Jacques Crevoisier has been good friends with Arsène Wenger since they were competing against one another as young amateur players in Strasbourg some 45 years ago but there is one special memory that endures.

“I was at the Arsenal training ground and, usually I was eating with Arsène at home, but that night he said, ‘Do you have a tie?’ I said, ‘Yes, but why?’ He didn’t say anything to me but, in fact, that night was the celebration of his 10 years at Arsenal. I think it was just Arsène, his wife, David Dein, Boro [Primorac], Pat Rice and one or two of the owners. I was very embarrassed. I said, ‘I must not be there’. He just said, ‘Jacques, you will be there’.

“Then, later that night, he said, ‘There is one thing I am sure. I will leave a very healthy club. The stadium will be paid. The facilities will be paid. There will be money to spend for the next man and I will leave a good team’. That was his target.”