Harry Kane was once so desperate to play for Arsenal that he offered to go in goal for the Gunners.
Kane, the Tottenham and England captain who has this season become the record goalscorer for both club and country, was a fanatical Arsenal supporter as a kid and spent four years with the club’s youth set-up.
He was 12 years old when assistant academy manager Roy Massey told the budding striker that he wasn’t good enough to make the grade as a No 9. But Massey was so impressed when Kane’s dad, Pat, informed him that his son felt he might have a future saving goals rather than scoring them, that he gave the determined youngster a chance to impress between the sticks.
Massey, who helped to develop talents like Bukayo Saka, Jack Wilshere, Emile Smith-Rowe, Alex Iwobi, Nicklas Bendtner, Wojciech Szczesny, Josh Dasilva and Joe Willock during his 16-year spell with the Gunners, takes up the story.
“When I see Harry now I can’t help but to think back to when he was a starry-eyed 12-year-old, sat with his mum and dad in my office as I told him he wasn’t quite up to the standard we were looking for,” he recalls. “That was the hardest part of the job, telling lads that Arsenal were letting them go.
“Next thing, Harry’s dad came back in and told me he now wants to be a goalkeeper - and I thought the least I could do was to send him to work with our ‘keeper coach Alex Welch.
“Alex was one of the best in the business and after just a few sessions he told me ‘Roy, the lad is never going to make the grade in goal’ so this time Harry had to move on. I know how much it hurt him. Some lads are lost to the game forever because they can’t get over the disappointment.
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“But Harry took my words as a challenge. He went back to playing for his Sunday League team for the next three years and then signed for Spurs. I’m an Arsenal man through and through. But Harry Kane’s perseverance is a credit to him and his family.”
Massey, now aged 79, has written a book about his life in football, which saw him emerge as a promising centre-forward good enough to play for Arsenal’s A team before taking up a teaching career whilst continuing to score goals for Rotherham and Leyton Orient.
His love affair with coaching started at Colchester and took him to Norwich before Arsenal legend Liam Brady invited him to become his assistant in Arsenal’s academy in 1998.
Kevin De Bruyne was another future superstar who slipped the Gunners the net when the shy Belgian youngster had a trial with the club during a trip to London to visit his mother’s family.
But Massey earned his keep alright. Many of the players who came through the system starred for Arsene Wenger or were sold off at a hefty profit.
And he takes as much satisfaction from seeing the Under-18s team coached by former England midfielder Wilshere reach the FA Youth Cup Final as he does from watching the likes of Saka, Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson playing their part in trying to win Arsenal’s first Premier League title in 19 years under Mikel Arteta.
Massey said: “Arsenal have always been committed to producing their own talent - and when I played briefly for the A team there were six or seven lads who played in the Double-winning side of 1971.
“They are playing some lovely football under Mikel this season and if they can get over the line and win the title, of course I’d take some pride from it - but so should everyone else who played their part in helping Bukayo, Emile, Eddie and Reiss get where they are.
“I am also thrilled to see what Jack is doing with the youth team. He would have been a world-class player but for injury and I hope that one day he goes on to take over from Mikel.”
- A Life in Football and Coach to the Stars by Roy Massey and Mark Metcalf is published by Pitch Publishing
