Arsenal fans have been pronouncing the name of club legend Martin Keown incorrectly for years, the man himself has revealed.
The three-time Premier League winner made 322 top flight appearances for the north London club over the course of two spells.
Following his retirement in 2005, Keown, now 58, has forged a successful career as a pundit for various broadcasters and media organisations.
Despite having been a regular presence on the pitch and TV screens for three decades, it transpires that nobody has been saying his surname the right way.
Speaking to Hayters TV earlier this week, he revealed ‘Kee-owen is the pronunciation.
‘My father worked hard and I kind of gave up on because it was so difficult to get people to say the word.
‘The Irish say it, it just falls off the tongue and it’s part of their dialect.’
Quizzed about the revelation by BBC Football Focus host Kelly Sommers on Saturday’s show, he confirmed: ‘Yes it’s Kee-owen.’
Keown has been undertaking promotional work for his newly released autobiography in recent weeks, revealing details of his storied career.
Setting the record straight last month, he admitted he made a huge mistake in leaving Arsenal for Aston Villa when he was still a youngters.
Asked his move to Villa Park was prompted by a suspicion that Graham preferred Adams, Keown rebutted that theory and claimed he instantly regretted leaving his boyhood club.
‘Absolute bull****,’ Keown told AFTV. ‘Look I’ve climbed a mountain. I’m in the team, I’ve just played 23 games on the bounce. Who is 19 playing in a Premier League team right now.
‘But when I went to Villa, Doug Ellis was very skilled. He saw me coming from miles away, tripled my wages, incredible signing on fee. It was like what do we do now. Do we sign? But if I’d have left it 24 or 48 hours there’s no way I’d have gone there.
‘Straight away I knew I’d made a mistake. I’d gone for the money, I’d gone for the wrong reasons. I only ever wanted to get in the Arsenal first team really.
‘The first day of training Paul Elliott came up to me and said ‘what on earth have you done coming here?’ and I said ‘I know’.’
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