Martin Keown | Full Q&A | Oxford Union

[Music] [Music] so um thank you for joining us not from very far away as well being born half a mile away um yes i am a local resident um actually a member here of the union club so um yeah and i did do this a few a number of years ago so thank you for giving up time i know you've all got lectures and it's quite early in the evening so um it's not a bad turnout thank you for let's hope you're not going to be disappointed awesome i'm sure adam's doing this for the first time by the way so he's brand new yeah so first question martin can you tell us a bit about your initial journey into professional football and your journey into it when i um from as from the age of say seven or eight i was telling everybody that i was going to be a professional footballer i watched the fa cup final back in 1974 which was liverpool versus newcastle and i thought okay i really was caught by the atmosphere captured by the the desire of the fans to be there get into the stadium um i just thought that's me i've got to do that so my mum i drove her mad actually trying to play football so she took me to my my eighth birthday to a football club in gazington which is local to here and i was started training there and was a little bit too young but i managed to play for the year above and started scoring goals for fun as a young kid remarkably because i played as a defender predominantly so all these goals i think my father always felt god rest his soul that i didn't quite make it to the level because he wanted me to be a goal scorer because that's the position isn't it i think every kid starts out wanting to be a center forward not a left back or a right back and so eventually i went to play further back through the team i was playing local football for the county and was scouted by arsenal um which was almost a dream come true at that point because lots of other players in my my local teams were going to queens park rangers going to aston villa with oxford united so it was a relief in the end to get a chance to go on trial to arsenal awesome um just to touch on that a bit more can you tell us a bit about the values and principles that you had when you were growing up you mentioned single-mindedness could you explain a bit more about that well i was very very determined when i talked now to look back i wasn't running a videotape of myself but i've subsequently spoken to school teachers who said that i had this incredible determination this desire to want to win uh would to take over the team talks even from a young age to boss people around and try and get the best from people so i suppose they could see it but i couldn't see that in myself i just wanted to win and then the goal then become about trying to uh to make it into the game and then when i went to arsenal to do my apprenticeship the best players basically were playing in london you know i don't know i'm trying to relate it here to you know got you know the best musicians the best mathematicians that you know in footballing terms arsenal then had some incredible players so i went to do my apprenticeship there and i needed every ounce of that determination and every ounce of the ability and desire because in those first few years you're really tested and i was in with an incredible group of young players who six or seven of them went on to play in the first team and play international football so it was a very much doggy dog situation every day but i managed to to get to where i wanted to which was into the arsenal first team so going on from that can you tell us what are some of the most proud moments of your of your career some of not proud and proud having children you know introducing my oldest son to his new brother was probably the proudest day of my life football means a great deal to me but family is obviously just ahead of it and then when we were having children playing you know in that period of winning trophies winning doubles that's when i had my first two children i met my wife nicola at school and we're still together now 32 years later so that's an achievement she's done well to to to put up with me all that time she's more determined than i am so um no that the proud moment sir was playing in the arsenal first team from a footballing sense it was just like trying to climb climb mount everest because they kept on saying you can't do this and you can't do that they don't look at what you can do you have to have that inner belief that you're good enough that resolve to get there and it was a shopping list of things that i wasn't good enough at and then suddenly i got in the team and we kept winning and i realized that if i stay if i keep winning i stay in the team and it kept growing i think it was nine games before we lost uh and by that time you the rep your reputation's growing and people are comfortable with you they think you belong at that level but it's that first game where you break that door down um you're on your own really so that was a big moment at the beginning of your career you left aston villa and then moves to everton before returning to left arsenal first left arsenal before returning to arsenal was the next part of the question yes what was it like as a young player to leave the club you'd grown up at and did you ever expect to return well i i it was on a point of principle that i left arsenal football club because i'd made it into the first team uh maybe unexpectedly because there was a there was a really good group and of course tony adams was in my it was three months between us and we were both to go on and play for england so they had along with roe castle and mickey thomas and paul merson and nile quinn i don't know if you know these guys they're fairly big names in the game or were became big names and my contract was wasn't particularly good and i gambled on getting into the first team and was promised that once i get in the first team things would change it was over 50 pounds and you think about the millions of pounds involved today and i wouldn't budge i said no i want 50 pounds more you're only offering me 50 pounds rise but i've gone from a youth team player to the first team so i um i said well if you don't improve that i'm going to leave and they just said no way you know that's ridiculous you need to negotiate and i said no it's too late which was stupid i got emotional and i left and the minute i did it i realized i made a mistake um but i had to pick up the pieces at aston villa we were relegated that was tough we got promoted which was magnificent the greatest feeling ever never mind winning premier leagues and doubles and european trophies getting back my premier league status or division one as it was