Kevin Keen
West Ham coach Kevin Keen, Boleyn Ground, November 2009
Personal information
Full name	Kevin Ian Keen
Date of birth	25 February 1967 (1967-02-25) (age 42)
Place of birth	Amersham, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	West Ham United
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1982-1983 1983-1993 1993-1994 1994-2000 2000-2001	Wycombe Wanderers West Ham United Wolves Stoke City Macclesfield Town	003 0(0) 219 (21) 042 0(7) 176 (10) 062 0(2)
Teams managed
2001 2006 2008	Macclesfield Town (caretaker) West Ham United (caretaker) West Ham United (caretaker)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Kevin Keen (born 25 February 1967) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder for Wycombe Wanderers, West Ham United, Wolves, Stoke City and Macclesfield Town.

[edit] Background

Keen is the son of former professional footballer Mike Keen who played in midfield for Luton Town, Watford and Queens Park Rangers. He was a member of the High Wycombe U15 team that won the English Schools Trophy in 1981 and won several England schoolboy caps. A year later, Keen became the youngest ever player to appear in a first-team game for Isthmian League side Wycombe Wanderers, making his debut at 15 years and 209 days, in September 1982. He played three games for Wycombe before joining West Ham United as a 16 year old apprentice.

[edit] Club career

[edit] West Ham United

Keen joined West Ham as an apprentice in 1983 and signed professional forms a year later in March 1984. He helped the reserve side to win the Combination League and won 15 England Youth caps. He made his debut as a substitute in a 5-2 home defeat against Liverpool in September 1986. He made 18 league and cup appearances in the 1986-87 as West Ham finished in the bottom half of the First Division table. He made another 25 appearances in the 1987-88 season and 33 appearances in the 1988-89 season as West Ham reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and were relegated to the Second Division. A change of manager saw him become almost ever present in the 1989-90 season, making 57 league and cup appearances and scoring 13 goals, as West Ham finished seventh in the table and again reach the semin-finals of the League Cup. He made 51 appearances in the 1990-91 season helping West Ham to promotion to the First Division and to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and 39 appearances in 1991-92 as West Ham were relegated once more. The 1992-93 season saw his best form as he played in every league and cup game, making 56 appearances, as West Ham were promoted once more. His final game for West Ham was the 2-0 home win over Cambridge United in May 1993 that clinched promotion to the newly created Premiership. A dispute over a new contract saw Keen drop down a division and join Wolverhampton Wanderers.

[edit] Wolverhampton Wanderers

Keen joined Wolves for a fee of £600,000 in July 1993, where he made 54 appearances in the 1993-94 season, scoring nine goals, and helping Wolves to seventh place in the table. A year later, he was on the move again and joined up with former West Ham manager, Lou Macari, at Stoke City.

[edit] Stoke City

Keen joined Stoke City in October 1994 for a fee of £300,000. He made 201 league and cup appearances in six years at Stoke, scoring twelve goals- including the winner of the first ever Potteries derby game at the Britannia Stadium, and playing under six managers. Following this period he joined Third Division Macclesfield Town.

[edit] Macclesfield Town

Keen joined Macclesfield Town on a free transfer and made his debut in a 3-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough in the 3rd round of the Worthington Cup in September 2000.^[1] He made 71 league and cup appearances, including a 3rd round tie at home in the FA Cup against former club West Ham in January 2002, which West Ham won 3-0.^[2][3] Keen also had a brief spell as caretaker manager of the club for one month following manager Gil Prescott's decision to concentrate on a role as director of football in October 2001.^[4][5] He was released in 2002 after his contract was not renewed and returned to West Ham in a coaching role.^[6]

[edit] Later career

Keen rejoined West Ham in July 2002 as under-17 academy coach.^[7] He was later appointed reserve team coach and became first-team coach in October 2006.^[8] Following the sacking of manager Alan Pardew in December 2006, he was very briefly placed in temporary charge of first-team affairs until Alan Curbishley was appointed two days later.^[9][10] He reverted back to his previous role as reserve team coach when Glynn Snodin was appointed as first-team coach in June 2007.^[11] He was formally announced as caretaker manager on 3 September 2008 after the resignation of manager Alan Curbishley. Keen took charge of West Ham for one game only; a 3-2 away defeat to West Bromwich on 13 September 2008 before handing over the manager's role to Gianfranco Zola.^[12] Keen is currently first team coach in the Zola regime. In October 2009 he was tipped to replace Peter Taylor as manager at his former club Wycombe Wanderers ^[13]. However, the role was taken by Gary Waddock.

[edit] Sources

• Northcutt, John; Roy Shoesmith (1993). West Ham United A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books Publishing Company. pp. 342–355. ISBN 1873626444. 
• Blows, Kirk; Ben Sharratt (2002). Claret and Blue Blood. Mainstream Publishing (Edinburgh) Ltd. pp. 182–185. ISBN 1840184892. 
• Northcutt, John (2003). The Definitive West Ham United F.C.. Soccerdata. pp. 102–108. ISBN 1899468196. 
• "Kevin Keen". Soccerbase. Racing Post. http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=4086. Retrieved 2007-08-27. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kevin Keen management career stats at Soccerbase
• Kevin Keen career stats at Chairboys