legend says he came close to signing for but ‘mild-mannered’ Alex Ferguson failed to convince him.
The centre-back had two stints with the Gunners, beginning the second when he joined from in 1993 and would go on to make 422 appearances before leaving in 2004.
That amazing spell saw him win three Premier League titles and three FA Cups, as Arsenal battled it out with Manchester United for the biggest prizes in English football.
The former England defender says it could all have been very different though, admitting he was very tempted to join the Red Devils when they showed an interest in him.
Keown even went as far as meeting Ferguson at Old Trafford, but says the Scot fell short in trying to convince him to join the club.
‘Sir had apparently been chasing to sign me on and off for two seasons,’ Keown wrote in his new autobiography ‘On The Edge’ via .
‘We came into the boardroom which looks over the pitch at Old Trafford and I was thinking, “This is the club. Look at the players they’ve got. This could be really big for me.”
‘Ferguson seemed a very mild-mannered and softly spoken man, very pleasant. I didn’t see any of the anger I came to know oh so well.
‘They offered half of what I had been offered elsewhere and said they only paid defenders what they had offered me. I said, “It’s not all about money. Can we go on the pitch?”
‘So Ferguson got a chain full of keys and went through them one by one, trying to open the green doors next to the turnstile. It began to sink in this maybe wasn’t going to be for me. I wasn’t feeling the love. There was no fanfare, they’d not rolled a red carpet out for me.
‘I asked him what would he suggest I do as a father figure or a friend? What advice would he give? “You’ve got to think of your family.” And that’s not what I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear was: “I want you, you sign for me. You do well in the first two years and don’t worry about the wages. I’ll sort that out.”
‘I have no regrets about not joining the team that would turn out to be my greatest rivals.’
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