New City Fitness Coach Launches Book

Last updated : 10 July 2011 By Covsupport News Service

Mick Rathbone, who starts a new job as a fitness coach at Coventry City on a temporary basis on Monday, has a new book out.

Rathbone's book - "The Smell Of Football" promises 256 pages of Candid Reflections on 35 Years in the Professional Game as a Player, Manager and Premier League Physio.

The Synopsis is as follows:

When Mick Rathbone signed for Birmingham City as a 16 year-old apprentice he was living every schoolboy's dream. But when he discovered he was so nervous he was unable to speak, let alone pass the ball, in the presence of his boyhood hero and City star Trevor Francis he realised that a career in football might not be everything he had imagined.

The Smell of Football is the brutally honest and utterly unputdownable story of how 'Baz' conquered his personal demons to build a life in the game - from the terrified teenager who purposely tried to get injured in training rather than get picked for the first team, to the experienced pro who became Head of Medicine at Premier League Everton FC in charge of the treatment of the likes of Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Tim Cahill.

Brilliantly written and packed with hilarious tales featuring a football 'who's who' cast of characters - from Sir Alf Ramsey and 'Big Sam' Allardyce to David Moyes, Duncan Ferguson and Rooney himself -

The Smell of Football is an engrossing and moving memoir that covers every aspect of the professional game and gives an unprecedented insight into what life is really like at football's coalface.

The book is due out in August and can be pre-ordered from most retailers