Furious Pigeon bagged an exclusive interview with the man that 'they hate to love', player/manager for Lokomotiv Selly Oak; Matt Shotton. He really is a tricky man to get hold of for interviews, so how did we get him? Begging, back-handers and blowjobs, that's how! Be grateful and read the story of a great man.
Shotton is clearly fond of football and cites Michael Duberry and Jonathon Woodgate as his biggest influences within the game as he grew up a Leeds United fan, Elland Road was his second home: "I used to have a part-time job at the local coal-mine where my dad worked and we worked a sixty-two hour week to save up to buy a pair of Reebok sidewinders, my whole family had to eat old newspapers and soil from the back-garden to save up for those boots and to go and watch Leeds play each week."
With those first boots Shotton took his first steps into the game and was a successful schoolboy with his team Churwell primary school who won every local trophy in yorkshire. As a youth Shotton scored a left-foot volley from the halfway line in a match watched by none other than Chris Kamara, many believe that this is where 'Kammie' first uttered his catch-phrase: "unbelievable" although those reports are unconfirmed.
Shotton is unlike your conventional football manager, an honoured law-graduate and a scholar; hence the nickname bestowed upon him by fans and the media who call him: 'The Martin O'Neil of the Birmingham leisure-leagues division three', Shotton believes that it's "A bit of a mouthfull, to be honest, I prefer Brian Clough 2."
So how did he come to have the top-job at one of the newest clubs in the league: "Phil Davis says to me; 'Matt, we need an honest team that this area can be proud of and a manager who does things by the book, I'll set up the club if you are the boss. Phil couldn't do it himself because the FA were investigating him and he was arrested on corruption charges at the time, so I said 'yes' and we went from there. I'd met Phil in June as we were working as a removals man at a solicitors firm in the city centre and we hit it off. We're not gay, though."The pair played together with Middlesborozil in the leisure leagues premiership in Solihul and subsequently at City of Newman College premiership with Red Star Wellplayed and LA Galaxy Caramel. Shotton scored the club's (LA Galaxy Caramel) only goal in a 1-1 draw just prior to their liquidation but Shotton is not bitter: "We had some great times and I met players who I've subsequently signed for Lokomotiv, Richie Summerfield, Alex Dandy and Phil Davis himself...it was a learning curve which has laid the foundations for Lokomotiv Selly Oak."
So much is Shotton's dedication to his new post he has even moved to Selly Oak, effectively ending recent press speculation that he is not committed: "I love Selly Oak, it's great, varied, the people, the culture, the atmosphere, you know it all resonates from a rapidly growing club who've got a great stadium, The Tesco-Express Arena is fantastic...Lokomotiv really are a sleeping giant, etc, etc...."
It has not been plain sailing this season for Lokomotiv; two wins out of four means that questions have been asked and pressure has been applied, which may explain Shotton's tempestuous relationship with the media: "It's no secret that we don't get on, to be honest but I can't say too much because there are still legal proceedings ongoing...journalists are like crabs (pubic lice) they cling to you and feed, ugly, pathetic creatures that rely on you despite not actually caring for you... blood-sucking parasites who need you for their quality of life and do nothing for you, except being a nuisance that you have to live with. A journalist without football managers is nothing, they can't exist but a football manager without journalists is a man getting on with his job just fine. I've never had crabs by the way."
Shotton's next test comes on sunday against Ulysees as his side Lokomotiv will be hoping for more words of wisdom from their coach to escape the relegation dog-fight.
Matt Shotton's book: 'I'll Leeds the way' is out now, priced £14.95 which is really expensive but there are some priceless photo's in the middle
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