to get three points at Turf Moor, this victory will have been for nothing.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5098353/Mesut-Ozil-needs-challenged-week-reach-peak.html#ixzz4z3tFfU1x
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Posted: 21st, November 2017 | In: Arsenal, News, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: ‘Sanchez damaged Gunners by training on his day off’ – Keown
“PRIMA GUNNERS,” accuses the Sun on Tuesday. “Keown blasts over-indulged Alexis and Ozil.”
Gunner-turned pundit Martin Keown has a view on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. They damaged Arsenal with their behaviour, says Martin. What did they do? And did they do it worse than Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Alex Iwobi or Kieran Gibbs?
“It became about Ozil and Sanchez for too long in the season. Their behaviour let Arsenal down in that period,” says Keown. “Sanchez is a difficult man to manage off the pitch. I was at the training ground on one of his days off and he suddenly turned up and was bouncing around the training pitch.”
The nutcase turned up on a day off and trained. The selfish, useless c…!
“They were having to facilitate him and put a training session on for him,” Keown continues. “It’s not necessarily about you as a player – you have to fit in as well with the group.”
Maybe if all the other Arsenal played trained on their days off, the Gunners might have done better?
As for Ozil, says Martin:
“If I was playing in some of the games when Ozil doesn’t get a perfect pass, I would have been in his ear telling him my bit. ”
Ready? It’s going to be long break in play as Martin critiques his team-mate mid-match:
“I’d have said, ‘I’m trying to give the ball to you, don’t disrespect me in the way you do when I don’t get the ball to you. And how about you working just as hard out of possession as I’m working out of possession? I can’t ever get close to the creativity you can create but I want you to work hard when we are not in possession – because we’re not quite good enough to win things without every single player applying himself in possession and out of possession.'”
Why can’t Ozil be more like Keown? Answer in the form of a long ball into the cheap seats.
Posted: 23rd, May 2017 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, November 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Chelsea want to win Champins League, says newspaper expert
FOOTBALL Pundit of the Day: the Daily Mail’s tame former Arsenal, Everton and England player Martin Keown has inside news on Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the Champions’ League:
Both Jose and his players have won the Champions League now, just not together — and I think that is something he will want to achieve with this group of players.
Yer think he wants to win, Martin? Well, if you say so…
Martin Keown says Cristiano Ronaldo plays football like an NFL basketballer – a meme is born
WE in the UK like to think Americans know as much about football as they do about irony. It transpires that the UK knows nothing about the Americans. Hence we commend to your attention Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bilko, Friends, Seinfeld and Fulham’s Texas-reared import Clint Dempsey. But worse than that – worse even than British sit-coms – is the Britisher who showcases his ignorance of American sports.
Now, don’t get us wrong, American sports are no great shakes. Each year Anorak celebrates the Super Bowl in traditional fashion by walking around Ikea. But if Martin Keown, for instance, wants to compare the sublime cha-cha-chaing Cristiano Ronaldo, of Real Madrid and Portugal, with a player from American sports, he should get his facts right or risk looking a berk.
When commentating on the Portugal-Czech Republic game at Euro 2012, Keown dropped a clanger:
A meme is born:
