Staying Up [Hardcover]

Football clubs have long been notoriously secretive about what goes on behind the imposing club gates. Having seen the fly-on-the wall documentary which exposed then England coach Graham Taylor as a hapless and foul-mouthed loser, who can blame them? So it's to Coventry's huge credit that Rick Gekoski, a long-time fan despite being an American academic, was allowed in to chronicle their 1997/98 season. Gekoski, like everyone else, was expecting yet another battle against relegation for the Sky Blues. In fact Coventry actually finished in a respectable mid-table position, and they don't come out of this book too badly either. Gekoski really does give a flavour of the modern game as he probes the club's finances, transfer deals, tactics and personality clashes. He makes some remarkable claims for the manhood of a key player and as the book progresses he increasingly annoys the Coventry manager Gordon Strachan. But as Strachan himself magnanimously said when it was all over: "If I had known that you were going to write this sort of book I would never have allowed you access to myself or the team. Having said that, I think it is one of the best books about football ever written. The closest anybody could get to what it is really like". --Nick Wroe

'Richly comic...the year's best soccer book by far' Ian Hamilton, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'A classic, some wonderful insights into the mind of Premiership Man.' FOOTBALL 365 'This is a great book...tremendouly thoughtful and well written.' TOTAL FOOTBALL 'If I had known that you were going to write this sort of book I would never have allowed to access to myself or the team. Having said that I think it's one of the best books about football ever written. The closest anybody could get to what it's really like.' Gordon Strachan to the author. 'This is the first football book that has got so close to a team and is well worth a read.' YORKSHIRE EVENING PRESS --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

* 'Richly comic...the year's best soccer book by far' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

This is a spectator's-eye view of the inside workings of an FA Premier League football club - unfashionable Coventry City - in the 1997/98 season, during which the author had access to the personnel involved, from players to club directors. Only Arsenal, Liverpoool and Everton have been in the top flight of English club football longer than Coventry's 30 years. On no fewer than 11 occasions the club has escaped relegation on the final day of the season, although they won the FA Cup in 1987 (their only major honour) and enjoyed uncharacteristically comfortable mid-table status during the season under review.

Rick Gekoski is an American-born antiquarian bookseller and arguably the least likely person to be a supporter and season-ticket holder at Coventry City F.C.