 Bwm, mae'r ond! Yn yw'r eifrif, byddai i'w bwysig plant-on-wave campers y UK'r stwch Llywodraeth Llywodraeth yn canpa fan. Byddai'r locations, mae'n ddwy'r gwybod, plant-on-wave campers mae'n gandd yn cael ei ffysg o'r ffordd. Felly, mae'n gweithio'r ysgol, yw'r ysgol yng Nghymru, ac mae'n gweithio'r ddweithio'r ddweithio'r ddweithio, mae'n gweithio'r ffordd. Dwi'n ddweud o'r gwrs hon i'r gwrs yn canfalbannu, mae'n gwybod ychydig, sy'n ddweud 500 pound o'r ddweud o'r codi G-500. Felly mae'n rhaid i'r gwneud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud a ddweud i'r G-100. Felly, rydyn ni'n gwneud y ffyrdd. Rydyn ni'n cael ei ffordd o'i gwneud i'r platformi social media i'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gwahanol. a chydig yn ddim yn dweud y ddweud y ddefnyddio'r ifanc, ac y ddylu'n gymifiadau. Gweithio'n gyda eu cyfrannuogi'r ffyrdd ymgyrch yn blaen. Ydw'n ddechreu'r syniadau perthynaholau, wrth gŵryd i gyrddu ar gyfer, normaladau'r byddo ar gyfer syniadau, lle'n ddedechid i ddisgymynau. Wrth gwybod yn ffordd, ac ydyn nhw'n ddim yn ddefnyddio. Fy me'n eu wneud yw? Fy un fod ydyn nhw? own business. All they need to do is to keep you just well enough to keep needing their tablets, and that's common sense. You know, I don't need to be going to university to work that out. The names involved on that island, Epstein's Island, how are they getting away with it? How are they not even being asked questions about it? You know, even if they weren't guilty of any crime, the fact that they were on that island, the fact you know what that island was about, all came out in the trial, and yet none of them we get questioned. Not even a question from the authorities. It's just bizarre. Where does your loyalty come with Southampton? Because there's been teams come in Chelsea, man, you, 10 million, you were apparently going to be the biggest British transfer. Where does your loyalty come from, Southampton, and why? Even though you might disagree with me, you should still be sticking up for my right to have an opinion. Because I'll stick up for yours. I might disagree with what you say, but I will never tell you you're not allowed to say that, or I'll never ridicule you for what you believe. That's what you believe. That's what you believe. Let's get on with it. It's right. You do need a certain kind of mentality to be able to cope with the criticism that comes your way, and you know, the media setting their pack of walls on you and on social media when you say something that they don't agree with. But quite frankly, I don't really care for the opinions of morally corrupt individuals, but I certainly feel like my views have been misrepresented by a lot of people in the mainstream media. Obviously, there's a reason for that is because I don't no longer fall for their propaganda. And so they will try to ridicule me for that, because I'm questioning their entire resistance and what they do for a living. Boomer on. And today's guest, a good footballer and legend, Matli Taze. How are you, brother? I'm good. Thanks, mate, and you? Yeah, really good. Really good. It's about a drama zero. I locked myself out of the studio, and we had to wait a bit, but hey ho, we're here now. Cursly mistake, eh? Exactly, mate. You heard the price to chance. Great footballer. I knew you back in the day, yourself, Shira, unbelievable record football. Caught us like a bit of controversy with the conspiracy stuff, which we'll touch on later on in an interview. But first and foremost, how are you, brother? I'm good, mate. Yeah, I can't complain. Yeah, it's really good to see you, mate. It's good to see you, too. Football and legend, like I say, you've got the rights to be dubbed one of the greatest footballers to have a plan of football picks, like your goals, both unbelievable. Thanks, mate. Your penalties, was it 47 out of 48? Yes, yeah. Mark Crossley, just the one miss. Yeah. First madfield that has scored over 100 goals, I'm correct, as well. In the Premier League, yeah. My knowledge is unbelievable, mate. You probably see that, mate. Always like to go back to the start of my guests. Where do you grew up and how it all began? So I grew up on the tiny channel island of Guernsey. I was the youngest of four boys. Sport mad family, football mad family. My three older brothers were all pretty decent footballers themselves. And I grew up a very sheltered life in Guernsey. Very relaxed, like next to no crime on the island. It was just a beautiful place to grow up, enjoyed my school. Didn't work particularly hard at school because I knew I was going to be a footballer. From an early age, that was all I wanted to do, really, and I knew I was good enough to do it. And so, yeah, most, if you look through my school reports, they all say something along the lines of Matthew could do very well in this subject, if only he applied himself properly. And that was kind of the theme running through everything apart from PE, where I just got brilliant marks, because I was good at football. I was good at cricket. I was good at tennis, table tennis. Pretty good snooker player. All sorts of sport, really. Everything that was a round ball, not that funny shape ball, I didn't do that sport. What made you put the passion into football? I think it's because it was the one I was the best at, and that was the one I had the most natural ability out, I think. And I knew from kind of quite an early age that I was pretty good. I didn't know exactly how good, because the football, the standard of football in Guernsey, you know, it's a small island, tiny community, so you didn't really know until I came over here and started playing against the guys in the mainland just how good I was in comparison to guys that have had kind of professional coaching and all that kind of stuff, because I didn't really have any of that until I was nearly 15. What was, who was the oldest out the brothers? My oldest brother was Mark. He was only defender out the Forvis. He was a pretty decent footballer who, see, I think if we'd have actually grown up as a family in England, I think we would have all been professional footballers. So Mark was the only defender, and Kevin and Carl were, I would say, equally as talented as I was at football. You know, I grew up playing with them and their mates, and they had unbelievable ability, and they both had chances to be professional footballers, but they didn't. They got homesick and didn't want to leave Guernsey, and so they never took their chances. That's why I say if we'd have grown up in England, I think they would have definitely been footballers. What was mum and dad like? Mum and dad were really, really hardworking parents. We didn't have a lot. We grew up in a council house in Guernsey. They worked two jobs at times to make sure that there was enough food and enough clothes for us all, and they were just really hardworking, loving parents, but they were quite fiery at times as well, and they had to be because they had four boys with strong personalities, so they had to keep them in line a little bit. So dad had a temper when it suited him and said, mum, and we grew up with a pretty good discipline because of that, but also grew up having a lot of fun. I mean, Guernsey is such a a chilled-out place to grab as a kid. You've got the beaches on your doorstep whenever the sun's out, and it just is a really, really relaxed way of life over there, and everyone knows each other. You don't walk past five or six people without knowing one of them, and it was a lovely place to grab. What was the population? It's now about just under 60,000, I think. That's quite a lot. It sounds like quite a lot, but it's on an island that's only three miles wider, it's widest point, and nine miles longer is the longest point. There's not a lot of space on there, so you do get to know a lot of people. Everybody getting on each other's pets. It takes a special kind of mentality, I think, to want to stay in that environment, because it can be a little bit claustrophobic. Some people have said that about it. They've wanted to get off the island and look at a little bit of the rest of the world and see what life's like on the rest of the world, but honestly, it's a lovely place. If I hadn't made it as a footballer, and I'd have had to force to spend my time, my entire life on Guernsey, I wouldn't have had a problem with that at all. Look at other people who are maybe older, who's maybe doing the same job there for 30, 40, 50 years, and think to yourself, is there more out there? Because a lot of people do say, oh, and I'll let you say if you were there, you'd have been happy, but did you just see something more? I saw football, really. It wasn't necessarily that I wanted to move off of Guernsey, but for me to be a professional footballer, I had to. I came to that realisation at an early age, having seen my brothers turn down their opportunities, I was like, blimey, I'd never do that if I got the opportunity. Mum and dad helped with that as well, because they would send me away to soccer schools on the mainland as a kid without them, so I'd go with one of my mates and my mate's dad, and they just got me used to being off the island on my own to try and, when the time came, it wasn't such a daunting thing for me to leave the island. Did they see that ability in you? I know you say you've got natural ability. Everybody's got something natural ingrained in them, but you've still got to work at your craft. What was your daily routine like as a kid, 12, 13, 14, 15, with a ball? I don't remember having a routine, but I can certainly remember playing it as soon as school was finished. I'd be out my school clothes into my sports gear and rounding up mates for a game of football in the winter, rounding up mates for a game of cricket in the summer. Just any opportunity I had, I would play sport. I was just obsessed with it. Do you think you'd have been successful if you chose Cliccate as well? Yep, I do. I love the confidence, Marty Boy. I love the confidence. The reason I say that, I mean I had a pretty good eye to hand coordination and my timing was good when I