The former Arsenal defender was asked to choose between Mauricio Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.
Of the current managers of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester City, which would Martin Keown have most liked to have worked under?
The respective trio, Mauricio Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, are arguably the Premier League’s most highly-rated, reflected perhaps by their occupation of three of the division’s top four places.
But having already played for the manager of the other one, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, Keown was handed the difficult task of separating the Frenchman’s three main title rivals in his weekly column for the Daily Mail.
His reply? “Klopp. I like that madness of his personality! There’s an energy about him and he seems to connect with his players.
“Just this morning, (Liverpool striker) Divock Origi has said he knows the manager believes in him, even though he’s been restricted to just five substitute appearances in the Premier League.
“Klopp makes the whole group feel important. If someone shows that belief in you then sometimes that’s all it takes.”
As an ex-Arsenal player, he was never going to say Pochettino now was he?
Regardless, the Argentine is already well established in English football, having initially arrived at Southampton in 2013, and is currently on course for his second Champions League finish as Spurs head coach.
However, it’s fair to say both Klopp and Guardiola are more established in a continental sense, having been the managers of Borussia Dortmund; and Bayern Munich and Barcelona respectively.
The pair are still newcomers in Premier League terms, with Klopp’s Liverpool tenure a year old this weekend and Guardiola only formally arriving at the Etihad Stadium in July.
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