When it comes to the history of Arsenal Women, few players span eras – embody eras, even – more than Faye White. 

She captained Arsenal and England for over a decade and played for the Gunners for more than 15 years, collecting 31 major trophies and captaining her country at four major tournaments along the way.

For Faye, football was very much part of the wallpaper in her family life from an early age. “I grew up with it,” she says. “It was me and my older brother, so I was out and about at the weekend with his football team, which my dad managed, and then my dad played on a Sunday, so I was always out with a ball at my feet.”

Having a football-oriented family meant that access was not a problem for White growing up in west Sussex. “As young as seven or eight I was doing drills in training with boys two years older than me,” she says. “I wasn’t allowed to play matches but because my dad was manager it was easy to get involved in training.”

Her love of playing spilt over into her teenage years: “Once I got to...