was playing cricket. I scored a lot of runs as a kid, but not just that. The reason I've got so much confidence in that is because I knew I had the right mentality to be successful in whatever sport I chose. I think the mentality side of things is something that gets overlooked a little bit when it comes to professional sport. I think everybody looks at your ability, but I think also you've got to have the right mentality. What was your team growing up? Spurs. My dad was a Spurs fan and when I grew up, the first person really that I saw that made me fall in love with football and want to be a footballer was Glenn Hoddle. Unbelievable talent. I just loved the way that he made the game look so easy and that was the thing that gripped me. There's a bit of a theme running through all my heroes of the various sports that I've played. You wouldn't be surprised that it was people like Ian Boetham, it was people like Jimmy White, Snuka, Alex Higgins, Ernie Ells at Goff and they're all people that just made their sport look effortless. Such natural ability, but also a great mentality. I think that was one of the things that has helped me actually probably more these last couple of years than it did in the first 50. Yeah, we'll touch on that obviously for Mom and Dad, where I'm a bit distracted. It's kind of made you a bit thicker skin towards life and whatever shit that you've got to take on from the outside. When did you take the leap there and go to Southampton for a time? Firstly, I actually went to Oxford first. I was about 14 or 15. I left my school in Guernsey and went to live in Oxford. Was it S1 back then? Was it S1 or anything you had to say back then? Like a pro contract? No, so I hadn't really signed anything. I went to live in Oxford, changed schools to go to school in Oxford and I was going to train with the Oxford youth players in the evenings and weekends, so that was the plan. I moved to Oxford in the Easter holidays. I stayed with my dad's mate and then so I was there about two weeks, obviously through the holidays, and then I started the next term at school there. I've rocked up at school this first day. School was massive. I'd just come from Guernsey, but we had like, I don't know, 100 people in my year. At school I turned up. I was like four times bigger than the school I'd just been at. I was doing subjects that I'd never even done at my old school. I just remember not a single other student speaking to me the whole day. It was just like, a new kid in school, no one's going to speak to me. I just felt so isolated. I went back. I wasn't very happy after the first day at school, so I thought, I'll give it a go. Surely it can't be that bad the next day. I went back the next day. Still no one talked to me. I just thought, I can't do this. I said to my dad's mate, I said, I can't do it. I'm not happy. I can't do this. I want to go back to Guernsey. I did, but I knew that at that point Southampton had showed an interest in me and had offered me a trial. I went back to Guernsey, went back to my old school, and then I went to Southampton for a weeks trial. At the end of that week, they signed me as an associate schoolboy. The good thing about that was they didn't mind me staying in Guernsey to finish my schooling. I would just fly over to Southampton half-term in the holidays just to train with the guys then. About a year later, the decision was made from all those people in my year. They were choosing nine players to be given apprenticeships at Southampton. It was a YTS scheme back in the day, the youth training scheme. I was one of the nine chosen. I just had a letter. I didn't have a phone call or anything. We just had a letter that came to our house and signed by Laurie McMennaamie saying that we want to offer you an apprenticeship. Many people, only nine. Once they've had some fucking school team. No, of all the Southampton schoolboys. So there was like, I don't know how many, maybe 40 or 50. The 40 or 50 schoolboys in that year. They knocked it down to nine. That was in May 1985. I left on July 1, 1985. I stayed the first night I was there. I flew over on June 30th, stayed with some friends, the friends of my mum in Eastley and got taken into the dell the next morning. I literally got taken into that. I'm 16 years of age. Got taken into the dell, dropped off there with my, I think I had like two bags. I had no idea where I was going to be sleeping that night. Not a clue. We were all probably five or six of us in the same boat because a few of the boys were local. They stayed with their parents. We were just put in a car with the assistant manager at the time, John Mortimer, and driven to a house in the city. They've got literally chucked me on the doorstep and went, right, that's where you're going to be staying for the next two years. What was that like? It was quite daunting really just to be chucked into a house. Luckily, the people that I stayed with, Pete and Pat Ford, they were good as gold. Pete was a season ticket holder at Southampton. He had two sons who were 11 and nine, I think Stuart and Martin were at the time. That was quite nice for me. I wasn't just on my own. It was a family unit there. It was also quite good because I went from being the youngest of four boys who got beat up by their older brothers the whole time to now I'm like the oldest of three boys. I'm just like, I can do the beating up. What's that like when you start making waves because you made a lot of noise from a young kid, did you know it? Yeah, I started scoring goals really early. In that first season in the youth team, I scored loads of hat tricks. I scored 59 goals altogether that season. We won the Southeast Counties League by a million miles. We were just like the best team in the league. That was really good. I didn't really play a lot of reserve team games that first year though. Maybe just a couple towards the end of the season, I think, because obviously there was senior pros and quite a big first team squad and then a reserve team that had some players in there who had been there a few years and were trying to make their way, so you didn't really get a lot of chances. Then the following season, I ended up playing in Nick Holmes' testimonial match against Ben Fica at the Delf and that was my first ever appearance at the Delf. I got taken on the pre-season trip as well. We went to Exeter and Torquay. We played down in Devon. We stayed at St Melion and that was my first ever appearance for Southampton first team. I came on as a sub against Exeter. Then when the season started, I wasn't in the squad, but after about two games, I think it was the third game Chris Nicol called me into the first team squad for the first time. I was still only 17 years of age and I was about 10.5 stone dripping wet. That was quite daunting to start playing like first division football when you're still, I hadn't really fully developed as a bloke yet and the era I was playing against Spurs, funny enough, was my first start. I came on a sub against Norwich and then my first ever start for Saints was against my team that I supported as a boy. And guess who was playing for Spurs that night? My hero. That was amazing. We won 2-0 and I had quite a good game. I was buzzing. I had all my family up in the stand. It was brilliant. That was a nice little start for me. But then I didn't really establish myself in the team for quite a while after that. Chris Nicol used to, obviously because I was still developing, he never really gave me a huge run of games in the team. So I'd play like one or two games and then he put me back a sub. So I spent about two or three years almost being a permanent sub for Southampton until I really broke into the team when I was 20. And we sold Danny Wallace to Man United. Obviously Danny was a really good player for Saints, very popular with the fans. And then Danny went and all of a sudden there was a spare spot in the team and I was the one that was in the right place and then came into the side and started scoring goals pretty quick that season. And I ended up that season winning the young player of the year and scoring 24 goals. That was a pretty special season. And we finished seventh in the league that year. This is obviously before the Premier League started. So nobody remembers that. How much has Nicol played a big part in your life? I believe that's good management, not just for the enemy. Depend. I believe if you're good enough you should play but late you say you're still growing, you're still adapting. I understand why you did that when I look back. Were you ever frustrated at it? At the time I was frustrated. Yeah, I would have been a little bit frustrated but also I didn't mind just gaining that experience as a sub for like 20 minutes here, half an hour there, just easing your way into it gently. So it was a bit frustrating, especially when it kind of went on the next season as well. But I knew, I had belief in my ability and I knew that once I got my chance that I'd have enough ability to take it. Because the leagues were tough then and it wasn't a snowflake league, it wasn't a snowflake league back then. My second ever game for Southampton that I started after that Spurs game on the Tuesday night we played Forest on the Saturday following Saturday and I kept my place in the team and honestly Stuart Pierce played left back. I was playing right wing for Southampton. Stuart Pierce was at left back for Forest. I just remember looking at him and thinking, Jesus Christ, his thighs were wider than my entire body. He was like, well he's going to kick the shit out of me and he did. And you just, you learn to deal with it. You grow and that's kind of when I became, I think I became a better player when I filled out a bit and I learned how to look after myself a bit better and I was a bit stronger physically. Yeah, well does your loyalty come with Southampton know that? Because there's been teams come in Chelsea, Man Ut, 10 million, you were apparently going to be the biggest British transfer. Where does your loyalty come from Southampton and why? I think my loyalty probably comes from values that