then was bigger and i kind of felt once i got that back villa back to where they were because a lot of people left and i could have done then i i kind of moved away out the back door to a different situation and that was everton and uh that that worked out well because i managed to get into the england team and my career was was was moving upwards uh but it was a difficult time for everton everton had been a really successful team in the 80s and they were in a little bit of a plateau so i went back to arsenal and that was almost like a miracle phone call and i realized i'm going to get a second chance it was almost like a dream that i'd woken up and the ground was the same many of my colleagues were still there some had left i'd missed out on a lot of good moments with those colleagues and here i was arriving back but i never thought it was going to be as difficult to come back as it transpired because those opening years were quite tough yeah moving on from that who would you say was were the hardest players plural to defend against when i played i never really admitted anyone was any better than myself because it's like a boxer isn't it going into a world title fight uh expecting to get knocked out and i never did um but when you look back on your career the you know some i played against ronaldo and romario for england and they were like spinning tops they they had abs brakes they ran like the wind they were top players and it was one of those oh here we go this is this is another level i was lucky then to to work with burke camp and on re to probably the finest players we've seen in the premier league training with them every day uh there was that was a battle in itself you know because they would love to embarrass you if they could so those were those were some of the best players that have ever played the game well would you say are some of those moments where they they love to embarrass you well because i was kicking them all around the park at a young age and they were young men and suddenly i was 38 when we went unbeaten for the whole season so you know it was turning full circle wasn't it and i was then struggling to hang on to them whereas at the start i was setting the tone or trying to in training but i always saw that they were great individuals they're great men the likes of patrick biera another great footballer um the shearers uh linekers of course they were difficult opponents um van niseroy which i'm surprised you haven't asked me a question about that yeah this is the longest interview i've ever done without being asked about vanissaroy they were all good players as well um the manchester united teams that we played against um salt shower york you know sharing him as a player he never really gets enough credit so there are lots of individuals the premier league's always been bursting with good center forwards every club has got and that was us up against them so it was always very tough um you know that ferdinand was another player that was great forward so there was always someone every week yeah you mentioned center fours let's talk about the center backs um who were your favorite centre-backs to play to play alongside well i was lucky because i i played with tony adams from and i was a i was a makeshift central defender as we've already talked about played up front played went to right back and suddenly grew about a foot in in one summer and was shifted into central defense so i kind of like came into that position played with tony in the youth team the reserves uh we actually won the uh combination league we didn't win the fa youth cup and we were we're in real trouble for that we've got a massive rollicking from the from the club so soul campbell was another uh outstanding central defender these guys have got that little bit of extra class quality they read the game really well uh ferdinand of course for for england played with him in his opening international game so i could see that rio was going to be a top player um yeah so those guys i mean in my club situation to have the choice of soul campbell and tony adams is just the stuff of dreams i also play with steve bold who knew his role inside out wasn't as mobile only played for him once uh but nonetheless they were all over an outstanding quality and then the next generation coming through matthew upston um these types of players were coming through colo taure great lad great individual who i also really enjoy playing with you've got to love playing with your partner you're racing through these questions adam you need to slow down a little bit [Music] i'll try and face myself um as a sort of different topic of conversation what are your thoughts on var are you pro anti well was there anybody at the weekend who didn't want that decision to go leicester's way is there anybody no so it's kind of like we're shaping var to suit how we feel aren't we on the day there was an opportunity for it looked like it was going to go to extra time the whole world and his man wanted lester to win the game so var came to the rescue so i think it's a good thing but it's just the way that they're managing it at the moment there are too many gray areas yeah how would you better manage it there well first of all i'd put more people into the var units i don't think there and i've spoken to people in there there's there's a time pressure and they often you need another pair of eyes i think the american system i'm told they have more people in that booth and it's like we're seeing situations where we're looking at um you know we're looking at a foul when actually the players offside when looking at the wrong instrument if there's two people there or three they have two one overlooks it and one looks at the actual incident i think we just need to make sure we got the right people in there and take their time to find the right the right answer i've been surprised that there's been situations where um if you look back at last season and we've forgotten it now but aston villa it was against sheffield united the ball went over the line and goal line technology failed and var could have just come to the rescue and tell us that it was over the line but didn't so you know i wonder whether the principle is wrong there some of the sort of the blueprint of there has to be a situation where var rescues if there's been a real howl over a mistake made by the the necessary equipment and the officials on the day how likely do you think those changes are to actually be implemented though do you think this is something is technology that's coming in now where because this is the shutter speed i'm looking at that camera over there and it's like the the camera's not quick enough to pick up um the