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.
