Remembering Alan Keen - 'The spy who loved Boro' and recommended Graeme Souness
Middlesbrough FC
Craig Johns www.facebook.com
David Keen tells Teesside Live about his dad Alan's work as a scout for Middlesbrough, which included finding Graeme Souness
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Teesside Live
David Keen will remember Middlesbrough's 1-0 victory away at Crystal Palace in September 2011 forever. Probably inconsequential to most, it holds such high significance to David because it was the last Boro game he got to attend with his dad Alan.

They knew it was too, with the one-time Boro opposition scout dying of cancer. It's why, as most supporters in the away end at Selhurst Park cheered as Marvin Emnes' goal sent Tony Mowbray's side top of the Championship, David and Alan hugged one another in tears.

"No singing for us. Not today," David later wrote in a diary entry he shared with Teesside Live. "I recall staring at the referee, longingly, and hoping the whistle wouldn't go. For it to be over, really over... the game to end and, well for me and him, the last time together like this. The final whistle, so to speak, on a beautiful thing, our beautiful game of football and love. Inconsolable tears, heartbreak and immense anger surrounded by yet overwhelming love."

READ MORE: I'm very fond of my time at Middlesbrough and did a lot of growing up under Jack Charlton

David tells Teesside Live he could feel other Boro supporters looking at them that day. Their reaction to the full-time whistle, just seven games into the season, stood out among the jubilance around them.

David got in contact after a recent article on Teesside Live on Graeme Souness after his visit back to Teesside for the Charlton's Champions anniversary celebrations. Though his role was to scout the opposition for Boro, not potential signings, Alan Keen is credited as the man who recommended Souness to Boro. The rest, as they say, is history.

"He told me he'd spotted Souness playing for Tottenham's reserves while watching them," David tells Teesside Live of his dad's most memorable scouting analysis. "It wasn't actually his job to scout players to sign, but he saw something in Souness and told the club they should consider signing him. They stayed in contact long after his Boro career ended."

Alan had started his opposition scouting for Boro during Stan Anderson’s time in charge at Boro around 1971, doing it for 19 years altogether. A computer systems analyst, Alan had read about football clubs using analysts to ‘spy’ on the opposition and felt it was something he could do for his beloved Boro.

Given a trial period after simply writing a letter to the club, he was kept on and became really close to Jack Charlton. His job was to provide detailed reports to the club on upcoming opposition from the south, with David regularly getting to go along with him. They’d travel as far as Ipswich and Norwich to the East, and up to the Midlands, north of where they lived in London.

Teesside Live’s report on Souness had coincided with a recent clear-out for David, during which he’d come across some of his dad’s old reports. One dated September 6, 1974 - which David has shared with Teesside Live to publish publicly for the very first time - shows a report, also on Tottenham, and highlights the level of detail that Alan would put into his work for the club.

It must have helped too. Shortly after, Jack’s boys beat Spurs twice in the space of four games - initially winning 2-1 in the league before a commanding 4-0 win in round two of the League Cup!

Alan’s love of the Boro was huge. But his time working for the club would end in 1989 as his interest in politics became serious. He served as a member of Hounslow Borough Council from 1986 to 1990 and was then elected as a Labour MP to Parliament at the 1992 general election in Feltham and Heston - a seat he held until his death in November 2011.

He retained a great relationship with many connected to the football club, however, including Steve Gibson, who invited him to the Riverside and presented him with a commemorative signed Boro shirt for his 70th birthday. Jim Platt and Eric McMordie were among the pallbearers at his funeral on Teesside and Souness sent a video in the style of a Champions League montage, thanking Alan for discovering him and ultimately setting him on the path to greatness.

Many top Labour figures attended his funeral too, including recently-defeated former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who David remembered telling an excellent story during the service which summed up perfectly Alan’s unwavering love for the Boro.

“Gordon's story was true, unfortunately for Ann (Alan's wife and David's stepmom). Gordon told how Ann, who was also an MP, had sprained her ankle while away in Ireland on holiday. She'd phoned Dad to tell him what she'd done and Dad had said, 'well, it could be worse Ann. At least it's not Juninho!'"

Another infamous story for poor Ann regarded one of their very early dates. Alan told Ann he was going to take her to 'the Orient'. Expecting a lovely restaurant meal, Ann dressed up for the occasion only to realise upon arrival that 'the Orient' was Leyton Orient, and David was on another Boro scouting mission!

Alan’s death was almost 13 years ago, but it's funny how things can often align like David having his clear out and finding the reports, then soon after reading Souness' warm comments on his Teesside return prompting his contact.

After his dad's death, David initially struggled to continue their shared passion of the Boro. He lost love for it and stopped attending games for almost five years. That was until the traditions he had with his dad started again with the next generation and continued in the family.

“He now has four grandchildren who support the Boro despite not being born in Middlesbrough!” David said. “My sons have been mascots at games over the years and the club still form the fabric of our family. We enjoy every win together and I often think of Dad when we do.

“Part of me often likes to think he helped contribute to a few wins back in the day too! We used to jokingly call him, ‘The spy who loved Boro’.” It's hard to argue with the James Bond-inspired moniker.