are instilled in me by my parents. But I also felt a sense of duty towards Southampton because they gave me my chance to be a professional footballer, which is everything I wanted to be in my life. And they gave me that chance to do that. So I felt like I always owed them something. And I don't think I would have been able to live with myself if I would have left Southampton and then got relegated. I would have taken that as being my fault. Now, rightly or wrongly, that's probably quite an arrogant attitude to take. But that's what that's kind of how I felt and how I believed. And I always knew two things really. I enjoyed being the big fish in the small pond. I've never shied away from admitting that. I enjoyed the pressure of the expectation of the people of Southampton looking to me to score their goals and create the goals. I enjoyed that pressure, but I also enjoyed the fact that at Southampton I could play football the way that I wanted to play it. You know, we weren't under a massive amount of pressure to win every game. It wasn't that kind of pressure. So it meant that I was able to kind of play football the way that I wanted to. It seems odd to say this because I was a professional sportsman, but I felt like football was an entertainment industry. And the first thing I wanted to do was entertain people. And then the second thing was to try and win. That's not a brilliant attitude to have as a professional sportsman. But I always felt like football should be entertaining. And that's what I tried to do. And I could do that easier at Southampton than if I had gone to a club where they were expected to win every week. I would have probably have had to have changed the way that I played. I think because the enjoyment thing just took over you from it. Absolutely. The pressure then becomes a very different thing. And I always wanted to enjoy my football. And I've always wanted to enjoy my life. And that's one of the reasons as well. I didn't leave Southampton because I was happy where I was. And I never felt the need to go and earn more money. You know, I could have earned when Chelsea came in for me in 1995. I could probably have earned, I don't know, six or seven times more than what I was getting at Southampton. But that was never my reason for playing football. I wasn't in football to be rich. I'm not in life to be rich. I want to be able to enjoy my life. And as long as I've got enough for the stuff that I want to do in my life, then I don't need any more than that. And I think that's something that I've had that attitude all the while. And it's only really when the government a couple of years ago decided that actually we're going to stop you from doing all the stuff that you think you can enjoy that I started to speak out about what I thought was going on in this world. And I don't know if that was always in me or if it was just because all of a sudden now the government are going, well now you can't go and play golf. Golf courses are shut. You can't do that. And you can't work because there's no, you know, you can't do after in speaking because we're not allowing people to gather in big groups of 100 people. And so all of a sudden all our freedoms were being taken away. And I didn't think it was the right thing to do. So I decided to speak out about it. If you're playing, that's why I've got respect for you, but it's not easy to do so. It's not. And it's right. You do need a certain kind of mentality to be able to cope with the criticism that comes your way. And you know, the media setting their pack of walls on you and on social media when you say something that they don't agree with. But quite frankly, I don't really care for the opinions of morally corrupt individuals. So they can shout and scream whatever they want. It makes not a job of difference to me. Yeah, you can't control outside noise, but what you can control is how you react to it. Now you don't agree with the narrative or the agenda that some people push. Then you are ridiculed. You are embarrassed. You are shamed. And we've got the council culture where people don't believe you then. We have indeed. I'm for be who you want to be as long as you're not harming anyone who gives us the right to say this is right or this is wrong because everything in my eyes as a conspiracy unless I actually see it with my own eyes, mean you could read a book and take two totally different sides from it. It is where it is. It's called life. It's called having the people want to get whatever it is where I'm asked whatever lesson do what you want to do, but don't force me for and take away my choice of life. Who controls my life, my decisions if I'm not harming anyone that I get it. I ain't a doctor. I ain't a scientist. But what I have got is a gut feeling in a soul to say what I mean. I've got a question that like is he the same patterns that's been going on for fucking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years that even when we talk about wars that I love the UK. I love the people from the UK and my Scotsmen as well. First of all, I love Scotland as well, but I love everybody. I've been all around the world. I've connected with so many different people on a level that borders race religion. It doesn't mean anything to me for me. It's divided and conquering for people. It's just a sad day when you can't have a voice where you are embarrassed, you are ridiculed for speaking out against something that you quite don't agree with. It's just because it's a very small majority of people. I don't know if it's brainwashing or whatever and we maybe see the world differently because we spoke earlier and we could be wrong at certain things and that's okay as well. I think that's the the biggest thing about everything is that nobody knows everything. Nobody knows everything. Everybody can be wrong about something and the way we survive as human beings is to be able to have different opinions and be able to chat about them and not fall out with people just because we see things differently to them because at the end of the day who is the arbiter of the truth? Who knows what the truth is? You say I only believe it if I see it with my own eyes. Well that's fine and that's all well and good but sometimes you can be deceived by what you see with your own eyes because of the technology that's available in this day and age. So you can be watching something but not really what you're watching. The stuff they can do in television now is just incredible and you wouldn't know what you were looking at was actually real. What's real? I felt like we go back to what the sixties when you look at them in London's. There are so much unanswered questions with that like flags are moving, like there's apparently no air in space, shadows that. Again however's going against that grain as well and saying they're fake that that could be false technology as well. You look at the pictures from NASA who's when they talk about the world's round flag like I don't know, I haven't seen it but I'm when you start you get the rabbit hole so big you know yourself once you go down that mate you start thinking are you going crazy because you don't know what's right or what's wrong. Yeah I don't think I've ever felt like I'm going crazy but what I have over the last couple of years realised is it's important to get a sense of perspective on things and to question everything. I think that's the biggest thing for me and as you say I think it's important when you're talking about a subject so if you take for instance the moon landings if you take a look at the evidence that's available all the evidence that's available from both sides so there's one side of the story that goes well you can tell that's not real look at this look at this or them going well clearly it's real this is what we've got this is what NASA have told us you should be allowed to just have both those points of view and be able to discern for yourself what's real and what's not real you make your own decision on what you believe to be real based on the evidence put in front of you and then you listen to your gut and you and you make a decision I wouldn't ever now outsource my view of something to an expert just because he said this is what's happened when somebody says that I will then want to know okay that's fine that's that's what you're saying what's your conflict of interest what do you gain from saying that and it's always I think now I tend to look at things when I hear things and I question okay what do you stand to benefit from that or this bloke over there who's saying this stuff what does he stand to lose from that you know what has he got to gain has he got any things to gain no what has he got to lose well everyone's going to think he's losing you know and he'll probably lose his job but you're still saying it now I'm going to be more inclined to believe this bloke because he's standing up for what he believes in and he's going to lose shit because of it yeah but you're still saying it or is this bloke have a look where what shares he owns and where's where where's his funding come from and then correlate that with what he's saying about the subject and does there is there any conflict of interest there and if there is then that makes me doubt that person simple as that he might still be right but it's going to make me doubt him how is that for you Matt to be known as one of the greatest to have a play in English football league that to be scoring over 200 goals over 500 appearances to be in a presenter that to then being kind of not blackball but we don't need you anymore that did you ever feel used at a certain point that nobody's really came at the forefront and said you know what I stand behind you you know or even something that says I don't believe in what you've got to do what you're saying but it has a point or everybody has an opinion that I think I think what we need to really have in this country is be able to agree to disagree on things so and and be able to agree that even though you might disagree with me you should still be sticking up for my right to have an opinion because I will stick