Roy Massey: A Life in Football and a Coach to the Stars

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The book is a delight to read as it gently takes us through his early years at churches in Birmingham, through his time with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), his appointment as organist of Birmingham Cathedral, his 27 years at Hereford and finally as a Fellow at St Michael’s, Tenbury, and subsequent retirement. However another injury occurred, breaking a bone in his foot and spent the following 18 months sidelined which encounter three operations before a specialist forced him to quit the game.

Roy was appointed assistant academy manager at Arsenal in 1998 and stayed with the Gunners until 2014 — with future stars like Bukayo Saka, Cesc Fabregas and even eventual Spurs goal machine Harry Kane being under his charge. In his new book, A Life in Football and a Coach to the Stars, he also praised current Larne player Mark Randall, telling how he still turned up for training the day after the death of his father when he was a youth player with the Gunners aged 13. As a player, Massey played as a centre forward for Rotherham United (1964–67), Leyton Orient (1967–69) and Colchester United (1969–71). [1] He retired from playing football in 1971 but became a coach, first at Colchester United before moving to Norwich City's centre of excellence. [2] In 1999, he moved to Arsenal to become a youth coach there, and he now is head coach for all levels from Under-9 to Under-16. [3] [4] They are playing some lovely football under Mikel this season and if they can get over the line and win the title, of course I’d take some pride from it - but so should everyone else who played their part in helping Bukayo, Emile, Eddie and Reiss get where they are. He attended St. Paul’s College in Cheltenham at a young age and whilst there he represented Yorkshire Schools and was an England Youth International.

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When I was playing, Rotherham United were usually assured by February, certainly early March, that they weren't going to be relegated or promoted. Therefore, for the last two months of the season, there'd be less pressure on the manager than there is today, as almost every club, right up to the last week of the season might have a chance of getting promotion or are in danger of being relegated.

I came down to Arsenal and again, we were renting areas and pitches to play some of their youth games. It was only when in 2000 we bought the Walthamstow Hale End training ground that we established our own training field." He wanted to see the type of lads that we’d got and we beat them fairly comfortably, in all three age groups.Roy signed for his local team in July 1964 aged 20. Prior to that he spent some time in the capital were he was an amateur with Division One club Arsenal, but turned down a professional contract with the Highbury club to return to South Yorkshire.

Iwobi, who joined when he was in primary school and played 100 Premier League games before joining Everton in 2019, says Massey was "respected, loved and adored" and always a "perfect gentleman".Massey returned to Arsenal in 1998, heading up operations at their prestigious Hale End Academy, which developed youngsters ranging from under-nine to under-16 level. Like his brother Chris, Joe also showed little interest in the education programme but he was very enthusiastic when training and playing. He probably showed less potential than his older brothers but it did not prevent him making his Premier League debut in midfield against Newcastle United in April 2018. We could sign boys at 14 and on his 14th birthday, we wanted to sign him but his mum phoned me the next day to say he’d been approached by West Ham, which was just down the road for him.