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Arsenal icon's prank badly backfired and saw 'useless' star handed four-year contract
Arsenal stars' brutal mocking of Martin Keown had amusing repercussions.
Arsenal duo Ray Parlour and Dennis Bergkamp once taunted a furious Martin Keown but their prank backfired when the “useless” Igors Stepanovs was handed a four-year contract. Parlour revealed that Keown grew so paranoid about losing his place in the Gunners back line that he would downplay the ability of centre-back trialists.
Former Latvia international Stepanovs trialled for Arsenal aged 24 in 2000. Parlour claims that the defender was nowhere near the required standard to play for the club.
The ex-midfielder and the legendary Dutch attacker Bergkamp saw an ideal opportunity to wind up Keown. As they sat watching the trial game, they amusingly praised Stepanovs at every opportunity.
They only realised the move had backfired the following week when they learned Arsene Wenger - clearly noting his supposedly impressed players - had signed Stepanovs to a long-term deal.
“Martin Keown was always worried about people coming in to steal his position. If we had a centre-half on trial, Martin would say he was useless,” Parlour told talkSPORT.
“This big guy from Latvia, Igors Stepanovs, turned up. He was a unit, but seriously, he was not up to standard. A few of us were on the bench watching as he played in this trial game. Stepanovs is out there and every single pass he made, the boys started applauding, just because we knew Martin would be getting a bit steamed up by it.
“Dennis Bergkamp was sitting behind Arsene and kept doling out these compliments about this defender – ‘Great header! Unbelievable tackle!’ Igors kicked this one ball 20 yards away from where it was meant to go but it still went to one of our players so we all stood up clapping.
“Martin’s muttering: ‘He’s not that good.’ He started to point out where he missed a tackle or a header.”
Parlour continued: “But Martin is such an easy target because he bites. Once someone bites it’s too tempting. Dennis seldom missed a trick because Martin would kick him every day in training. He always came out with a blinder to explain it to Dennis: ‘I’m just getting you ready for what you are going to face in the match’.
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“When we got back to the training ground at London Colney a week later we had a surprise though. Igors was sitting there. I said: ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘They signed me,’ he said. ‘Four-year contract.’ Incredible.”
Remarkably, Stepanovs went on to play 31 times for Arsenal. He scored once in a League Cup defeat against Ipswich in his first season in north London.
He made 17 Premier League appearances, with many coming as a starter. Stepanovs joined Beverin on loan for the 2003-04 season and secured a permanent exit in 2004, joining Grasshoppers. Now 48, he never played in a top five European league again.