up for yours I did I might disagree with what you say but I will I will never tell you you're not allowed to say that I will never ridicule you for what you believe so that's what you believe that's what you believe let's get on with it what was it like when you were playing football how was your mindset we just caught up as you say it was entertainment because some say that as well you were in the football game but feed them bread and water and they forget what's actually going on in the real world because people devote their life to football but again there is more to life than football I love football I played it for years I still play it to this day but when you look at the bigger picture it can be another smokescreen because people are so caught up in that day in and day out signings football games it's non-stop where I actually don't think for themselves and that can be a scary thing that did you know this while you were playing football we just started to see it now just uh just starting to see I tell you why but um certainly when I was playing all I was concentrating on was was you know playing football staying fit trying to score as many goals as I could just I loved it it's brilliant um so I didn't really think from the from a fan's perspective about it because I was in the middle of it um but I did notice that um I believe now looking back when the Premier League got suspended um and they were you know trying to get the season back on the way I do think that that that's the the efforts that they went to to get football back on the way um was was a distraction it was to keep to keep the people distracted from the decisions that our government were making and to stop people actually looking into things um and uh realising just exactly what what really was going on behind the scenes um and yeah I think it was definitely a distraction because I've had David Daico and he was a goalkeeper he was on the walking show over 20 million people watching the ridicule that went by the stomach I don't agree with everything the man says but there's a lot of stuff I do agree with and I'll say this to him like do you feel that sort of same ridicule just now um no not really um I don't uh I don't feel in myself that uh that I've been ridiculed I feel that I've been unfairly um represented uh in my views in the media uh and there have probably been um maybe one or two times that I probably didn't help myself with the examples that I used uh to highlight the media manipulation uh and the propaganda that we're subjected to um but I certainly feel like my views have been misrepresented um by a lot of people in the in the mainstream media uh and obviously there's a reason for that is because uh I don't no longer fall for their propaganda uh and so they will try to ridicule me for that because I'm questioning their entire existence and what they do for a living so it's pretty obvious that there any opportunity they'll get they'll try and jump on me um but as I said before um morally corrupt people their opinion doesn't interest me yeah there's corruption everywhere on my opinion on wars I believe there should be no wars there is absolutely there should be no wars in this day and age we're in the 21st century if we as adults can't settle disputes by talking to each other instead of getting tanks out and killing people sending kids what the hell I mean seriously where are we where are we coming hundreds of years it's just it's just crazy that we we have to resort to having wars in this day and age enough and changes but you look at the war we've talked Russia Ukraine like I speak to Russian people and they agree what Russia's doing Ukraine people they agree what they're doing we've got to look at Britain as well Britain's invaded nearly every country on this planet over 90% of the countries we have destroyed it's a very powerful country now none of our athletes have ever been banned from a competition have they never and I don't believe that anybody's right or wrong with wars like because it's so fucked up it's the guys with the suit sitting behind that why don't they get a box and I'll fight it out and do whatever they've got to do that you look at the war on the rack like nearly 500,000 people were killed for apparent weapons of mass destruction and it was found out there was no weapons of mass destruction Tony Blair's just been knighted like is this where it's came to like I could be wrong but again when when they've admitted to the fucked up then you go your answers are there like I don't know too much about the wars I just know there shouldn't be wars I don't understand that there's got to be some sort of human beings just can't run for a free for all there's got to be some security I get it but why is young kids dying left right and centre that happen if you had many people who's been in there I mean their heads are fried I do a lot of homeless work in Glasgow the majority of people on the street are homeless have been fighting in battle that they're willing to fight apparently for to help protect you but yet when they come back nobody fights to protect them so I believe the world is waking up to a lot of things I believe I believe that with most wars I think if you if you find out who benefits from their being wars you'll you'll probably find out where the problem's really like to see follow the money if you follow the money you'll you'll find out when you're working on sky sports that what we've kind of known what was going behind what what you were visualising or what you were kind of researching when you're doing any of that sort of research there where you like to say you can go down the rabbit hole we just content with your life going and being a pundit going back to your message that is anything just yeah no it's really it's only really been the last couple of years where I started looking a little bit closer at what's gone on in the world and it's yeah it's probably a selfish thing from my point of view because you know I was I was a footballer I was I was a pundit I had a job you know that job allowed me to fund the lifestyle that I wanted and I kind of wasn't really interested in politics at all not not at all and it was only when it kind of started really impacting on my life that I kind of started to take a bit more notice of it and so from that point of view it does yeah it feels like I I feel like I've been a little bit selfish down the years because it was a bit when I'm all right jack attitude and now it's affected me all of a sudden I'm speaking out so I could understand if that criticism was to come my way but you know that's that's the way my life is gone and um you know I wouldn't change anything I've done these last couple of years did you get sacked from Sky Sports? Oh yeah yeah we had seven months left in my contract when we were told there was no more work for us how was that feeling after 20 years um how was it feeling yeah I was probably I've always I've always been confident that I can you know make a living whatever I choose to do so I wasn't overly fussed about it but my my wife was obviously very concerned because obviously there's a big chunk of money that's now not no longer coming in so she was a bit concerned but as it turned out two years later down the line hasn't really impacted financially on us as a family so yeah I've got to be honest that I've actually given what transpired over the last couple of years and the way that the mainstream media have reported on things and have frightened the shit out of the population I'm quite relieved not to be working for them that's a good thing when you start speaking out with certain things that we speak about we don't a lot of thrown at people's face and saying believe is this and that but just question everything like question we're questioning things and I'm not expecting everybody to believe what I'm saying um but what I would expect everyone to do is maybe just question things and and have a look for yourself because not everything that you're that you're told on the news is is the truth unfortunately it's a sad state of affairs but that's the way the world is at the moment and so we should all be allowed an opinion nobody knows all the truth so I think to get criticised for having an opinion after you've done a little bit of research on on certain subjects by people who only listen to the BBC news I think that's probably one of my biggest bugbears when when people want to criticise you and you go what do you know about it and they go well I had on the news the other night so I was like oh stop you there go now go and do some thinking for yourself please just stop believing everything you hear on the television because it does brainwash it you look at fucking the Jimmy Savile stuff do you know what I mean how he flew under the radar is beyond me you just you don't judge a book by cover but fuck me you sure judge him like why he get away with so much and it must be hard as well amount of celebrities you cross pathos because you don't know the extent of it but there was a lot of whispers like who was it it came out he used he was he sang in a band oh he was a he sang in a band he done the god save the queen song as well but he spoke out about sarbonne one of the shows and he get black bald oh yeah johnny rotten yeah yeah I remember yeah I remember yeah how does that guy get into the royal family how does that guy working at hospitals in charities and doing what he done man like I mean you have to ask yourself I mean he he was quite close with prince Charles wasn't he I mean you have to ask yourself if he was that close to prince Charles how much did Charlie know you know one of your best mates is a wrong one like that there's a fair chance you know about it you know but those questions will never get asked and I'll never get answered they'll never get answered for sure and yeah it's just it's just bizarre to me that the the bbc even survived after that knowing how much they covered up for him and just bizarre that's the corrupt world we live in bbc you've still got a statue outside it with a naked man a naked kid and the guy who