Chapter one
At the age of 19 I had sustained 3 injuries to my knee ligaments and after a lengthy recovery and rehab I visited the specialist for the last time bursting to get back onto the pitch and compete in a competitive match. As I walked through the door of Dr Murphys office his usual happy attitude had vanished and he looked at me with a hint of dread, sit down said beckoning me to sit opposite him. I sat down and we went through the normal small talk and then as we finished laughing he looked at me and gave me the worst news I had heard. I'm sorry he said looking at me sympathetically but your not going to be able to continue your career as a footballer, the damage to your knees are far to severe and the risks are far to high for you to continue. I pleaded with him to sign me off and to give me a chance to continue but he wouldn't do it, asking me if I wanted to risk my ability to walk ever again and he was right, how was I going to earn money for my family if I had lost the ability to walk.My life as I knew was done, I had lived my dream by making my debut as a 17 year old for my childhood club Rangers and this news was the worst thing that could have happened to me as my life revolved around football but this was the end of my playing days but I was not going to let this beat me and had decided after a few days of feeling sorry for myself that I was going to do my coaching badges and my club Rangers were going to fund me.
In the 3 years that followed I worked as a coach to begin with and then worked my way up to u23s manager all while doing my coaching badges, obtaining my continental C licence and upto this point I had enjoyed myself but I had become weary of being an U23s coach and had decided that I wanted to try my hand at senior management. I had set up a meeting with Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and informed him first of my intentions of applying for senior management jobs and he was very happy for me and said that he had expected this to happen and couldn't wait to see how I would get on. That night I sat and down and was having a look around the the available jobs in football at the moment and the only jobs available were in the lower league of english football and I had wanted to try and get higher but i knew this would have been hard so had accepted that I would apply for the Kidderminster Harriers job and to my surprise I got a call the next day for a telephone interview with the chairman Richard Lane, we spoke at length about his objectives for the club and where he seen the club in 5 years, he asked me what I wanted from being a football manager but that was an easy question for me because I lived and breathed football it was all I had. After 3 hours I came off the phone and was happy with how the interview had went and really thought I had put myself in pole position for the job.
In the week that followed I was in constant communication with Kidderminster, going down to meet the chairman and on my last visit on the 10th of july my agent informed in the hotel that night that the club had made an offer and wanted me to be there next manager, I instantly said yes. My agent wanted explained that it was less money than what I was on right now but I didn't care this was it, my chance to start from the bottom of the pyramid and make my way to the top of the world.
At the age of 19 I had sustained 3 injuries to my knee ligaments and after a lengthy recovery and rehab I visited the specialist for the last time bursting to get back onto the pitch and compete in a competitive match. As I walked through the door of Dr Murphys office his usual happy attitude had vanished and he looked at me with a hint of dread, sit down said beckoning me to sit opposite him. I sat down and we went through the normal small talk and then as we finished laughing he looked at me and gave me the worst news I had heard. I'm sorry he said looking at me sympathetically but your not going to be able to continue your career as a footballer, the damage to your knees are far to severe and the risks are far to high for you to continue. I pleaded with him to sign me off and to give me a chance to continue but he wouldn't do it, asking me if I wanted to risk my ability to walk ever again and he was right, how was I going to earn money for my family if I had lost the ability to walk.My life as I knew was done, I had lived my dream by making my debut as a 17 year old for my childhood club Rangers and this news was the worst thing that could have happened to me as my life revolved around football but this was the end of my playing days but I was not going to let this beat me and had decided after a few days of feeling sorry for myself that I was going to do my coaching badges and my club Rangers were going to fund me.
In the 3 years that followed I worked as a coach to begin with and then worked my way up to u23s manager all while doing my coaching badges, obtaining my continental C licence and upto this point I had enjoyed myself but I had become weary of being an U23s coach and had decided that I wanted to try my hand at senior management. I had set up a meeting with Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and informed him first of my intentions of applying for senior management jobs and he was very happy for me and said that he had expected this to happen and couldn't wait to see how I would get on. That night I sat and down and was having a look around the the available jobs in football at the moment and the only jobs available were in the lower league of english football and I had wanted to try and get higher but i knew this would have been hard so had accepted that I would apply for the Kidderminster Harriers job and to my surprise I got a call the next day for a telephone interview with the chairman Richard Lane, we spoke at length about his objectives for the club and where he seen the club in 5 years, he asked me what I wanted from being a football manager but that was an easy question for me because I lived and breathed football it was all I had. After 3 hours I came off the phone and was happy with how the interview had went and really thought I had put myself in pole position for the job.
In the week that followed I was in constant communication with Kidderminster, going down to meet the chairman and on my last visit on the 10th of july my agent informed in the hotel that night that the club had made an offer and wanted me to be there next manager, I instantly said yes. My agent wanted explained that it was less money than what I was on right now but I didn't care this was it, my chance to start from the bottom of the pyramid and make my way to the top of the world.