Martin Keown: I Expected ‘The Invincibles’ To Dominate European Football

By The Editor
on 23rd November 2017

Martin Keown predicted world domination for 2004 squad…

"I'm surprised and shocked they didn't go on to better things…"

Martin Keown on Arsenal's lack of success since his departure. pic.twitter.com/rjErjzn5A7

— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) November 23, 2017

After listening to Arsene Wenger conceding that he may not achieve European success as Arsenal manager, former Gunners defender Martin Keown admitted that he expected more from the Invincible squad he left in 2004.

Having just gone the entire Premier League season undefeated, Keown retired from the game and left a squad at the peak of its powers.

We were one of the favourites to win the Champions League that year but suffered a shock exit at the hands of Chelsea in the quarter-finals.

Keown, just like many others, wouldn’t have believed it had we been told that would be our last league title to date, let alone adding a European trophy to our cabinet.

ARVE Error: The [[arve]] shortcode needs one of this attributes av1mp4, mp4, m4v, webm, ogv, url

“After 2004, I leapt off the train that I thought was going to drive through Europe winning all before it,” Keown said on BT Sport.

“So I’m surprised and shocked that it didn’t go on from there to better things.

“Maybe it was the building of the new stadium; maybe that the manager went a bit too technical with the players. They lost that physicality. They used to dominate games, whether they were passing it or being physical… that’s disappeared.

“There was still an element of success there.”

Keown’s comments ring true and sort of put Wenger’s tenure into perspective – raising arguments as to whether he got the best out of the squad he had.

Being able to partner a strike force of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry seems illegal, yet we never achieved back-to-back league titles or a European trophy.

Check out his interesting take on Wenger’s tenure in the video above.