Telegraph | Sport | On the Spot: Dominic Matteo
On the Spot: Dominic Matteo
By Sam Wallace (Filed: 10/01/2004)
When Dominic Matteo became Leeds United captain he took all that came with it. The responsibility, the armband, the handshaking, the cajoling, the pictures with the match sponsors after the game. But with the job he also got the post, and recently there has been plenty of that. Letter after letter from Leeds fans worried that 84 years of football history in west Yorkshire might just come to a shuddering halt this season.
Replying to his fan mail was something that Matteo said was "drilled" into him by his parents. They remembered when he was a child who wrote to his favourite Liverpool players and rarely went without a reply. It has remained a responsibility he takes seriously, but these days the questions have become more technical. Instead of hardest opponents and favourite away grounds, the concerns now are all about stakeholder confidence and standstill agreements.
Every calendar at Elland Road has Jan 19 circled in red. It is the day that Leeds' creditors have set for the current standstill agreement to run out. The day when the Leeds board have to start once again to repay that mountainous £82 million debt that towers precariously over the club. And even before that descends, the support have had to watch a deprived team slide to 19th in the Premiership, two points from the bottom.
"I read all my mail and I've had a few nasty letters. It's not nice but I don't think they are really having a go, they just want to know what is going on with the players and the club," Matteo said. "It's not me personally, it's the bigger picture really. I get the mail addressed to the players - sometimes I'll show some of the boys and sometimes not. It just depends, if they are low then what's the point?
"I've had some great stuff too recently - telling me to just keep the boys going, that the fans are right behind us. That's really nice. Smithy [Alan] probably gets all the young girls writing in, he just signs a picture and off he goes. I get the middle-aged geezers who just want to talk football stuff. And I have to write a letter back to them."
They are two of the Premiership's grandees, but no one is kidding Tottenham and Leeds that today is not the beginning of a fight for survival. In the gleaming surroundings of Leeds' new academy - indoor pitches, swimming pool, enormous gym - Matteo, 29, said that he "can't imagine us being in any division but this". But if Leeds need to sell players after Jan 19 then their chances will diminish by the day.
"It would be nice to know what is going on off the field," Matteo said. "The sooner somebody comes in and buys the club the better for the players, so we can just get on with being a football side again. I would be lying if I said we did not think about what is going on off the field. It would just be good if somebody came in with a few quid and bought us.
"We have had a few chats with Trevor Birch [chief executive] and he has told us as much as he can, which was fair enough. He spoke very well to us and told us that he would be doing the best job he can for the club to try to get the right people in. He has got until the 19th to sort it out. I am quite confident he will, but it might be the last minute.
"We are all realistic and if the club do not get bought and we go into administration there is a chance that players will have to be sold. I am not stupid and nor are the rest of the lads. Maybe we won't get the same salary but I don't care if I am still playing football. But I do not want to leave here."
It is that kind of talk that has made Matteo a captain to whom Leeds fans have attached their faith in recent months. In the five-man midfield that manager Eddie Gray has favoured of late it has been Matteo in the centre with David Batty, who misses today's game through injury. The caretaker manager's formula has been simple in that respect: he has stuck with the players he knows best to dig him out of the bottom three.
"A few years ago we had a fantastic squad and we would go into every game thinking 'We're going to win today'," Matteo said. "I am not saying we don't now but there was more of an arrogance then and I would go to Anfield or Old Trafford and think, 'I don't half fancy us to win today'.
"That is the way it was for a year and a half. But I don't think you can sell so many quality players and stay where we were. I don't think Newcastle could believe they had been able to sign Jonathan Woodgate. I know we had financial problems, but come on, he was only 23 for goodness' sake.
"We did have a good squad and there was talk about us winning the Premiership at some stage. Nowadays it's talk about us going down, which I don't even want to think about."
Among the millions of pounds worth of players who have departed Leeds in the last 18 months, Matteo remains a link with the club's cherished Champions League run of 2001 that is hard for fans to forget - regardless of the suicidal financing that took them there. On Nov 8, 2000, Matteo scored Leeds' goal in a 1-1 draw with AC Milan in the San Siro and, despite what has happened since, it is not an experience he would have missed.
"I wouldn't want to swap anything in my life that I have done so far, it has all been good," Matteo said. "But I don't think the fans would swap it either. In a way you don't need reminding but some of those nights were the best I had in football. I will never forget them, we know where we are now and we just have to get on with it.
"How can you get involved in the off-the-field things? That's for them to sort out. If any of the boys came to me and said 'Can you have a word and see what is going on?' of course I would. But I don't think we would have to because Trevor has told us what he knows."
After today's game Birch will come into the dressing room to commiserate or congratulate as he has done all season. Matteo said that the players have warmed to their chief executive. "Everyone realises Trevor was a player, he knows a little more about the game than most people."
But this time there will be a different atmosphere. The next home game is Jan 31 against Middlesbrough and they realise that when Birch visits the home dressing room that day, some of today's players might not be there.
