Martin Keown claims Mikel Arteta has done one thing at Arsenal better than Arsene Wenger ever did

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Martin Keown played under the legendary Arsene Wenger during his time at Arsenal, but he did have one criticism of him.

Keown enjoyed two spells at the club, having come through the Arsenal Academy, before a contract dispute led to his exit.

He rejoined in 1993, and went on to make over 400 appearances for the club under a range of managers, and was part of the Invincibles squad which won the Premier League in 2004.

Keown’s legendary status could have seen him take up a non-playing role after his retirement, but he never returned in an official capacity, and he has now criticised Wenger, and praised Mikel Arteta as a result.

• READ MORE: Who are The Invincibles? Meet the Arsenal record-breakers who became Premier League legends

Martin Keown criticised Arsene Wenger for not involving former Arsenal players

Keown has now revealed that he told Wenger that he should have gotten more legendary ex-players involved within the club, either in coaching roles or otherwise.

“I asked him, ‘you needed to share the club more, when we finished, you could have involved us more in the club.’ That’s when we had this discussion about myself, but in the wider context I was thinking of Vieira, I was thinking of Bergkamp and Henry,” Keown told the Peter Crouch Podcast.

“I think it’s always difficult to know what to do with former players, but when you’ve got a group that had such an aura, for some of these players, you could retrain these people and put them within the club in some capacity, hopefully as near to the players as you can.”

Keown was clearly frustrated that Wenger did not include many former players in his coaching setup, but it has been a different story under Arteta.

Martin Keown hails Mikel Arteta for involving former Arsenal players

Until recently, Edu Gaspar and Jack Wilshere were involved in the club in non-playing roles, whilst Arteta himself was a former Arsenal captain, and Per Mertesacker is currently the head of the Academy.

Keown has now praised the club for involving their old players, which he felt was not common enough under Wenger.

“I’ve been to Ajax and I’ve seen what they’ve done there, former players everywhere, I ran into the groundsman cutting the grass and I had to ask if he was a European Cup winner as well!” He added.

“At Arsenal, it’s there now, but they weren’t there from our group.”

“Now with Edu, until the news about him leaving, and with Arteta, these are all really good people. I’ve met the guys behind the scenes, when you have intelligent and special people, you can achieve special things.”

Wenger did occasionally involve former players, with Steve Bould becoming his assistant in his later years, but there was criticism of him over this, which Arteta has managed to escape as the club have hired some of his old teammates.