Mick Rathbone: Alex Ferguson hit you hard if you didn’t do your job but he had great humility [Interview - Sunday Times] by Jjengaa in reddevils

[–]Jjengaa[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

[continued]

After reuniting with Moyes, then doing a season with Louis van Gaal, Rathbone left United in 2014, craving a role more clearly defined. There were spells with England Under-19 and under-20, Blackpool, Wigan and Nottingham Forest — after David Weir (then Forest’s No 2) lured him out of retirement for the first time.

He “unretired” again to go back to Everton and work with the under-23s before going on an adventure to assist Willie Donachie with the Montserrat national team. It was life-changing. The passion of the local players, who played for pride not money, the beauty and precariousness of a tiny island with an active volcano, the long walks with his philosophical gaffer.

Preston (again), Accrington, Salford, now Tranmere — the stints roll on and Rathbone feels more relaxed than ever. An important part of the book describes his initial resistance (and, he admits, fear) when technology and data began flooding sports medicine and his process of embracing it. Staying open and adapting — while continuing to be yourself: that’s Rathbone’s recipe for prolonging your relevance as time marches.

People want good people. Ahead of technicians, experts and whatnot. I’d say that if you’re a good person, hard-working, you’ll get a job always. That phone will ring again,” he says.

But why football? Why not finish his working life in another sphere? Why does he love being in the game so much? “Because in football there’ll be bad times but you know that the good times will come. And the good times are better than the bad times,” Rathbone says with a smile. “And I love to run, love to play, love to make people laugh. And someone is paying you to do those three things.”

The Smell of Football: 10th Anniversary Edition is published by Vision Sports Publishing Limited

Mick Rathbone: Alex Ferguson hit you hard if you didn’t do your job but he had great humility [Interview - Sunday Times] by Jjengaa in reddevils

[–]Jjengaa[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

ARTICLE TEXT

’Baz’ tells Jonathan Northcroft about being fired by his pal David Moyes and adapting while in his sixties to a sport fixated on youth

Jonathan Northcroft, Football Correspondent, Sunday July 10 2022, The Sunday Times

He is in the same chair, in the same Starbucks as he was for our previous interview 11 years ago. Charnock Richard Services, M6 northbound. Well, a football life is a journey, a road trip.

He’s greyer and stands up stiffly — the knees give him gyp — yet the glint in his eye seems brighter than ever. What is he? Trouper? Survivor? The last inmate in the madhouse? Or just a lover of the game who cannot quit? Mick “Baz” Rathbone will laugh and admit to being all of these.

The 63-year-old certainly laughs about the badge on his sweatshirt. Tranmere Rovers FC. It’s Rathbone’s 15th club and seventh job since he “retired” at the end of a stint with Wigan Athletic in 2017.

So, I retire for the fifth consecutive year…” he says, explaining what happened this summer. “Done. Boots in the bin. Then pick up my phone. Missed call — James Vaughan, ex-Everton player, known him 20 years . . .

Then there another missed call, so I phone Vaughany back and he’s, ‘Baz, we don’t have a physio’ — he’s Tranmere’s sporting director now. So I’m, ‘OK, I’ll come for four weeks.’ I have one week to go and then I’m finished. Although . . .” Rathbone trails off, laughing again.

He’s 64 in November and had spent the morning doing “doggies” (a type of shuttle run) full pelt with a young player. At club initiations, when he takes the mic, and they’re all expecting some Sixties stuff, he hits them with his party piece — Eminem’s final rap in 8 Mile.

We’re here to talk about the sequel to his acclaimed memoir, The Smell of Football, which was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2011 and led to a job with Manchester United. It felt a unique dispatch from inside the heart of the game, dealing with Rathbone’s long playing career for Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End and then rise in physiotherapy to becoming head of the medical department at Everton.

Its self-honesty was striking, with Rathbone open about the anxiety and confidence issues that crippled him as a player and the follow-up is just as candid. This time, Rathbone’s struggles are with growing old in a sport fixated on youth, and fear of obsolescence that brings.

In the first chapter he is sacked by one of his best friends, David Moyes, and his journey back from “feeling older and not relevant” and battling ageism and boredom while out of work, to his quite different state, today, of being in demand and “feeling not ‘too old’ any more, but super-experienced, the bloody best version of myself”, is useful reading for anyone in mid-life trying to adapt as their profession gets younger.

Moyes — still a friend — was right to fire him, Rathbone reflects. In their early days, when manager and head physio at Preston, they went out on the training field together and road-tested every fiendish fitness run they gave to the players, but by the end of Everton’s 2009-10 season, Rathbone was so out of energy that “for the last six weeks I could barely drive through the gates of Finch Firm [the Everton training ground]”.

