Writing in his blog for the Daily Mail, Martin Keown has raised the issue of shirt swapping amid the furore Liverpool fans have directed towards Mario Balotelli for swapping his shirt at half-time with Pepe when the Reds were 0-3 down against Real Madrid in their Champions League encounter.

He said, “I was never one for going up to a player and asking for their shirt, though I did quite a few swaps. The most famous shirts I have are probably from some of the great Arsenal players I played alongside. I kept England shirts and some precious Arsenal ones, but when you have kids they will often ask you to swap with somebody so I’ve got quite a few others.”

“Sami Hyypia asked for mine after the FA Cup final in 2001. We had been winning 1-0 but then Michael Owen scored two to win it for Liverpool. When Sami asked me I couldn’t care less because the last thing I wanted to keep was a shirt from that final! The trouble is his shirt now appears from a random box every now and then and every time it brings back all those bad memories.”

The former defender also revealed how opposition players would queue up to swap Henry’s shirt. He said, “I remember seeing Leicester players queueing up before a game to ask for Dennis Bergkamp’s shirt. As soon as that happened we knew we had them beaten.”

“With Thierry Henry so many asked for his shirt that the club threatened to start making him pay for ones he gave away! I can’t imagine why somebody wouldn’t want my shirt over Thierry’s!”