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.
Liam Brady wants Arsenal to start climbing the Premier League table after early-season woes
The midfielder was part of some of the club's greatest victories, such as the 1979 FA Cup final
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.
Later, he returned for a two-decade stint as head of Arsenal's academy. That ended at his behest in 2014 and by then he was aware that token Christmas gifts were not enough.
'It was no longer adequate just to sell a boy and his family the merits of the club,' Brady tells Sportsmail.
'The parents knew how to work the system and the agents knew this. They were pulling the strings and the demands were increasing all the time.
'Towards the end of my time, we were always frightened another club would take boys away.'
Fortunately for the Arsenal of yesteryear, Brady's head was never turned sufficiently. In the 1960s, Manchester United had a net cast over Irish football and they knew all about the young waif with snake hips and a seamstress touch.
The Gunners saw off Manchester United 3-2 at Wembley – the only time Brady won the trophy
But Arsenal were smart and Brady arrived in London as a 15-year-old destined to leave nine years later as one of the greats of European football.
'I am just grateful to Arsenal that it happened,' he says over coffee in London. 'I was from a working class family in Dublin.
'My dad had a tough job. He was a bullockman. His job was to mind the cattle that left Ireland by boat for England.
'I could never have done that. I have no idea what I would have done without football. Man United had a hold in Ireland at the time.
'They got everyone. But Arsenal realised they were missing out so they sent a guy over.
The playmaker won Serie A twice during his time in Italy with Juventus between 1980 and 1982
'I happened to be playing in the first game he watched. I was tiny but he must have seen something. I came over at 15, turned pro at 17.
'I had been practising since I was seven for that chance. I wasn't going to blow it.'
Brady was sublime, instinctive, left-footed but able to play off both sides after instruction from an older brother, his running style not dissimilar to Ryan Giggs. He could cross the ball better, mind.
He won Player of the Year at Arsenal three times and the PFA gong once, the first 'foreigner' to do so.
But one of the most notable things about Brady's time at Highbury was that after five years of rebuilding he left, just when things were about to take off.
Team-mates Frank Stapleton (C) and David O'Leary (R) also played for the Republic of Ireland
Arsenal's 1979-80 season comprised 70 games. In April and May they played 21 times in 60 days and lost only once in regulation play.
They finished fourth in the League and lost the FA Cup and European Cup-Winners' Cup finals, the latter on penalties to Valencia.
Terry Neill's team, beaten by West Ham at Wembley in their third FA Cup final in a row, also had six Irishmen — among them Pat Jennings, David O'Leary and Frank Stapleton. From the outside, it seemed primed.
'We had got stronger but there was no real investment,' says Brady (right). 'We were never going to compete for the League unless we spent and Arsenal were not prepared to.
'The board never told me to stay and help them challenge. The chairman said he wasn't going to get involved in million-pound auctions for players like Trevor Francis.
A spell with West Ham between 1987 and 1990 brought Brady's playing career to a conclusion
'Arsenal thought that money was madness. That told me everything. Financially, Arsenal only tried to stop me going at the last minute. But I had already made my mind up by then. I was going to Juventus.'
One of the key influences on Brady was Kevin Keegan. The former England forward had moved from Liverpool to Hamburg in 1977 and Brady was intrigued. Last summer, during lockdown, Brady even rang Keegan to talk about it.
'I was thinking about doing a book and I called Kevin to remind myself what'd happened,' he says.
'Turns out he was asked to go to Juventus before me but didn't fancy Italy, so I was lucky to get the chance.'
Brady was actually due to leave Arsenal for Bayern Munich until their star player, Paul Breitner, objected and told the German club he wanted to move into