movement of each player the sort of shutter speeds not quick enough um it's not like um the cameras they have in horse racing for the photo the photo finish they're not as quick as that so quite often it's going to be interesting maybe in the future we're going to apply new signs to some of the old pictures and realize that some of these offsides weren't offside so there's new technology coming we're told arsene wenger now is working on that isn't he for fifa so we're waiting interestingly to see how that will pan out but when it came in for the world cup in 2018 i thought it was a real success and i thought that they got the balance right but we haven't in the premier league because we've insisted on certain little nuances little changes um for instance the offside that we were told that um the flag wasn't going to go up straight away and now you know now sorry it was going to go straight up and the player would would accept that and even if they ran through and scored and they saw a flag up no one was going to argue well that was wrong wasn't it so now they'd keep the flags down they followed the protocol for the rest of europe i'm not sure why we wanted to be different but we've got there in the end yeah um what is your opinion on the current arsenal ownership and david ek's proposed bid to purchase the debt well i mean there's a situation where we're we're not having any money really yeah let's have a drink adam let's just let's do it i can do that i can do that you shouldn't be touching my glass um ownership well it's the type of ownership isn't it that we have and it's the if you saw at the weekend leicester and you can pronounce the name of the lesser owner for me but there's a special relationship isn't there a special bond and there was an emotional link between him the owner obviously there's been a massive history there really very sadly lost his father in that horrific incident and they're bonded together so that but you can tell before that there was a special relationship they're there because they want to do well to help the community and and main part some of their money whereas other owners are not doing that it's very much a business plan and there's always got to be some level of emotion with football clubs and i think the ownership of the clubs in germany is we should be taking a leaf out of their book where there's a 50 ownership by the fans a match day is a celebration for for the fans so they they're they're actually their ticketing prices if i don't want to bore people but you can go they pay for your travel in germany so you deserve a day out to a game so we're going to pay your travel that's a fantastic idea isn't it not oh we're going to make it as difficult as possible for you to travel and we're not going to have any trains available when you want to travel you know it's the reverse actually it's a celebration everyone's worked hard go to the games we're going to cover the cost and that's brilliant that's what we should be doing here that's what we should be doing i don't understand why it's so expensive to go to the games when the tv revenue is so vast we are surviving without at the moment any revenue from the gate receipts so we need to look at that going forward as to how much money and where then it's distributed throughout the game that's the the next challenge yeah do you think that's likely to be a 10-year thing in our lifetimes or much much further down the line that change no i think i think what we've we've seen recently where the greed has come in i think that sort of a catalyst for change we just need we need government positioning we need help people are canvassing that there's a group of players now that have written to the government trying to lobby some sort of um omnisman i suspect of us i suppose to sort of control i don't i'm not happy with the amounts of money that don't filter their way through the the lower leagues they're very much on their own the premier league i mean when it was formulated in 92 we didn't see a huge clamor like we're seeing now but really that they were that's when the ralph was being distributed to the to the the elite clubs um i don't know why but the fa weren't able to sort of act with any governance there to sort of make sure that monies were distributed i don't think they had the control it's about the government now creating that control and maybe the the the wealthy uh i think there's still enough money for them to make these wealthy owners but then we want to see we're not comfortable with all these millions of pounds just staying with the top clubs and not being filtered lower down we've got a local team here oxford united by the way playing in a play-off uh is that tonight or when is it is any football fans here when is it tomorrow tomorrow they go so we've got a local team here which is suffered isn't it big time financially and was in the top division in my lifetime long before your lifetime i actually played for arsenal against oxford which was a proud day for me actually because oxford has only spent just a few years in the top division predominantly been lower league division two for many years but i would like to see them come up and i think if the money was distributed better then we'd have a better chance to see people other new teams making it into the big time do you think that fans should have a say on the ownership of a football club and if so how should they be involved in that in particular very much so the fans you know they're making their themselves heard now you're seeing that at manchester united you're seeing it at arsenal you saw it at chelsea and in fairness abramovic has done very well for them he's put an awful lot of money in himself um whether or not you can you know this is what they're looking for isn't it to legislation for the government to whether or not they can create ownership is it too late now that they own i think they spent nearly a billion pounds on buying the shares at arsenal at my football club um how do they dilute those shares now if they're going to give them to the fans you know we'll have to wait and see whether it's it's almost too late from that point of view but if there's any changes we can make um then i'd be happy to see them would any of the current arsenal team fit into any of your titles we're going back to arsenal now adam we're flying around the place yeah this is how we do it i'm going to talk to everybody here as if they don't know anything about the arsenal team that i played in so we went unbeaten for a whole season it was almost well it is unique okay i think it will be done again but we've got close a few times by the way haven't we we saw liverpool in the last few seasons will this