made that statue was a pedophile and they've still got it on the front of the building that and you go into the epstein stuff you can go into the the glenn maxwell so what's her name glenn glenn maxwell where she's exposed the names so many deaf people she's what not one of them are in prison it's incredible how that that whole trial was yeah I mean it it barely got a mention um you know it's the the names involved on that island epstein's island it how how are they getting away with it how are they not even being asked questions about it you know even if they weren't you know even if they weren't guilty of any crime the fact that they were on that island the fact you know what that island was about it came all came out in the trial and yet none of them we get questioned not even question not even a question from the authorities it's just bizarre second in as well but the amount of people were on his plane look at the state of prince andrew look at his interview he just fucking screams out wrong and do you know what I mean that and yet again it's all put under the carpet the will show will smith slam somebody on the Oscars and it'll be world news everybody talking about it everything else flies under the radar it gets a bit of publicity but not as much as it should that this is the mass cover-up you look at the hollywood as well you look at the shit that's going on there man the people look at like it it was not epstein Weinstein yeah but this shit goes deep and deep and deep and when you speak about it people go on he's fucking crazy but if you actually look into a few things the sources the people behind it coming from the horses move you add it all up and you realise how fucking sick the world can be it's just again you give them bread and water you fill them with entertainment whether it's football basketball baseball people are so caught up in that little bubble you actually forget to ask the real questions that we could be wrong that what we do what we're seeing and the things I don't know why I've been looking into this stuff that's came across my I would never have thought I'd be sitting remarked as a four years four years ago I was in a crack then full of coke and alcohol life going nowhere to rent digging in and doing a bit of research and just asking the question well wait a minute something's not right here yeah my job is to give people the platform to talk about things from their side why they get involved in that like you say you were caught on football you're caught on punditry for so many years being a family man trying to be the good guy and then obviously you've woke up to this and you're thinking what the fuck is going on here do you know what I mean because you're so blinded by it it is yeah it's uh it's just been a really bizarre a couple of years it's just like I just wanted to I just wanted to earn a few quid and play play golf three times a week do you know what I mean just leave me alone well yeah interesting times who knows where it's going to end the funny thing is but like well it's not funny but it affects family members and friends yeah I think that's the worst bit that's the worst bit I think is that yeah there was a time like probably a year 18 months ago where my family were I think my family were worried about me because they thought I was going crackers I think they given what's transpired they now kind of think actually there might be something in what you were saying uh and you know thankfully my my parents have decided not to have any more jabs um and uh I don't think they think I'm that crazy anymore thankfully um but it is is tough for the people around you when you're it doesn't well as I said it doesn't bother me at all uh it really doesn't I don't care for the opinion of morally bankrupt individuals it really doesn't bother me um but you know it it bothers people around you you know your loved ones don't want to see you come in under fire um and it doesn't matter how many times I tell them it doesn't affect me you know the amount of people that rang me up a couple weeks ago and are you okay you've been getting a bit of stick in the media I'm like I don't care I really don't care um all I care about is that the people that I love my family and the my closest friends they know what kind of human being I am uh they know what I've done for people in the community of salampton um they know how much I've helped uh people less fortunate than myself over the last 30 odd years uh and their opinion is is important to me uh and they know that you know I'm not perfect uh but they know that my heart's in the right place uh and I try and do the right thing yeah that's all you can do like I'm not a scientist or a doctor that me I don't know about they've got common sense jobs this and that but again you look at the cardak arrest that's happening to footballers as a connection again I don't know what part of me feels it is I respect guys like like Djokovic put out the studio we're open for standing for what he believes in if you want to get something then go and get it but I'm all for a pro choice yeah don't force something I don't take away my rights and the things that I love just because you want me to get something to go and enjoy that then for me then you're taking away your human rights absolutely right and I understand that people are fearful because if you're stuck in the house watching the news every day people are drugged with fear so it's okay that they're going to go against me and think that I'm causing all these deaths because I'm not wearing a mask I'm not doing this that that's fine but what about the fucking people wear the same mask for three months six months the jams that's in the same mask that you don't want to look at these big companies now the pharmaceutical industry if you're honest it kills more people than anybody on this planet don't get me wrong there's some pharmaceutical drugs that maybe help people and cure them I get it but again are they going to create cures they don't have a business why would they more customers so common sense then makes you question that that you don't have to be you don't have to be a scientist you don't have to be a doctor to have common sense now the pharmaceutical industry do not want to cure people because if they if they cure people they'd go out of business because everyone be healthy and they wouldn't be needed so why would they why would they do that why would they ruin their own business all they need to do is to keep you just well enough to keep needing their tablets and that's common sense you know I don't need to be going to university to wear that one out do you ever get any jabs at anything while you're playing football um actually the football club um did make a sub whether I say they make a sub they recommended that we had the flu jabs when I was playing football and I had a few of them um and I think one year I think one year towards the end of my career one year I just I just had a I actually got the flu quite bad just after it and then the next year they went oh you can have a flu jab when I was like oh last year I had a bit of a bit of a bad reaction to it so I said I think I'll take it this year so I didn't and then I haven't I haven't had one for the last 20 years funny enough I haven't had flu for the last 20 years see your penalty's 47 out of 48 why were you why are you classed obviously the record speak for itself but the best penalty taker on this planet that why was your penalty so good how did your judge taken a penalty um I think the first the first thing is mentality I wanted to be there so when the penalty was given I looked forward to taking penalties I didn't feel any apprehension I just felt like what a great chance this is the score so firstly positive mental attitude first thing about it and the second bit to compliment that was that I was able to side foot the ball quite powerfully as a good technique and I could get a real good pace on a side foot so I knew if I side footed into either corner the keeper's going to have to make really good save always going to have to move really early to save it and so when I would take penalties I would always go for the goal he's left first of all but if he if he moves too early I always I had good peripheral vision so even though I'm looking down at the ball what I'm really doing is I'm looking over the ball so I can just see the goalkeeper's image of the frame and I can see if he moves and so there were times when I literally would change my mind which corner I was going in literally that far before I hit the ball because I've seen the goal because I've seen the goalkeeper move towards that corner that I'm going to hit it so I think the the combination of being able to hit the ball powerfully with a side foot being quite accurate and also positive mental attitude and having the I don't know if it's confidence or arrogance having that ability to not make up your mind where you're going to hit it until the very last second having a preconceived idea of where you're going to hit it but only acting upon that right at the very last second what was it like messing your first one my only one so mark crossley bastard yeah I'm playing in his golf day next week I he went to he went to go towards my corner that I that I hid it in but he just he just shimmed a little bit and then flung himself the other way and he timed it just right so that I saw the shimmy bit and I changed my mind and he just went and he went the other way and saved it so it's fair play to him it was a decent save but the worst bit about it and this is this was a more embarrassed about this is that when he saved it I don't know if you've ever seen it but if you haven't can have a look he palms it straight back to me and from about seven yards out I've managed with my left foot to smash it over the crossbar I was like there's a fucking open goal have I missed that I was more embarrassed about the rebound which was easier than the penalty than actually missing the penalty but I did you know I always say you know obviously mark was the the only goalkeeper that saved one of my penalties