When Liam Brady was 13 and the most exciting young player in Irish football, the people from Coventry City offered his mum a washing machine.
Arsenal used to send him football boots at Christmas. That was the equivalent of the hard sell in 1969.
'Arsenal just wanted to stop me going anywhere else – and it worked,' smiles Brady.
It is different now and Brady, 65, knows all about that. His seven seasons at Arsenal in the 1970s established him as one of the greats of the club.