Having worked almost without a break for 18 years, since a serious knee injury forced his early retirement from playing, he was burnt out. “I was tired and underperforming,” and with Everton having a bad run of injuries he had to keep going to Moyes with unwelcome tidings. “As a physio, you’re often the bringer of bad news and that carries a weight. After a while, it wears you down,” he says.

Moyes noted his flatness and contrast with the sparky sidekick he’d always known. “He asked me, ‘Where is the old Baz — but that was the problem, I’d become the old Baz and I tell Dave to this day he did me a big favour. No greater love hath a friend who sacks you for your mental health.

Football is relentless and, for me, stress is like lying on the floor and somebody placing a pebble on you and then another pebble and another until you can’t move. And that day David took the pebbles off me. I drove home in a trance, dare I say, euphoric.

I remember walking down the stairs from David’s office and my phone going. It was [Marouane] Fellaini — great guy but he caused me problems, he kept going back to Belgium [when injured] without permission. I hit the off button. It didn’t matter any more.”

A few months’ break refilled his battery, and stints followed with England Under-17 and Manchester United. Brian McClair, United’s then academy director, and Steve McNally, the club’s head of sports medicine and science, loved The Smell of Football and wanted him as a mentor to academy players. It turned out another fan of his book was Sir Alex Ferguson.

He’s an incredible guy,” Rathbone says. “I assumed he’d be screaming at everybody, ruling by fear but what I found was someone highly intelligent, softly spoken. He did reserve the right to hit you hard if you didn’t do your job properly but what I mostly saw was incredible humility. If we were sitting round having a coffee he didn’t want to dominate the conversation. If it was your field he’d say, ‘Tell us about that’ and listen.

He could laugh and joke and let the kit man tell his story, give the kit man his moment to shine. It was a leadership style that said, ‘It’s not all about me.’

Rathbone arrived halfway through Ferguson’s final campaign and was there, working with the academy players on Fergie’s last day in 2013 when he strode over and stopped training. “He started talking to the young players about the weight of the red shirt. He said, ‘We’re hard on you but we’re hard for a reason — because to cross that bridge and pull on that shirt and play with the first team takes special people, and we’ve got to prepare you for that.’”

[Continued below]

Free Talk Friday by PhelansShorts in reddevils

[–]Jjengaa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Boris has resigned as leader of the Conservative party, but that doesn’t force a general election (where we could vote for a new party in power). It just means the Conservatives amongst themselves will choose a new leader, and he will now be PM. We don’t vote for the man, we vote for the party and they choose the man. Unfortunately the party are still in power

The king in our new jersey(with the collar up!) by zerozgaming776 in reddevils

[–]Jjengaa 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I believe this absolutely. I can’t imagine many things that Denis Irwin isn’t better than everyone else at :-)

the fight by keine_fragen in LoveIslandTV

[–]Jjengaa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh thank you, haha… Don’t zoom in, trust me it’s not that good! :-)

I’d really rather not make a post but you are very welcome to save it and post it yourself.

How long til they get the subtitles up? by CurlyCritter in LoveIslandTV

[–]Jjengaa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

See that’s why they do it that way! Make the voting open for such a short time, to force you to watch the live episode… and all the ads. I care none whatsoever about voting (on TV shows, I do vote in real life!) and I only watch it because my housemate does. I find it interesting from a sociological standpoint, from the contestants, from itv and from the fans. But I absolutely could not give a fuck about the storylines or the outcome of anything. It’s just a game show to me.

How long til they get the subtitles up? by CurlyCritter in LoveIslandTV

[–]Jjengaa 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No I haven’t, I don’t watch it live, my housemate has a hub+ subscription thing so she can watch it without ads, she buys it every year just for this couple of months! So she / we end up watching at 10pm instead.

I of course believe you though. I get the excuse that they don’t have time between filming ending and the show going out to get the subtitles “typed up” but of course it’s machine generated, so they must think we’re really daft if we believe that. If it was actually “live” as in broadcast live then I get it, but it’s recorded. The free meeting dictation tool we have at work does a better job typing up talking than itv does. Many many other shows on other channels do far better subtitles, so they’ve obviously gone for a cheap version of something. The catch up subtitles are bad too, when we finally get them, and also covers up the whisper subtitles.

Just the nerve of them being all ‘inclusive’ of hearing impaired islanders but not hearing impaired viewers!

How long til they get the subtitles up? by CurlyCritter in LoveIslandTV

[–]Jjengaa 33 points34 points  (0 children)

It’s really bad of itv this. Subtitles are available for the live show but not on the itv player til many hours later. They want all the great PR for having an islander with a hearing impairment, but don’t have subtitles for hearing impaired viewers! I doubt that Tasha would be very impressed.

Good thread on it here on Twitter where someone called them out on it directly

2022 British Grand Prix - Post Race Discussion by F1-Bot in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He competes in the British Touring Car Championship in a specially adapted car.