but he was also the goalkeeper that I scored the most penalties against because I took five against him that you fired him back out so I fought one up you only get eight england caps is that something that you believe you should have got more obviously I believe I should have had more but I also am aware that back in the 90s when I when you know I was in good form there was a lot more English talent to choose from than there is probably in this day and age if I'm honest when you look at the amount of quality strikers and goal scorers and who probably didn't get that many caps despite scoring huge volumes of goals it was it was a lot more difficult I think to get an English side back then and I didn't it probably didn't help that I I stayed at Southampton because you definitely there was definitely an advantage for players who were playing at the big teams when it came to England squads because I was operating for most of my career in the bottom half of the table the spotlight is not new so much and it's much easier for an England manager to to pick somebody who plays for man United in Liverpool even if they're not that great because because they're playing for man United Liverpool and they'll they'll this is this I think it it's one of those things that's uh it was an easy I was an easy player to leave out of a squad because of who I played for so they weren't going to get a lot of criticism for leaving me out but they might have got a lot of criticism if you left out a man United player or a Liverpool player uh because they'll all them fans from Man United like Liverpool will go well what's England manager doing he's picking a bloke he's playing in the bottom half of the table he's playing at Liverpool they're challenging for the league why isn't he not and it's like yeah I easily know your value that the most expensive player on at that time over 10 million that uh yeah Chelsea when Chelsea tried to buy me I think it was I think it was seven million in the mid 90s um which was quite a lot of money back and was that an automatic no yeah Glenn Hoddle was manager of Chelsea as well about that for a twist of fate which I think that was a fear you talk about people not want to leave where you grew up but you think that was because you were so settled as well you partly had another fear of change maybe um I don't know really I don't I don't know if it's fear it might have been a little bit of fear of change um I kind of coped all right moving to Southampton at 16 you know moving to Oxford at like 14 was a bit was a bit too early I think so I don't know um I just think I was I was happy I was in my comfort zone you know I was happy and I thought why should I why should I risk giving that out that's what matters though it's happiness you see players moving on to bigger teams and end up miserable there's some great players coming through Southampton Gareth Bale even Big Van Dyke was there for a few years I believe that what was Shearer like what was Alan Shearer like it's with Hampton at the start that's what he started these career was it not he did yeah Alan was an apprentice the year below me um so yeah I was I was a year and a bit older than him um he always had a great mentality towards football great attitude um strong uh it was even though he wasn't the most talented player you knew that he was going to have a career because uh you could see his desire was unbelievable and he made the most out of every single ounce of ability he had for him I would never have said when I played alongside him in the youth team at at Southampton and you would have said to me this boy would go on to be the Premier League's greatest goal scorer oh I would have looked you con you're fucking mad on you uh because he wasn't that that kind of player and it was only really when he went to Blackburn um that he really started scoring a lot of goals he didn't score a lot of goals for Southampton um you know me and Rodney Wallace uh outscored Alan comfortably um and then when he went to Blackburn his game changed uh all of a sudden because Blackburn had wingers who you know I think had Stuart Ripley on one wing and he was uh Jason Wilcox I think was on the other wing uh and so they had these wide players who didn't want to cut inside and try and score goals like me and Rodney Wallace did they just all their wide men want to do is cross the ball in the box now that's food and drink for our you know and he literally oddly ever moved outside the width of the 18 yard box the whole time he was at Blackburn and he just let these guys get the ball with the ball in and he was on the end of it and he was brilliant at that uh and it suited him perfectly so he was a player yeah was a unbelievable record for for him to be that far ahead of anybody else in the Premier League history is quite remarkable given that obviously he played three or four seasons before the Premier League as well so they don't count those goals uh and also when you think that he had some horrific injuries which put him out for for quite a while you know he had a couple of knee injuries there which you know to come back from those I thought he did brilliantly so when you take all that into consideration for him to be that far ahead of everyone else is brilliant unbelievable again it's not a start you probably want but between you and Shearer but it was only one trophy one between the both of yous maybe one or two that probably two one yeah yeah Alex Premier League with Blackburn that was the only one he won wasn't it so I don't think he won it it's fucking phenomenal to think that yous are only one one trophy between yous yeah is that how about in your mind I've never I know because I didn't I wasn't really playing football to win trophies yeah for some dollars I've always been kinder for talking about I just wanted to entertain people basically basically I was just a show-off that's what I was I just wanted to show everybody just how good I was at football by doing ridiculous things on a football pitch because he never he never left Newcastle when he had big offers I had from Barcelona that's when he left Blackburn he had I think he could have gone to man United a couple of times you know and I think if you ask him now he has no regrets he became Newcastle's all time great scorer you know how good's that I mean he's you know from that city you know used to go on the Gallagate ends a kid and watch and he beats the record of war Jackie Milburn I mean that was something else considering the age you was when you went to Newcastle in the first place to get past that total after having done what he'd done with Blackburn and Southampton first another great penalty taker you say that not great penalty taker no no no not great penalty taker that's penalties with top corner he missed a lot I do you get that dig in there you know you're the number one penalty taker no I think I think this is this status right well it was it was a couple of three years ago um but Alan was the the player that scored the most penalties in the Premier League but he was also the player that missed the most penalties in the Premier League I don't know that yeah I'm pretty sure that was right so I say he wasn't a good penalty he was a decent penalty taker because his record was pretty good I mean he's probably still got a a percentage that is above the average you know the average is about I think is about 81 79 81% of penalties get scored so I think Alan's percentage was a bit above that but mine was way above that 98% easy like that how hard was it for you at the time Matt ah it's horrible what was that horrible I I to this day it's just a I had I was 33 was our first season at St Mary's I'd had a lot of muscle injuries I had a lot of calf strains and I I just kept trying to come back into training and kept breaking down the calf kept going again and then I remember playing one game at St Mary's in a reserve game you know it was about it was about February of that season and I played about 25 minutes and all of a sudden I went to run off and it was just like ping this thing and the calf gone again and at that point I knew it was about the fourth or fifth time that I the calf had gone that season and I knew I couldn't I couldn't do what you used to be able to do and I got substituted and I knew then that was the moment I went bollocks I can't do this anymore I can't do I can't do it and I remember walking down the tunnel at St Mary's went into the medical room I sat down on the on the medical bench in there and I'm not too proud to admit I pulled my eyes out and I was I was in in floods of tears and knowing that that's it that's the end I'm this is my last season I'm not going to be playing football again next season and Gordon Strachan who was manager at the time was actually when he was at the game and he'd seen what had happened and after a couple of minutes he'd come down into the medical room and he'd seen me see the state I was in and he was brilliant actually he just he just looked at me and I just went gaffer I said I can't can't do anymore I said this is this will be my last season I said I'll return at the end of the season and he went he went no he said he said I understand this he said I might get that he said but just just so you know he said you've been very lucky he said you've played football in an era where every great goal that you've scored is on camera he said and you can show your kids and your grandkids what you've done in your career he said you should be very proud of that and and I was brilliant with him I I was just sat there and I went fair play I said yeah that that's nice and then and that was it What's your best goal? The best goal is a goal I scored at Blackburn against my old mate Tim Flannis from about 35 yards that one I think that one the match of the day goal of the season so that was one I was pretty proud of but it that's my best goal it's not my favorite goal so my favorite goal was the last goal I ever scored for Southampton which was the last goal I ever scored at the Dell we were drawing two all against Arsenal again I'd struggled with injuries that season I