Tees Interview Part 2

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 06/08/2000

Matt Tees Interview Part Two

Matt (above, center) in interview with David Peasgood
November 1st 1998 at the Cleethorpes Golf Club

Click here to download part two of the Matt Tees interview in Real Audio.

David:
Did you have a favourite period at Blundell park? Was it the first time or the second with it's championship success??

Matt:
I think about this. One of the best times was when McGuigan was here. We were playing very well and had a good run in the cup, the League cup. In the FA cup I think we lost to Manchester City, and we beat Crystal Palace at Crystal Palace. Certainly it wasn't bad under MacMenemy either and I think that's maybe why I came back because I really enjoyed myself in Grimsby.

David:
What was he like to play under, Big Mac?

Matt:
He was a big PR man. We used to be training at Peaks Lane and he'd turn up in his car with a tracksuit on and a Yorkshire TV helicopter would appear overhead. We'd all say 'here he comes then' and start taking the mickey out of him as though he was a film start or something, but he was alright, yeah. He was alright.

David:
Fitness. Was fitness better in his day than now?

Matt:
Well we used to do a lot in them days, a lot. I don't really know about now because I don't know what training they do nowadays.

David:
They don't seem to spend too long at the ground.

Matt:
Aye well the problem is they let the players live away now, like they live in Scunthorpe or Sheffield, and as soon as they've finished training they're off down the motorways and that. In Grimsby in previous days every player lived in Grimsby, so when training was over we'd all go off to our little café all together like.

David:
Do you think that helped team spirit?

Matt:
Oh aye. There was the courting and we'd all have a laugh and on a Sunday morning we'd turn up with the kids and that and the married lads would be ribbing the younger ones about how they'd got on the night before and it was a laugh and we were a team.

David:
Do you watch Grimsby play nowadays?

Matt:
No. I haven't seen Grimsby play in years now.

David:
Not even the big games? Chelsea a couple of years ago maybe?

Matt:
No. I don't know what it is. I just kind of lost interest, and then I work most Saturdays so I couldn't go anyway and I guess when I stopped playing myself I finished and I kind of lost a lot of interest. I did do a couple of reunions though which was alright but for watching I don't know. I think the money has gone all out of proportion too now and that's a part of it.

David:
Were you born in the wrong era do you think? You could have been a millionaire if you played today?

Matt:
Well I'll tell you. There's others have said that I was born too early but I say Why? I enjoyed what I did and I enjoyed my football. So we got a minimum wage and the maximum was only 16 to 20 pounds a week but we enjoyed ourselves then.

David:
Do you think there is too much pressure now from the media?

Matt:
I think money's gone right out the door now. It's like this thing with Dion Dublin and there's Laudrup too you read about. Years ago when you signed for a team you were under contract to that team and you went when they decided, not like now when you go if YOU'VE decided you've had enough. No THEY decided then.

David:
I guess that's modern moral standards or agents maybe.

Matt:
I never knew about agents, No the first I knew was we stopped for lunch at a hotel in Leicester and the Leicester players came in and Derek Dougan was with them organising a reunion or something and he mentioned his agent. That was the first I'd heard of one.

David:
Nowadays we hear a lot about players boozing and that. Was it stricter in your days or morally stronger?

Matt:
Well. You weren't allowed to drink after Wednesday. That was the last day. At Grimsby, all the lads used to go out together that night and even the married ones, their wives would let them out. That was part of being together; that was part of what made the club a happy place, but nowadays they maybe don't see each other after training until the next session or the next match. They've finished training and they're away down the motorway nowadays.

The interview continues in Part Three

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