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Matt Cassidy interview
Matt Cassidy was born in Blackpool 18 years ago and grew up in Poulton Le Fylde. The son of an Irish mother and an English father, he started off, as did Kevin Nolan, on schoolboy terms with Liverpool FC. Following his release from Anfield during the Under 14 season, he joined Bolton Wanderers where he is about to end his second season as a full time Academy scholar. In March of last year, he was called up to the Republic of Ireland Under 18 squad and immediately made an impression; coming on in the second half to set up the third goal with a perfect pass in an emphatic victory over Malta’s Under 19 team.
I met up with Matt before the recent Blackburn Rovers game to find out more about life in the Academy and how he’s doing as he bids to secure a place in Wanderers history.
“I signed for Liverpool when I was 9 years old. During the Under 14 season I came to Bolton. What most boys sign when they first become full time is a scholarship agreement which is two years with an optional third and then at the end of the two years they’ll either offer you a third year or sometimes they offer professional contracts. At the moment, I’m just coming to the end of my second year and they’ve offered me the third year – there’s about five or six of us. Sometimes they offer the professional contract but they’ve just said you have to wait to see how it goes till the end of the season – and that’s up to Sam Allardyce.”
It certainly seems like Wanderers are doing all they can to support their rising stars. The Wanderers Way is instilled at an early age, and the lads get to ‘enjoy’ the infamous hot and cold baths at an early age. Matt also wears a garment known as ‘Skins’ under his clothes, “They improve blood flow and help your body to recover quicker - everyone at the club wears them.”
Even the new Academy building subscribes to the club’s famed attention to detail, “It’s built in a place where you can see the Reebok – so you can see what you’re building up to. There’s a lot of psychology gone into it. It’s great being in the same environment as the first team, you learn a lot.”
In fact, Matt says the baths at Euxton are the perfect place to pick the brains of the senior squad.
“When you’re in there, they all very chatty, asking how you’re getting on and you can talk to them about their experiences as well. I like to let Kevin Nolan know about my history at Liverpool. He’s been through it all. He’s very helpful. He tries to get involved and will speak to the academy manager and ask how you’re doing and things.
The first team coaches are not afraid to make their presence felt either.
“Sam’s fantastic isn’t he? He has such attention to detail. There’s so much he does behind the scenes – he’s a very clever man. He was obviously at Blackpool and they let him go – what a mistake that was! Sammy Lee is a top man – such a great fella. Ricky Sbragia takes a few sessions but there’s not really been a time when Sammy has done a session. Ricky and Sammy always come and watch and get involved when we’re training side by side though. With us being all together at Euxton, we have a benefit you don’t get at most clubs. When you first go and you see these footballers and then you start to train with them and they know your name, it’s such a great feeling.”
Asked who the player he looks up to most in the first team, Matt is emphatic in his response: “Gary Speed is just the model professional and he’s someone who – I’d say as a player myself, I’m not going to take a lot of people on, I don’t have blistering pace and I don’t have great height and I think Gary Speed is someone who has made the most of what he’s got and I think he’s someone who I would like to be similar to. In that niche. He’s very intelligent – I think he’s the only one who reads the broadsheets!”
It’s not only on the field he aspires to be like Speed - a self confessed smarty pants, Matt is amongst three young players (the others being Robert Sissons and German scholar Kevin Wolze) who did sufficiently well in their GCSEs to be sent to a local private school to study for their A Levels. “It’s a special college, a private school, and we do A levels. I am studying German and PE.
“I always hated German and was predicted a D in it but somehow got an A and decided to carry on with it. I was going to do Business Studies otherwise. It’s quite good with Kevin Wolze here because we can speak to each other.”
All boys entering the Academy also do their Level 2 coaching badge within the first year. “It really helps you with your football because what better way to learn than to be able to teach?”
Matt currently lives with Tom Brooks, a first year scholar who is making his own name, scoring for fun in the youth team, in local supervised accommodation and they are kept safe from the various temptations which beset young footballers with curfews and strict discipline at the club. To make their 10pm curfew a little more bearable, the club provides free cinema passes and discounted bowling on the Middlebrook and these activities certainly feature heavily in their social lives. Their Academy welfare officer, Fran Walsh, organises their living accommodation, schooling and is there to oversee their general well being.
“The way they run the Academy is to give us jobs to give us discipline. Leslie Thompson came from Arsenal and he obviously compares the two. I think the word for Arsenal’s youth team is cosseted. We have a lot of jobs but a lot of the time if you don’t do the job they’re very strict - it’s good because they’re trying to instil discipline. There’s times like the last few weeks where if jobs haven’t been done everyone gets brought back in and we have to scrub the floors. I’m all for it.”