man city team do it i don't know um [Music] but what i can't remember the question now would any of the current arsenal team fit into your title well it's such a ridiculous question that's why i've forgotten it i i i don't know if you look at the history of arsenal football club where there are many players throughout history would have got into that into that group such was the quality maybe you're looking at the likes of liam brady um back in the day would would probably have got into the into that group i don't want to be disrespectful to the 71 team the you know frank mcclintocks and the jerry armstrong great players but each time i'm thinking there's a pieres or there's a burr camp or there's an omri you know slightly in front um or tony adams so for any era that would have been difficult to get into it and the current team is struggling it's struggling it's got a young manager it's looking like it's not going to make europe for the first time in a number of years and it needs heavy investment and 1 to 11 the team is now needs to be changed i think that's quite clear i mean there's there's maybe three or four i think aubameyang has an outstanding talent uh tierney we've seen sakura smith rowe so there's really good young players but um the core of a team when it wins anything is usually between the age of 23 and 30 and we've got we're at the wrong side of those scales you know just from the numbers game and i'd like to see that change so we should see some really good solid players coming in there i think the manager is a great coach i'm not sure of his managerial credentials his decision-making at times frustrates me um you know there seems to be obvious decisions when sacco wants to play left-back you know we're not playing we're playing jacka they're not sakura and we're playing in a top european game and then three days after the lord mayor show against west brom he goes there and then he's outstanding when it seemed obvious to put him there four games before so i think his decision-making has to sharpen up but um nonetheless he's a very young man with huge uh responsibilities on his shoulders so and he's won an fa cup and a community shield so there's good and bad but i think they need to support him and uh and give him money to buy players of course to then not keep jumping around let's stay on arsenal for a bit um big surprise um what were your thoughts on arsene wenger when he first started as manager did you think that he'd be as big a success as he was if he was but when arsene wenger first walked into the room it was he wouldn't have been out of place here actually he looked more like a geography teacher than than than a football manager it's there's no doubt about that lee dixon i think has been quoted as saying that many many times and it was very true um we just thought he was just a great man very calm um and he kept because of the recognition and the boss was never his vision was never great whenever we we had a misdemeanor he never saw it did he famously i did not see it you know don't ask me i did not see it and it was always right in front of the dugout and he would say hello to you maybe three or four times and i say boss you've already said hello to me and he just had this big smile on his face and and it was this i thought this guy is so nice can we can we win things with nice people and he demonstrated to me that you can if you trust them uh you believe in them and you love them i think there was a love from the manager his style of management was was outstanding that he made you feel that without you in the team you weren't going to be successful and he had a quiet word with everybody and everybody's looking to see you know in any workplace people know when the manager's talking to the workers not with him you didn't really know when it happened he was so casual with the players and really for me he kind of unraveled the coil that was there was a talent there but i couldn't quite you know develop into somebody that could win things and go into the top level and that all changed so i have to um i have to thank arsene wenger for that of course i felt i had other qualities as well so i was i was always i never shut up in the dressing room at that stage i wasn't always like that but i was being allowed to have my voice and that really came from from the manager because as in that season where we went unbeaten i changed my role had to change i was one of um i was i helped carlo torre to take my place um which doesn't happen because we talked about how it's a eat dog industry cut throat it's like a jungle it really is you know it looks great on the outside doesn't it you know these footballers are all earnest incredible amount of money but they've all had to work incredibly hard to get there and step on people to get to the top but then when you get to the top you have suddenly become a team player because you realize without the strength of your colleagues you can't be successful but i accepted the change that was coming because of the manager of the environment he created i helped colo torre to take my place and with every one of his opponents and now i've got a pleasure out of doing that because he's a wonderful guy great player and he needed to understand what was ahead of him and i i used to looking around the dressing room and say to the players this is special take a good look around this room you're doing that now and because guys i've waited a whole career to get and i've had some good teams tell me but to get to this level with you this is amazing and i've spoke to people since who said oh i remember you saying that because after that we did it went down a little bit we didn't win games we lost games but i you know as a senior player you know don't you you're coming to the end and you can see it so i could tell people what what was happening whereas we don't often embrace in the moment what's happening but i can look back uh what i can still remember uh vividly that feeling of being with winners every day of my life it was a tremendous group of of men with great aura when they came into the room every one of them had a stature they were they were true winners but they were great individuals firstly great people to be with great human beings and i think that was um really important to me yeah so to go back to manga would you say that after after him the arsenal regressed in some ways and was sacking him the sort of right idea i think arsene wenger stayed too long um i think that they needed to create a career path for for arsene wenger to go upstairs i think it's a great waste he could be equally as adapt in the boardroom as he was in the dugout i don't know why um that wasn't that journey wasn't