On the Spot: Dominic Matteo
By Sam Wallace (Filed: 10/01/2004)
When Dominic Matteo became Leeds United captain he took all that came with it. The responsibility, the armband, the handshaking, the cajoling, the pictures with the match sponsors after the game. But with the job he also got the post, and recently there has been plenty of that. Letter after letter from Leeds fans worried that 84 years of football history in west Yorkshire might just come to a shuddering halt this season.
Replying to his fan mail was something that Matteo said was "drilled" into him by his parents. They remembered when he was a child who wrote to his favourite Liverpool players and rarely went without a reply. It has remained a responsibility he takes seriously, but these days the questions have become more technical. Instead of hardest opponents and favourite away grounds, the concerns now are all about stakeholder confidence and standstill agreements.
Every calendar at Elland Road has Jan 19 circled in red. It is the day that Leeds' creditors have set for the current standstill agreement to run out. The day when the Leeds board have to start once again to repay that mountainous £82 million debt that towers precariously over the club. And even before that descends, the support have had to watch a deprived team slide to 19th in the Premiership, two points from the bottom.
"I read all my mail and I've had a few nasty letters. It's not nice but I don't think they are really having a go, they just want to know what is going on with the players and the club," Matteo said. "It's not me personally, it's the bigger picture really. I get the mail addressed to the players - sometimes I'll show some of the boys and sometimes not. It just depends, if they are low then what's the point?
"I've had some great stuff too recently - telling me to just keep the boys going, that the fans are right behind us. That's really nice. Smithy [Alan] probably gets all the young girls writing in, he just signs a picture and off he goes. I get the middle-aged geezers who just want to talk football stuff. And I have to write a letter back to them."
They are two of the Premiership's grandees, but no one is kidding Tottenham and Leeds that today is not the beginning of a fight for survival. In the gleaming surroundings of Leeds' new academy - indoor pitches, swimming pool, enormous gym - Matteo, 29, said that he "can't imagine us being in any division but this". But if Leeds need to sell players after Jan 19 then their chances will diminish by the day.
"It would be nice to know what is going on off the field," Matteo said. "The sooner somebody comes in and buys the club the better for the players, so we can just get on with being a football side again. I would be lying if I said we did not think about what is going on off the field. It would just be good if somebody came in with a few quid and bought us.
"We have had a few chats with Trevor Birch [chief executive] and he has told us as much as he can, which was fair enough. He spoke very well to us and told us that he would be doing the best job he can for the club to try to get the right people in. He has got until the 19th to sort it out. I am quite confident he will, but it might be the last minute.
"We are all realistic and if the club do not get bought and we go into administration there is a chance that players will have to be sold. I am not stupid and nor are the rest of the lads. Maybe we won't get the same salary but I don't care if I am still playing football. But I do not want to leave here."
It is that kind of talk that has made Matteo a captain to whom Leeds fans have attached their faith in recent months. In the five-man midfield that manager Eddie Gray has favoured of late it has been Matteo in the centre with David Batty, who misses today's game through injury. The caretaker manager's formula has been simple in that respect: he has stuck with the players he knows best to dig him out of the bottom three.
"A few years ago we had a fantastic squad and we would go into every game thinking 'We're going to win today'," Matteo said. "I am not saying we don't now but there was more of an arrogance then and I would go to Anfield or Old Trafford and think, 'I don't half fancy us to win today'.
"That is the way it was for a year and a half. But I don't think you can sell so many quality players and stay where we were. I don't think Newcastle could believe they had been able to sign Jonathan Woodgate. I know we had financial problems, but come on, he was only 23 for goodness' sake.
"We did have a good squad and there was talk about us winning the Premiership at some stage. Nowadays it's talk about us going down, which I don't even want to think about."
Among the millions of pounds worth of players who have departed Leeds in the last 18 months, Matteo remains a link with the club's cherished Champions League run of 2001 that is hard for fans to forget - regardless of the suicidal financing that took them there. On Nov 8, 2000, Matteo scored Leeds' goal in a 1-1 draw with AC Milan in the San Siro and, despite what has happened since, it is not an experience he would have missed.
"I wouldn't want to swap anything in my life that I have done so far, it has all been good," Matteo said. "But I don't think the fans would swap it either. In a way you don't need reminding but some of those nights were the best I had in football. I will never forget them, we know where we are now and we just have to get on with it.
"How can you get involved in the off-the-field things? That's for them to sort out. If any of the boys came to me and said 'Can you have a word and see what is going on?' of course I would. But I don't think we would have to because Trevor has told us what he knows."
After today's game Birch will come into the dressing room to commiserate or congratulate as he has done all season. Matteo said that the players have warmed to their chief executive. "Everyone realises Trevor was a player, he knows a little more about the game than most people."
But this time there will be a different atmosphere. The next home game is Jan 31 against Middlesbrough and they realise that when Birch visits the home dressing room that day, some of today's players might not be there.