hadn't scored a Premier League all the whole season and I was only on the bench out for sentimental reasons really and Stuart Gray was our manager at the time said to me look he said I know you're not you're not really fit enough to be there he said but for what you've done for this football club he said you deserve to be on the pitch at the end of that game against Arsenal so whatever happens he said I will make sure when the final whistle goes you're on that pitch so he told me that about four or five days before the game and I can remember just thinking every night from then on till the game every night I went to bed and all I could think about was how I was going to score the last goal how I wanted it to be me that scored the last goal and so when I had an opportunity and it was weird because it's one of those it's a mentality thing again is that I I'd kind of gone through loads of scenarios in my head about how I was going to score this last goal at the Dell I wanted it so badly to be me and it didn't matter what kind of chance I had I knew as long as I had one chance it didn't matter how difficult it was going to be I knew it was going to go in and when the ball dropped to me it was quite difficult was behind me on my left foot you know and on the half volley I had to squibble a little bit it was it was probably only I'd say if I had that if I had that shot again I'd probably score it one out of 20 times maybe more it was it was quite difficult but as I said all I needed was half a chance and as soon as it dropped and as soon as it left my foot I was unbelievable I just knew it the keeper couldn't stop it I knew from where I was how I'd struck it and I I'd literally as soon as it hit my boot I pretty much started to turn away celebrate I don't think it even hit the net before I started celebrating and so the the noise that the stadium made that day you know that was the winning goal three two and the noise that the stadium made that day will live with me forever it was an amazing feeling thank you for that feeling who's the greatest player I've played against I always would say two players when I'm asked that question in the Premier League I think Thierry Omry was probably the best player that I played against in the Premier he was one of it was one of only two players really who I've seen in the Premier League who I thought sometimes it was like watching an adult playing kids football so it'd be like me at 28 rocking up and playing in under 14's game right and sometimes it was watching him it was like that because you just couldn't stop him it was unbelievable and then in 1992 we had a pre-season trip to Italy and we played against Juventus and I got to play against Roberto Baggio he was special he was special he didn't have the electric pace of Thierry Omry but what that boy could do with the football is touch his vision was just amazing so I'd say those two players would you have loved to but any other team if you could pick one what would it have been oh it would have been Spurs yeah yeah I mean Spurt that was my team as a kid now I actually turned them down in 1990 when Thierry Vendall was the manager I know it's mental so that was you know that was probably the hardest thing I had to do I was just about to get married at the time and my first wife didn't want to live in London living your way from that aren't you well no I made the decision you know I was it was basically a choice I either got married or I joined Spurs that was it divorced us Spurs so I got married and six years later I was divorced but to this day I don't regret it you know I made the decision I don't blame her you know that was her that was her opinion that was her thought she she gave it to me and I took them into consideration and I made the decision so I've got no regrets about doing that and I would never blame her for doing that because I don't regret staying at Sam's in my whole career I loved it you seem to be a family man you seem to do everything for your family is that worth the mum and dad kinder growing up in your brother's life yeah I think I grew up in a really tight close knit family and they also helped you know having three older brothers also meant that they would never ever let me get too big from my boots they would also never let me forget where I came from and that's something that I've tried to take with me my whole life I I know where I grew up I know I've been very lucky in life I know not everybody's been as lucky as me and that's why I try and and do as much as I can to help other people less fortunate than me in the in the city that I've decided to make my home in How good was it like my new plers in the 90s when they came through the baircoms of schools the butts the nevels that did you see them and in the 80s they were a good team or was it just good management how it brought them all together um because of us no I think there was a there was a good bond between those guys you know came through all came through in the same youth team together it was it was amazing to have that amount of talent in the same team was pretty special obviously they needed a manager who could you know make sure that they fulfilled their potential and they had an unbelievable manager to do that so it was a combination of a couple of things so that was you know it was a pretty special time to be a man United fan I think had to be a man United player I guess so Alex never time get your manuscript well I never officially heard anything from my agent that they were interested but I think he he has said uh that when canton I left um he he did think about and wanted to to try and take me to man United but I think he made some inquiries and um and he found out pretty quickly that I wasn't going anywhere that I was quite happy where I was and I didn't want to move so uh so we never went any further than that how do you feel that void void now being a football man your whole life doing it on the toilet football is on your blood look no matter how we question it now and maybe look at different things it's still ingrained in is where we love it look even when you speak about how happy you are smiling like you love it like yeah so I was watching your goals last night like some of the best goals ever scored on English Premier League like it's an unbelievable start to have but how do you feel that void now do you still do you feel as if I know you've went against it now and you think well fuck I'm going to start speaking the truth and how you feel but this party you miss it Matt um not really I don't I don't miss it because I still watch a lot yeah um you know I still watch football I still doing a bit of punditry so I'm doing a bit of work for a company called Mola who have the Premier League coverage out in Indonesia and they have the Dutch League as well so I've been covering that league as well that's been interesting learning about a new league as well because it didn't really take a huge amount of of notice of the Dutch League per se apart from when their teams are playing in Europe really um so so that's been interesting um so I don't really I don't really miss it because I still doing I'm still involved in it a bit and I still play a little bit more mates you know we've got a charity uh Matt's coming up on Friday night our ex Salampton players team we play we've probably got half a dozen games in this summer that we that we play so still play a bit um and yeah so I don't I don't really miss it and I've kind of the competitive side of things um I've kind of replaced that with golf now so I absolutely love golf and I play three times a week probably maybe sometimes more the wife will tell you see when you left the sky sports then you you step back from being an ambassador to subhampton was there anybody ever that you've worked for for years and stood by you and showed their support for you or was everybody just leave you in the dark um well Salampton football club have been uh have been okay um to be fair it was my decision to step down as as ambassador because they were getting a lot of stick um from people for me being an out just for me being an ambassador even though I'm not an employee of the football club you know uh I'm I'm not on their payroll um so uh to stop them from getting uh the cancel culture mob uh writing emails into them and phoning them up and going you matter to do you shouldn't be an ambassador he's got some funny views um so uh so I took the decision myself to remove myself as an ambassador to stop the football club from getting hassled basically that's that's as simple as it was what other stuff were you looking into the last couple of years that makes you question it go have you ever looked into stuff about the twin towers and fucking there's so much shit that you can go down your rabbit hole and you like you say it does I was so deep in it for so many years and I thought man I need to stop this because it's making me question everything even yeah like Walt Disney and Disney and like subliminal mysteries and I'm thinking is this real is it fake then I'm questioning what I'm giving the kids to watch that it can't really pay a major effect on your living it can do it makes you take away the fun in life because then you question everything yeah I think you have to be very careful um uh because you're right if you if you if you go too far uh in in that way of thinking it will mess up your life and you'll end up tying yourself in knots because like we said before nobody nobody really very few people know the truth about a certain subject uh so you can all have your ideas um but you're right you you don't want it to mess up your life and stop you enjoying life so all this time while I've been you know speaking out and questioning things uh I've never allowed myself to not be happy so it's always important to me still to yes I'll question everything and I'll do my research and I'll uh and and sometimes I yeah I'm quite happy in the knowledge that uh there may be some really bad stuff going on in the world but I might be wrong so I've come you know I'm quite happy that you know I can have my ideas I can have