created whether or not he wanted to even be a part of that but i do feel there should have been success a succession plan of management of identifying key individuals that could have followed on we're now hearing about a takeover and we're hearing about henry and vieira and burkamp i don't really understand why those three are not at the club now and but arsene wenger could have seen that so wenger had great vision but that's that was a mistake uh maybe he wasn't privy to that but we can forgive him that because of what he did he did to the football club and what he changed the stadium the titles um i'm still eating now in the way that arsene wenger trained me to eat this you know this i don't eat meat i don't eat wenger was telling me not to eat meat well it's new now but it was it wasn't you know 30 years ago let me tell you no one was doing that so it was always an education it was just for me i just felt that really the great leaders find an exit strategy and we didn't find that for arsene wenger and for me he should still be at the club he should still be at the boardroom level and passing on his knowledge because we're making mistakes with a new young manager and i think with wenger overseeing that we wouldn't be making as many as we are we could get back to where we once were much quicker let's zoom out a bit then would you say that england is heading for another golden generation of international football well it's not heading we are we look at the quality we have if you know if you look at foden mason mount grelish will he make the squad he's coming back from a shin injury um you know stones i'm really pleased for him now back back in the team so declan rice developing growing there's so much so many right-backs we know where to start and we got a team of right-backs walker probably is in front at the moment isn't either way he's playing for man city so it's i wonder if the template of man city will just sort of being superimposed into into the england team and where we can get fodon sterling into the front line we can get mount uh into that midfield and do we play with a three to play with a four i'm pretty certain that gareth southgate's agonizing at the moment over what formations what players he for some reason didn't want 26 players i'm delighted he's 26 players because i think then if there's any injuries we've got three more bodies that we can bring in it might be tricky in terms of the bench and training sessions but nonetheless i think there's there's nothing like going to a tournament to gathering experience and see how people react so the more players that can go the better of course the one to 11 is the key thing and gareth now will be working out uh where this group is right now is it still development space for for a back three or are we ready to commit to a back four which i thought we were out of the last world cup and go from there but there's been one or two changes since then so let's wait and see we spoke a bit about the type of manager earlier on um including the leicester um lesson manager my question there is in the context of something like the super league and the inevitability of that what is your view on the future progression of that and how it's going to you know unfold well super league we hope we never see it we it for me i was never really concerned with it i didn't i thought it would disappear quickly because the fans were people weren't going to accept this and you've got to have jeopardy in sport you can't have sort of the american model where there's no relegation and i that's really what it was about i thought at the beginning that they were just jostling for more for more power within the champions league and uh the one thing that does worry me is that is the voice of the player in all of this we need a stronger union because i think it's very easy to look at it and say okay the players get paid a fortune but they're playing too many games now and the champions league have just bolted on another two or four games for next season quietly you know in any one season now you could be playing close to 60 matches that's quite a lot of games and especially if you want to be there you're desperate to play in every one of us there's no real protection for the players so that worries and concerns me and the you know whoever takes over at the pfa and i'm not sure why that hasn't happened yet they've got to be stronger and they've got to protect the players and they've got to look after the welfare of their football players you know we've had a lot about dementia and heading the ball and stuff and you as a former player you're worried you're concerned for that so we're going to introduce more games you know that's another 50 headers a season isn't it let's just break it down and just try and protect the players occasionally gundaman came out recently and said you know through the back door the champions league have suddenly just created more matches for us because we've knocked the super league on the head but you know the champions league needs to look at that as well so bigger squads i suppose um they if you look at the man city team now i mean he's making eight nine changes a time isn't he's really protecting his players and somehow they're still being successful won the they've won the league cup now they've won the premier league and um they go head-to-head with chelsea in the champions league final so the premier league quality of teams is in really good health and that is linked to the money that is linked to the wealth and the clubs now are signing a new contract with the broadcasters again so for another four years to secure that wealth coming in but adam it needs to be distributed we might be able to get you a new pair of socks i'm quite happy with those pink socks um are there any questions for the audience by the way yeah we're about to about to move on the last 15 minutes uh audience questions so um yeah i mean asked about two more questions then the audience that have been very carefully thinking about their questions will have a chance it'll just be a hands up thing and then i'll just call upon coupling you guys so to move on briefly as my last two questions first one is a bit about your life as a pundit could you tell us is there a funniest moment in a match that you god you've covered funniest moment not uh not really no you know you i thought you were going to brief me on some of these questions you haven't briefed me on any of them um no i i haven't and i i do like to bring i like humor in my life people don't hear it enough in my commentaries because the people we are fussy listeners at the moment so in a way the broadcasters have saved football haven't they in this period