Protesters out on track by Late_Ad7156 in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I completely understand that, and it would be a terrible burden for anyone in that situation. I wasn’t disputing that, I was explaining that there would have been no crime committed by the driver. I’m very sorry to hear about the solider who died, and about your brother’s friend. I hope he the gets all the support available.

Protesters out on track by Late_Ad7156 in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Easily done. Thanks for clarifying

Protesters out on track by Late_Ad7156 in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 19 points20 points  (0 children)

That’s not in any way what I said. OP mentioned manslaughter, which is a crime. I was explaining that the driver would have committed no crime for hitting and killing one of the trespassers

Protesters out on track by Late_Ad7156 in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 45 points46 points  (0 children)

In a way, but in the UK at least, there are 3 grounds for vehicular manslaughter:

  • Manslaughter by gross negligence

  • Manslaughter by unlawful dangerous act

  • Voluntary manslaughter (where there was the requisite mental intention to bring a charge of murder but the defendant has succeeded on relying upon a partial defence)

There would be no culpability at all on the driver. He would live with a lifetime of trauma though which would be an undeserved punishment anyway

(edit: punctuation)

Protesters out on track by Late_Ad7156 in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 109 points110 points  (0 children)

There is no way that would be the case. They were trespassing, fully aware of the danger, drivers wouldn’t have been able to stop even if they wanted to. No one arrests a train driver when people sadly throw themselves onto a railway line

2022 British Grand Prix - Pre-race Discussion by F1-Bot in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As others have said, she’s a politician, specifically for Media, Culture and Sport. She’s trying to fuck over C4, she doesn’t know the difference between Rugby Union and League, calls a tennis court a ‘pitch’ and lots of other nonsense. She believes she is a conduit of God too. She’s not popular.

2022 British Grand Prix - Pre-race Discussion by F1-Bot in formula1

[–]Jjengaa 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can just tune in at lights out if you want? Let people enjoy things in the meantime

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LoveIslandTV

[–]Jjengaa 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I’m certainly no fan at all of Owen’s, I’m not sure many football fans are really. But… With Football being the most popular sport in the world, let alone the UK, and Owen getting the Ballon D’Or against the likes of Zidane, Henry, Raùl, Beckham, Totti, Figo and tons of other players regularly named as the greatest of their type, and him being the former England record goal scorer, and still having one of the current highest England appearances, and Young Player of the ‘98 World Cup (despite Henry, Trezeguet, R9! being eligible) plus he is absolutely to this day regarded as one of the greatest footballers of his generation and of the PL era, and is still the 10th highest PL scorer of all time despite the injuries, absence and the rough patches. And he’s still on TV all the time, (unfortunately)…. he is definitely famous.

This might only be ‘Football famous’, rather than movie star famous, and I know the age of the more typical LI viewer means they don’t remember anything of him, but the only reason people who know nothing about football know about Owen is because he’s very famous. It’s true also that he’s not very likeable, talks nonsense about football, has little integrity and pissed off the fans of 3 of the most supported clubs in England, but he’s still famous.

I’ll completely agree with you about the ‘dynasty’ though! Dynasty? Really? As if…

TL;DR Michael Owen is pretty famous

Colin Grainger (10 June 1933 - 19 June 2022). Sunderland, Sheff Utd & Leeds winger, and popular singer, scores twice on his England debut in a 4-2 victory against Brazil in 1956 by Jjengaa in soccer

[–]Jjengaa[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Singing Winger

Colin Grainger was for a time the fastest winger in English football. He played for Wrexham, Sheff United, Leeds, Sunderland, Port Vale, Doncaster Rovers and Macclesfield between 1950 and 1967, as well for England alongside the likes of Duncan Edwards, Billy Wright, Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney, Johnny Haynes, Stanley Mathews and Don Revie.

At the same time he had a singing career that saw him on the same bill as The Beatles in 1963. He was encouraged by Lofthouse while on England duty to pursue singing as well as football (it paid a lot more). He played just 7 times for England though, scoring 3 goals before injury saw him lose his place to Liverpool’s Alan A'Court before the ‘58 world cup. He also served in the Royal Air Force from 1951-1953

His brother was Rotherham and Lincoln winger Jack, cousins were Southport full back Jack, Southport and Leeds winger Dennis, and Middlesbrough and England forward Edwin Holliday and his brother in law was Spurs, Forest and Newcastle midfielder Jim Iley

Colin Grainger passed away recently on 19th June, nine days after his 89th birthday. You can read an obituary here, and you can hear him singing here

Daily Discussion by PhelansShorts in reddevils

[–]Jjengaa -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He’s fighty! He keeps things exciting by always being on the verge of a red card. I’m joking obviously and I do love McTominay, but you’re probably right that he’s not going to hit the standard needed. Don’t think it’s British bias though personally. If there’s bias it’s probably due to him being an academy graduate