Harry Kane wanting to be a goalkeeper is from Roy Massey's autobiography

 

The story of Harry Kane wanting to become a goalkeeper that appeared in many papers over the weekend of 15th/16th April was from Roy Massey's autobiography which I assisted in writing. 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/harry-kane-love-arsenal-tottenham-29717502

Roy Massey – a lifelong football man and coach to the stars

IN 1998 the biggest change yet in the history of the development of young footballers transformed Roy Massey’s life. Inspired by Howard Wilkinson, one of Massey’s opponents as a player, the FA agreed to facilitate the creation of an academy system that would allow clubs to attract and train children from eight years old upwards.

Chosen to oversee this radical initiative at Highbury, club legend and head of youth development Liam Brady was quick to choose Massey as his assistant academy manager.

In these pages we learn how the structure was designed from scratch and plans laid, and later refined, to discover and help develop a rich vein of young talent capable of making it to the first team at one of the world’s greatest clubs.

In a highly competitive field, Massey explains why certain young players such as Jack Wilshere, Bukayo Saka and Alex Iwobi made it at Arsenal and why he, wrongly as it transpired on occasions, allowed others to leave. There are also heartbreaking stories of youngsters who had their lives as players snatched from them by career-ending injuries.

Roy Massey’s own story is that of a dedicated and lifelong football man whose 50 years in the professional game spanned the full gamut of the sport’s dramatic and evolutionary change.

Here is a man, unlucky with injuries throughout his whole career as a player, but always respected enough for his knowledge and experience to ensure that he was never short of an important role in the game he would always love.

Massey scored goals for his hometown club Rotherham United, followed by spells at Leyton Orient and Colchester United, before another serious injury brought his playing career to an early end at an age at which most players are nearing their peak.

He then combined working as a PE teacher and managing in non-league football with behind-the-scenes work to discover and nurture young talent at Colchester.

Massey, who was brought up on tales of great games by his grandfather Jimmy, an FA Cup winner with Sheffield Wednesday in 1896, recalls what it was like playing in the lower leagues just after the end of the maximum wage and in a decade when England won the World Cup. He explains why he turned down the opportunity to sign a professional contract with, among others, Arsenal and Aston Villa, in the early 1960s. He also recalls the inspiration he felt when Colchester manager Dick Graham asked him to revive the Essex club’s youth system and how his eye for talent, organisation, training methods and motivational skills aided the development of many youngsters into successful players.

Little wonder then, in the wake of the launch of the Premier League in 1992, that Norwich City asked Massey to join them as they moved to revolutionise their own youth programme.

His success at Carrow Road didn’t go unnoticed and when Liam Brady asked Massey to join him at Arsenal it was the start of a flourishing 16-year partnership. Even after leaving the Gunners in 2014, Massey remained in football well into his 70s, with spells scouting for three Premier League clubs.

Throughout the book, Massey’s love for football is never far from the surface, as from an early age it was always, like most of us, what he dreamed he would do for a living.

 

 

 

 

Foreword by Liam Brady

I TOOK over as head of youth development at Arsenal in 1996. When Howard Wilkinson became the FA’s technical director, overseeing coaching at all levels of the game, he began to dramatically change youth and schoolboy football through the academy system.

Clubs could now seek to sign children from the age of eight upwards. I needed a department at Arsenal dedicated to the younger schoolboys. Roy had come to my attention quite a lot with the work he was doing for Norwich City. He had set up a centre in London for Norwich and he was getting a lot of good young players for Norwich who Arsenal, Spurs or West Ham should have been recruiting.

I thought he would be a good asset to the academy in recruiting the younger element and I made a great choice as he was absolutely brilliant in running and coaching and managing the eight-to-12-year-old groups in the academy. Roy created great relationships with the boys.

Roy created a team of scouts – including some who had been with Norwich – and coaches. Roy was also very strong with parents and they got on well with him. Roy would take children on tours and the parents would love it. There was a great atmosphere around the academy and that was because of Roy.

His success was tremendous. We won the FA Youth Cup three times in those 16 years with many of the boys who Roy had recruited at nine, ten and 11 years of age. Quite a lot went on to play for the first team and/or be sold for a lot of money. Roy’s work really paid dividends for the academy.