A typical week at the Bolton Wanderers Academy involves a half day study on a Monday followed by an afternoon training, full day training Tuesday and Wednesday, a day at college on Thursday and then, the part Matt obviously relishes, 11 v 11 against the first team on a Friday whereby if you’re amongst those picked, you take part in a training session designed to prepare the first team by playing in the style of the weekend’s opponents. “That’s when you get a chance to show Sam Allardyce what you can do.”
Outside of training, each Academy player has daily jobs to do, including the famed first team boot duty. This season, though, Matt hasn’t been as busy as he might have liked, “I’m actually on Joey O’Brien’s boots and I haven’t had any to clean all season. And at Christmas the boots are always sparkling because they sometimes give bonuses and I said to Joey any chance of you getting fit so I can have some boots to clean before Christmas? I was wrapping tangerines in tinfoil this Christmas!”
Poor Joey – he’s an example of how you can be riding high in football one moment and on the floor the next.
“He’s helped me out because he gave me a good report to [Republic of Ireland Under 19 coach] Sean McCaffrey and when I was in my Under 16 season, I played in a few reserve fixtures with Rob Sissons and that was obviously the only time I’ve ever played with him. It’s such a shame this season for him – but that’s football – but I think he’ll come through it OK. He’s dealt with it very well and seems to be in good spirits – he’ll be alright.”
Matt made his Republic of Ireland debut in March 2006 in a friendly against Malta and is now a valued member of the squad. He’s really enjoying his time with the squad and likes to hook up with them.
“My mother’s from Galway and my grandparents obviously. There’s a lad called Michael Roddy and his parents are from Ireland as well and he was going to a Cap Presentation because he’d played in the U17 season and spoke to the manager, Sean McCaffrey. He then came over to watch some games and called me up into a friendly squad against Malta. I played in that, did OK, and then got called into another one which was against Hungary in Arklow.
“The Ireland set up is brilliant, it’s fantastic. I’ve played a lot in friendlies and then I went with the U19s to the first round of the UEFA qualifiers and then went to France in December and I think the next tournament is in March. It’s very professional, great set up. It’s a great side with a lot of very good players.”
I ask him if he’d consider defecting into the England squad when he comes of age, but he’s adamant that won’t happen, “I have pledged that I’ll play for Ireland. My Grandma would turn over in her grave if she found out I’d changed and all my family in Ireland wouldn’t speak to me.” Which makes this particular Irish lassie very chuffed indeed.
Back at Bolton, Matt is entering what is arguably a difficult time in his young career. A time which for many means make or break.
“It is quite hard sometimes when it gets to this point because although everyone is a team and to get through the season you have to be a team but a lot of it comes down to individuals. It’s a good group of boys. In the youth team there’s a very good atmosphere. You do see some lads go; one lad in particular is a good friend of mine. It’s horrible really but that’s how it goes really.”
For Matt, he has, by his own admission, had a turbulent few months.
“I don’t know if you know but this season for me – it’s gone well, but obviously the thing about Academy life is that there are so many ups and downs it’s unbelievable – you can have days where you think you’re on top of the world and then there’s days – the littlest thing – you have a bad game and it brings you down but you have a good game and it’s such a good feeling.”
A good season, where everything is going to plan – regular appearances for the reserves and good progression in training – can be turned in a heartbeat.
“I played in the Youth Cup in December which we had a very good chance of winning this year if I’m honest. Then on 40 minutes, I was the last man, got sent off and I was just gutted – it was one of my lowest points. All it was about after that was how I reacted – I had a bit of a dodgy patch in January but I feel I’m getting back to my best now.”
And where to from here? I’ll leave it to Matt to close the interview in his own words:
“The plan from now until the end of the season is to put myself in the picture for the next pre-season. The thing is, with Academy football, that when you get your chance, and you always will get your chance, you have to take it. Joey O’Brien is a classic example – he took his chance.
“The truth is Bolton Wanderers is an Academy where you do get your chance – to be playing in the reserves when you’re 17/18 against all these great players, and with the backroom and the coaching staff here – you get more opportunity at this club.
“I think being released from Liverpool was a hidden blessing. I had kind of stopped enjoying it but I still have really good friends there. There are a lot of really talented lads in youth football and the difference between whether you make it or not is such a fine line and I think the way that they have educated us at Bolton – we have psychology sessions and everything – has really prepared us for that. I feel I just want to push on now."
"It's hard work but the rewards are great. Everyone’s got a chance; you just have to work hard."
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