Club director Ken Friar was on hand to celebrate the opening of a new football pitch at his old primary school St John’s Highbury Vale this week.
Mr Friar spoke to the current pupils about his time at the school in the 1940s, and how – soon after leaving – he came to start work with Arsenal.
Playing football on the road outside Highbury in 1945, Friar miskicked his ball under the car of the then manager George Allison. Impressed by the young Friar’s enthusiasm – Allison offered him a job as a messenger at the stadium on matchdays.