Matt Jansen Part Two: The Long Road Back

Revista de la Liga with Graham Hunter

Graham Hunter

Soccer, Football, Sports

4.5 • 863 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last season, our Socios at patreon.com/grahamhunter got an exclusive interview with Matt Jansen. For the first time, here’s the full episode.

In part two, you’ll hear more about the psychological damage Matt’s accident inflicted on him. With the best of intentions, Blackburn got him back playing but his sense of invincibility had given way to fear, and he didn’t want the ball any more. He was on medication and drinking heavily. Psychiatrist Steve Peters was a great help, but he couldn’t be with the footballer all of the time. Matt eventually quit football, but a phone call from his old pal Garry Flitcroft kicked off a spell playing and managing in the lower leagues.

There’s light-hearted chat in this interview too, such as why Matt’s Beatles-mad father nicknamed him ‘Maxwell,’ and how his Crystal Palace team-mate Hermann Hreiðarsson arranged to have him ‘kidnapped’ in Iceland. There’s also great stuff about the ordeal of having to knock back Sir Alex Ferguson, and what it was like to play alongside the wonderful Andy Cole.

What a life story Matt has. What a privilege it was to speak with him.

Graham

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following big interview was posted in full for our associates, our members, our friends, our supporters
0:06.4	at patreon.com forward slash Graham Hunter and that was last season20. Sign up there and you'll get every interview we produced before
0:16.6	it's released on the main feed, plus the chance to put questions to our guests and to me via the monthly
0:22.2	Q&A. You'll also get bonus content every month including
0:25.7	the audio versions of my regular columns for ESPN. And what's more, you'll be supporting us.
0:31.8	You'll be keeping this independent podcast on the road.
0:35.0	Thank you. League Cup final,
0:49.0	Final, Blackburn managed by Graham's
0:50.6	Foonas, favourite of mine.
0:51.8	Spurs managed by, okay, we share initials,
0:55.0	if you've listened to this series.
0:56.6	Glen Hoddle.
0:58.0	I was so supporting Blackburn and thank you, thank you, thank you.
1:02.1	To the coming player of that moment, Matt Janssen, scorer, maker of the winner, made my day. Did it again. Today, we sat down at Wotram Hall, to talk about the Beatles, being
1:18.2	pecked by puffins, being kid.
1:20.6	Did you know that Matt Hanson had been kidnapped? Yes, it was a strange interview, very funny and then dark.
1:28.0	Because the reason that Matt Janssen isn't to the forefront of your football memory from the early to mid-2000s
1:35.5	is that he had a dreadful accident, which wasn't his fault, in Rome,
1:41.9	doing a Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, skittishly scooting around the eternal
1:47.8	city on a moped until, well, very near tragedy stuck. It ruined the remainder of his career and it left him with
1:57.1	demons that he had to fight with all his and a very special sports psychologist's efforts in order to resurrect himself.
2:09.0	He's an interesting man, he's going to be a good coach, he's been a great guest on the big interview. He was a terrific footballer, but what a life.
	...

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