they all thought that the armchair fan was going to kill football okay but it saved it through this period that's for sure but i do feel that where the fans at the moment can't go and criticize there and let's be fair a lot of the fans go and have a good shout at the oppo their team don't they come on you're rubbish you know that's all comes that comes the way now of the broadcasters so if you're a commentator co-commentator or pundit we get fed up listening i mean i do i put the television on and there's certain people i just they i get on my nerves because they feel like they know everything but we're only trying to do our jobs so i think people need to cut a bit of slack and that's been there's been a lot of stick on twitter a lot of people now that they're just a few weeks ago they everybody boycotted twitter just for a little while just to say come on let's cut this abuse so um i just try i'm not really um trying to prove anything to anybody i'm a natural commentator so i want to comment on your your socks you know you're looking very smart by the way you're doing the job very well and you know i'd like to hear more from the audience but yeah it's it's rather they're still out there all right but i'm so i'm a natural commentator naturally um and people want to criticize very easy to criticize but i know how they feel because i i think a game should be out of breathe i think there are certain moments i don't like it if a commentator says don't get me wrong because i'm like well we can't get you wrong you either tell us what it is or what it isn't so stop saying that so certain things infuriate me and i find it hard to watch a game of football now without critiquing the commentator or the or the people doing the show you know why is ashley cole not between ian wright and alan shearer he's out on we should be in the middle why we put him there so i'm all the time trying to be creative uh but i know how the job should be done and i think the the broadcasters sky bt bbc i think they do a fantastic job um in bringing to the nation to the we have an incredible desire for football here and i think through this period we've seen how much people really love football and i think the broadcasters have done a really good job without any real credit for that because it's now time for us to get back into our stadiums again and to enjoy it for real in a different way um but nonetheless um you know i think it'd be easier as well to commentate when there's people in the crowd i thought of the weekend you could see it was more spontaneous wasn't it when the goals go in i think it's easier to give that drama the the adrenaline's flowing uh without termed the crowds in in the stadium i think it's been quite tricky exactly to then move on to the last question and then i'll stop talking um maybe you haven't said anything yet [Laughter] um as a last question you've already given me a lot of advice on my socks and lots of other things um so as a result that i want to ask is there any career defining advice that you've received more broadly speaking at any stage that that sort of meant that you had a change in mentality and philosophy and principle i kind of like um it's funny because like we can read lots of things now to help us sort of open up channels to be successful and somebody somebody i don't know if i read it or someone said it to me the biggest mistake you can make is to be afraid to make one and i was kind of like if you think about it in a football match or anything you do you do nothing if you were worried about making the mistake and it's the same with a microphone if the microphone becomes the new ball you get on the ball you make something happen and don't be afraid to do that it's the same with a microphone and i think that is is is something to hang on to through life but uh but also i think whatever you do you have to love it and that creates a different feeling for me if i'm not enjoying it or i don't love it then i'm not going to do it i'm going to give up and i never give up so i think you know and when i when i was uh we worked with psychologists we had arsene wenger had one who worked with him and um he was asking me to to to to describe the most difficult moment on a football pitch a tricky ball that goes over your head and it's difficult to deal with and if you fear that ball then your body is rigid and it bounces off you and into the path of the striker who puts in the back of the net but if you love it and you embrace it and it's your moment you just pluck it out the sky and then there's this silence and there's a trill of applause from the crowd and you punch it back to the keeper as if you're a million dollars and it very much is a different emotion and that was probably the best piece of advice anyone ever gave me in how to put it into practice on in on a football build awesome thank you so so much martin um next let's move on to the audience questions just put your hand up and i will call upon you any questions from any of them um we will start with um the guy on the end just there is a microphone coming yeah hi thanks um obviously this morning your colleagues um gary gary neville gary lineker um they've they've released this sort of open letter and a petition for regulation but i can't really ask me to sign it they don't obviously have my number or i'm not going to impact enough i think it's a good thing yeah yeah but meanwhile your employers um are possibly arguably culpable for you know creating the golf in the english football pyramid and also disregarding um the match going fans with regards to sort of the match times um you know with the wave fans having to like travel back um you know from newcastle to london wherever it is yeah um what is that what's the role of the this little pundit in that kind of side of the game when they're both asking for um an independent regulatory body and also working for a company that um ultimately you know it's not not helping fans yeah but okay so the moving of the games now has changed yeah so they've changed the game so what what jurgen klopp was particularly unhappy with wasn't he was the 12 30 fixtures after playing a european wednesday night fixture so that's now going to change to 7 45 for the saturdays now that impacts on the fans but it's better for the it's the less of two evils really and this is where it comes back to you know travel and how we look after our supporters in another way he can't blame the premier league for everything and they bought these packages because they thought they were good value to pay that now what then the clubs do with that money isn't really the fault of the broadcaster so you know i understand what you're saying but i don't think you're