On the Edge

The Autobiography

By: Martin Keown

Length: Not Yet Known

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin

Martin Keown played at the highest level over three revolutionary decades - the 80s, 90s and 00s - which saw the birth of the Premier League and the advent of millionaire superstar footballers. He was a key man in one of the finest sides of all time - Arsène Wenger's Arsenal. So why has he always felt like a man battling on the edge?

In this, his first and only autobiography, Keown recounts how a lad from a working class Irish immigrant background, raised in a hostile England during the troubles, rose to be an automatic pick for club and country, and so enduringly: the outsider who stayed the distance while so many insiders fell away.

Over his career, Martin Keown played alongside some of the world’s greatest footballers – Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Adams, Beckham - and under top managers - Wenger, Kendall and Erickson. He was part of the sensational Arsenal team that went an entire league season without defeat, and the epicentre of the notorious Battle of Old Trafford.

Keown always played as if he had something to prove, driven by the belief that many commentators saw him as "The Rash", a mere man-marking clogger. But his teammates knew he was fast, skilful, tough and loyal, a leader on and off the pitch. Fearless too, as you'll learn from this book. Martin Keown doesn't pull any punches in telling it like it is.

On the Edge is the story of one of football's all-time great characters – a man whose commitment and survival put him at the heart of the pitch, a place he dominated like almost no other footballer of his generation.

©2024 Martin Keown (P)2024 pa