‘He was the dad you'd want to have'

David Rocastle was “very generous, funny and someone you could talk to easily”, according to his son, Ryan.

The former Gunner scored 34 goals in 277 appearances during his 10 years at Arsenal, before he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2001.

This week marks the 15th anniversary of the club legend's passing and Ryan led the tributes to an Arsenal fan favourite both on and off the pitch.

“I was born in 1991 so I don’t remember watching him play too much,” he told Arsenal.com. “I do remember us watching old videos of him playing actually. Quite often we would do that on Sundays.

“Sometimes you look at the videos and think, ‘That’s my dad, he’s amazing’. It was incredible to see some of the goals he scored.

“He was very skilful and learnt a lot just by playing in the park on Sundays. He was able to transform that into playing at international level. That was his passion and he managed to make it his career.

“He wasn’t just remembered for what he did on the pitch, the fans loved him because he always wanted to meet fans, sign autographs and speak with the supporters. People remember that as one of his biggest strengths.

“He was exactly how you would want your dad to be. He was very generous, funny, someone you could learn from and talk to easily. He was what you saw on camera and exactly like that off the field.”