That was David Moyes in full flow — and Mick Rathbone will never forget it.
“He has all the right ingredients,” Rathbone told Football Presse. “He’s an extremely nice guy. He probably wouldn’t want me to say that. He likes to be tough and stern. But anybody who knows him as well as me — he’s a fantastic guy.”
But nice doesn’t mean soft.
Rathbone recalls the hardest day of pre-season — the dreaded final session. Horseshoe runs. Flat out. Sixty seconds. Red-hot heat.
“It was the last day of pre-season. Sometimes we’d do six, sometimes seven. Lads were on the floor. A couple had been sick. We’re all waiting for either, ‘That’ll do you, lads,’ or the dreaded, ‘One more.’”
Moyes didn’t blink.
“He says, ‘One more.’”
That’s when the sports science man sprinted over, staring at his telemetry screen.
“He’s going, ‘David, David — no more. Too much. Their heart rates are through the ceiling.’”
Moyes’ response?
“David turned to him and said, ‘I don’t give a F about the heart rate stuff. I don’t give a F about your fancy machines. I want to see the man who can wipe the sick off his chest, get on the line, and get me in one more time — because I’m going to Chelsea in two weeks and they’re the guys I want on my team bus.’”
Rathbone smiles at the memory.
“This is not about physiology. This is about heart.”
And that, he says, is pure Moyes.