Assistant bosses Steve Parkin and Steve Bould have been firm friends for 30 years.

But that wasn’t enough for the Arsenal number two to let any insider info slip at his recent 50th birthday party.

Parkin and his family were in London three weeks ago to celebrate the big day with his former Stoke team-mate. And he used the occasion to cheekily dig for a bit of player news.

He said: “I asked him if he’d let me know the team nice and early but you can imagine what his answer was!

“We did talk about the game and he was saying how well we’ve done. He was very complimentary in the fact that there aren’t many clubs at our level who get as far in the competition as we have.

“We’ve been rewarded for that with playing against a fantastic football club in a full stadium.”

It’s also a chance for Parkin to catch up with his old buddy on home turf. As well as chatting regularly on the phone, they tend to meet up three times a year in the south.

Parkin said: “We go back a long way. When I went to Stoke at 16, he was already a first year pro.

“We became very good friends when I first broke into the team and we’ve stayed that way ever since.

“We used to alternate cooking our tea for each other every night. His spag bol’s not bad but not as good as mine – and his wife does all the cooking now because he’s got lazy in his old age!

“Steve’s got two daughters like me and our families are very close. He’s a super fella and a big family man like me.”

Full back Parkin played alongside Bould for five years before the centre half signed for Arsenal, a move that would earn him three titles, the league and cup double and two England caps.

“I admired him immensely as a player and think he was very under-rated.

“He was the complete centre half, fantastic in the air, had good pace and could pass the ball as well.”