When Ryan Rocastle bumps into Pat Rice these days, the former Arsenal coach often mentions a story from his time in charge of the club’s great youth teams of the 1980s that produced so many fine players, including Ryan’s late father, David.

The squad, as Ryan recalls it, had been ignoring the instructions of their manager and messing around when Rice walked into the changing rooms. “Pat says he was furious with them. He was shouting and then he stopped and said to them, ‘Look at you lot. Which one of you is ever going to make the first team?’ It went quiet and then Dad put his hand up and said, ‘I will’. Pat says that he could not be angry with them after that. He just admired what Dad had said.”