saying that the broadcaster has put all this money and has created this evil or this this problem but you know what the money what happens to money should be we're talking about regulation if it's regulated then we can distribute the money better that has to be what we look for next yeah does that answer the question yeah um so 745 don't blame the broadcaster that's what's been agreed by the premier league but if you're a fan and you're a you're a newcastle fan and it's down in london as it will be invariably how are you getting home well that's the government there's a question for the government about transportation about getting these poor fans home again after you know so let's keep it local maybe uh for these 745 fixtures but it's it's quite difficult to navigate when you put it in the computer it all comes out doesn't it in a certain way they should be able to work it through you know the european fixtures start and they at a certain time of the season who might be left in the competition and now they play in newcastle that weekend chelsea well let's not make them travel you know 7 45 down to london on a saturday night awesome who's next um we will go to the front just here and then the lady does that after thank you very much for coming um you talked about how early in your career your move away from arsenal was kind of motivated by your emotions and you let them maybe get the better of you about these days players young players are doing the opposite and like selling themselves to an agent to kind of run their career for them how do you think the balance is between an agent's influence on a player's career and their own kind of you know decisions on that so you're talking about agents in football it's interesting i never uh say never i never really used an agent i used the pfa on two or three occasions um and then sort of at the back end i was comfortable about what i needed i mean de bruyne now has just signed a brand new contract at man city he was very much wanting to stay he knows what the market value is he knows what other players are earning so it's a funny thing with agents it's kind of like because your career is in your own hands um a clever agent though can open doors for players who get moves for players that they they might ordinarily not get so it's a balancing act but if you it's about getting to the right club first as early as you possibly can and and choose very carefully really i mean i would say i wouldn't my son has gone through the professional football routes he's now injured he's got issues he's got to try and get fit and get back in but i ordinarily wouldn't have anybody representing him that i i didn't really trust or felt was worthy of of being better than him so we brought somebody in he was very experienced could help him he was a good friend somebody with the right moral compass somebody that you think is is in education almost in himself there are agents like that around a lot of them are just interested in the money you see the vast amounts of money now that that are going out of the game imagine if that money wasn't going to the agents and was going to lower down so i do think they get too much um but if i'm if i was talking to a young player now and said okay right you need yes think about an agent but concentrate on yourself first because if you're talented enough the clubs will come calling the agent doesn't get you the clubs your talent does it just then needs managing and then you need people to work through the contracts and make sure that you're protected going forward that would be you know if you and if you're an outstanding talent now you probably would need someone just to protect you but you could go to a lawyer either specialist lawyers around now and they all come you want a good team around you it's not just about an agent you know it's it's about nutritionists it's you know psychologists you need trainers fitness trainers everything now is so professional you you eat now not not for pleasure you eat to to be like a formula one car you know you know and these bits can't be changed like a car so you've got to take great care of everything um and the last thing you want is an agent coming along uh and he's only got once fixated with money and um you know make you know what pathway you're on so it's it's it's an it's not an easy decision but um you have to you know you have to really trade carefully and i felt okay i mean i went to aston villa my brother william's here today and my dad did my deal when i went now that's not right either because they just sat there saying yes yes yes and it was like okay what do we do now let's start give us les we signed do we well no actually we we should have stepped back and um but nonetheless you know so don't be naive you've got to have professionals around you but the right professionals awesome and we'll just go to the lady just there and then after the gentleman in the front [Music] it's probably an understatement to say that arsenal had a bit of a disappointing season but i was wondering as arsenal fans do you think that under cronkite arsenal can return to being a big club or do we need to accept that that's just not going to happen as long as he's the owner i don't think it's ever going to happen on the grand case no i don't think we're ever going to be back where we were um i do think it's about a financial model um i do feel that the money that he's spent so far i mean i'm happy for him to prove me wrong but at the moment it's been about buying shares so that suggests this is a very smart businessman's bought very lots of franchises in other sports in uh in america particularly basketball you name it he's bought it um is he going to sell i'm told that he's a very private man and that he's um very he doesn't give very much away no one really quite certain what what he might do next i'm not even sure that his son would know that i think it's good for the ego to own a big football club in england stadia what it represents so i don't think he's going to give it up lightly i think maybe money will talk for him if that's what he's about and he's a businessman we're going to see aren't we because he either puts money in and arsenal are successful and can get back to where they were or he gives it up and he gives it to somebody else and lets our great club carry on being successful so we're at a crossroads in in our career in our in our history arsenal at the moment um and gronkey has a big big decision to make so i want him to he's promising to spend money spend it if you can't spend it move on awesome um we'll go to um last two questions person in the front here and the person just there thank you very much for talking so far one thing i found really really interesting was your discussion of arsene wenger and his managerial style and the sort of lessons you learned from that and perhaps other great leaders captains you play alongside as one of you have sort of any lessons of leadership both sort of football specific and have life in general well it's impossible to be in in the same room as arsene wenger and not and not learn something from him you know he was a man of felt routine was was really important and we've all just come through this pandemic and we've lost some of our routines and now we're about to today's the first day we're allowed to be in a room together isn't it we're actually this is actually we're creating history here today aren't we this is the first live zoom is it exactly it's the first ever event that we've been able to live stream via zoom to those who have signed up um breaking records we're breaking records yeah roger bannister four million miles just down the road here today um so yeah it was impossible to you you're learning something every day i mean he would talk about keeping things simple in your life and then you take that into your football so some of the footballers would have you know five or six watches no just one watch keep it in one car you know one girlfriend i just don't know don't complicate your life and just take that into your football and then you found yourself in your football doing exactly the same making the right choices the simple choices not complicating your football and the two do work together uh he was incredibly stable solid and consistent with his management and then i think that spreads through the team it's like a family really as you all grow older and have kids and if mum and dad are arguing you know it filters to the to the children they're fighting with one another it's how it works and that's how a well-run football club runs really you treat each other with respect that was a um evident with that with arsene wenger and it was you weren't sure who was creating who was thinking of the idea was it the manager was it you but there was something special at work um because everything you were doing was being valued uh and it was actually i felt it was spooky in some of the games it was like you could actually you start to it's like back to the future you know have you seen that film it's like working out i know i can change the course of history here whatever name's going on that trophy i can do it what's going to happen in this game you know what's the most important games ahead of me thinking out of the box and i think he created that he made everything possible you know it was a we we had a massive belief it was almost uh religious-like into games so um i never got the chance to put that into practice and going into management that for various reasons but i learned a hell of a lot from being with him um and he's a special individual and i still miss those chats and as soon as you're together you're trying to you're working on things straight away about an idea or the current team or life itself or working through because now he's stepped back hasn't he and his motto used to be a lot of the time people people don't look at what people can do they always look at what they can't do whether it be i'm referring to girlfriends again boyfriends whatever it is we look at what they can't do look what they can do and he was fantastic at being able to do that and that's a great that's a great quality because a lot of managers i've worked with they don't they look at they're blinded by what you can't do and you feel that that energy that negative energy but with him it was always positive and that was probably the biggest lesson i've learned yeah and the last question um of the event goes to the gentleman in the blue mask cheers um so this is quite probably quite a big one to end on but do you have like any major or big regrets over the course of your career so i'm thinking of like your reaction maybe to when value strongest penalty or an incident with kevin sheedy regrets well it i kind of feel that if it was right then it's right now because we can always look back and say i should have done that should have done that but if you analyze a lot enough in the moment you can't really have any regrets although you know i i am [Music] somebody i bumped into a villa fan just a few days ago and uh he said to me about uh paul mcgrath and that would have been one hell of a partnership but i got a chance to play with paul mcgrath i left he came in and graham told her taylor got rest his soul wouldn't refuse to tell me he wouldn't tell me he said he was signing this outstanding central defender i thought it was a wind-up uh international player to come to austin villa so that's a little bit of a regret that didn't get a chance to play with him might have changed my mind going to everton i probably wouldn't have done i was almost committed to go so that that might have been a regret shouldn't have left arsenal perhaps i might be sitting here now with more trophies than any other player's ever won but actually i might have been there just for five minutes me and george graham were arguing all the time it wouldn't have survived surely i wouldn't have survived it the uh too clashy so no i don't think um i don't think it's good i don't think it's healthy to have regrets i should have scored the cop final got winning goal in uefa cup final although i cleared one off the line a few seconds later and it went to penalties we lost but you have to take the good and the bad the rough and smooth and all by and large i have to look back and i hope that we talked a lot about wenger i hope he can do that and i hope any player that finishes can do that can let go and say okay yes it could have been better but i'll accept what we did together awesome um thank you so so much everyone for joining us um this evening and thank you martin for your time it's very insightful i'll be definitely taking a lot of tips from it from girlfriends to socks and supporting questions along um but thank you so much for joining us today [Music] you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 3,199

Rating: 4.7073169 out of 5

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Id: giLqodP2-y4

Length: 54min 18sec (3258 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/inspectorkido]

Just broken into about 15 minutes, but it's gold for me. Interviewer is happy to just let Martin talk, none of that - let me needle every 3-4 minutes.

[u/JohnCleeseDied]

Fuckin hell they used to invite interesting people there

[u/IhvolSnow]

His calm speech and talking all about how he felt of every decision makes the interview great. Love it!

Edit: grammar