my opinions but I'm also happy that if I see something or somebody can present me with enough evidence to make me change my mind then I'm happy to change my mind you know um and you know there's there's so many things that you kind of you read about if you if you want to um you know who who you think the good people in the world are who the bad people in the world are uh and at the end of the day we don't really know so I don't allow myself to get too wrapped up in it um and I kind of take everything with a pinch of salt and you know if who these people think are the good guys turn out to be the good guys then brilliant great stuff and we'll all have a lovely happy world afterwards um but if they don't and the world goes to shit uh I'm you know and I'll be happy in the knowledge that you know I had at least 50 years of a decent life um and uh achieved everything that I set out to achieve when I was little kids so happy days how's that has anybody ever approached you a challenge of yours on the streets of anything yet it's amazing actually um because you get a lot of love and support on people in real life yeah but people people in real life you know when you actually meet people face to face you'd be amazed I went I went to turkey week before last had a week's holiday over there and the amount of people in the resort that came up and shook my hand and went thank you very much for speaking out it's nice that you can speak out and represent the people without a voice um so I think there is a bigger percentage of people out there that we think uh than we think don't know what's going on um or uh don't have similar views to to the views that that we've had so and in real life I think I've had one bloke I think I've had one bloke called me an anti-vaxa and I was like oh okay what does that mean mate you're anti-vax you're anti-vax I went yeah I know but what does that actually mean well you you don't like vaccinations I was like well ask me how many vaccinations I've had in my life and what do you mean I went well I'll tell you I said I've every child of vaccination I had all them and I had the flu jab or you know most of the time when I was growing up and being a footballer uh I said so I've decided on this one that something's not quite right because of the time frame that was involved and there's no long term safety data so I've decided for this vaccine I'm going to wait a little bit and see what happens now does that sound like an anti-vaxa to you well it's not mate you know I'm just being sensible and I'm thinking for myself I'm checking out the evidence for myself and I'm making my own decision if you want to believe everything that you read you go ahead and you take that risk I ain't taking it see for people because I speak to a lot of people who's got big platforms but yet they're too scared to speak out because they'll lose sponsors or they'll lose their job this and that like what do you think when you see these people can you understand their fear as well that they can lose everything yep I can understand their fear nobody wants to nobody wants to lose everything um and what I would say is that there are opportunities on both sides of the fence so uh I think also you know when you uh what I've what I found certainly is um having a different opinion to everybody else um hasn't meant that I haven't been able to earn a living still so and I I'm much happier as an individual earning a living from the way that I do earn a living uh as opposed to having to rely on money from sky is there anything that sticks out to you which made you question that you never thought you would question because I go down I can look at GFK killings I can look at Paul McCartney being went missing from the Beatles and replaced them like it's irrelevant to my life but it's still you're still fine to let us two pack river in Jamaica like I know it's crazy but you can go right down it and you go with as obviously it's all majority is all crazy but is there anything in your mind you thought well wait a minute even a moonland is that question that now and I always thought man they sent some to the moon and I don't know if it was 1960 obviously now you question it why is people not being back to the moon yeah this is this that was that was kind of one of the questions that and I think I saw an interview with somebody who said oh we can't go back to the moon because uh we destroyed the technology that we had yeah and I was like what you did what uh how why are you expecting me to believe that um so uh you know who knows uh I don't know enough about it to have an opinion one way or the other but I've looked into it um uh it's it's fascinating it really is uh and you know UFOs is another one that he kind of looked into and now actually just starting to see a little bit in the media the last few weeks uh a little bit more about UFOs um because that's another uh whole situation where there seems to be a lot of evidence uh but not a lot of people talking about it um so I think a lot of people believe that there are UFOs in that and I think the weight of evidence is that you know what probably we're probably not alone in this world you know um and that wouldn't surprise me one bit but do you think the human beings might look at purposes and life that's a deep question yeah it is a really deep question uh what is our purpose see I I think I was put on this world to entertain people playing football that's yeah that's what I felt I was like uh I don't know if if now my now my second job is to uh is to try and get people to think a bit more laterally about things in life and and and just not take for granted willy nilly that people are the people on television and tell you the truth so I know that might be my second calling in life after after entertaining people in football do you think do you think that what the fuck is going on from like being a top class world class footballer man even upon two three was unbelievable because your knowledge of football is second to none to then thinking and questioning everything and losing your job losing possibly marriage breakups and family and friends not really want to see because they think your fucking should be in mental asylum like does it do you ever did you ever think that you question it what the fuck is going on like now if your own life and your own beliefs and all the certain things that's going on I think you do start to to kind of question your own beliefs you know I I've the good thing about it was I've never I haven't fallen out with not that I know of anyway I haven't fallen out with any of my mates or my family because of the views that I've had so even though I've I've had views that are different from the mainstream I've always presented them in a way that isn't going to offend any of my family or friends you know and I have one of my my best mates as completely the opposite opinion to me completely the opposite about how the world is and he was a former policeman take from that what you will and we've had I play golf with him all the time and we have some really really good chats after we play golf in the bar afters about what's going on and I'll give him my opinion he tells me his opinion and it a couple of times you got you know got quite heated and I got clear what you're about and but the good thing is at the end of it we go oh well never mind see you tomorrow mate and we shake hands and off we go you know we don't fall out about it um and I just think that's the way the world should be you should be able to have different opinions and and not be able to yeah have you should be able to have different opinions and not fall out with people just have a discussion talk the way we are talking exactly and just we don't know there's people watching that we don't know yeah we're just picking up things and watching certain things that could be fabricated but yet yeah it's intriguing to us because we're experimenting hunters humans there's always something missing we're always intrigued so if that is intriguing us again it could be wrong but when you're going against the masses and now I realize if you go against the masses and part of me starts to believe that there's a good percentage at the small percentage is right and that's what I'm questioning more because even the education system to what we're doing is sitting at a table now but you're sitting at a table from five years old to learn about wars to learn about history why let's talk about the now let's fucking plan for the future let's talk about goals let's talk about yeah exercise and meditation or yoga and eating grown your own fruit and veg because even in the lockdown if the supermarket shut down well they thought we'd do a vet because a lot of people having a clue how to grow their own fruit and veg is including me do what I had to do to try and survive but there's so much missing and it scares me how fast your world can be shut down and I never thought I would ever see that show in my day how everything just shut down and people just whoa accepted that people's mental health struggled addiction went through the roof everything there was more absolutely everything and increasing so many other things but there was no pandemic over that but yeah there was a massive pandemic over listen there was deaths of course I get it or you're speaking out about this but my grandma passed away listen I'm sorry for that but there's people die every day from starvation homelessness fucking cancers heart attacks more people die through that but there's no there's no pandemic and it's not and it's not reported every single day with the numbers in the media just questioning that it's not that I'm against your grandma for dying like I get it people do pass away with flows it's life it we can get fucking struck with our boss but just don't give me shit for questioning certain things like people have get two jabs of booster but they're still sitting in their car with a fucking mask on and people are still locked down yeah and still catching that it was a scientific proven that it was more people who had been double jabbed and boosted that had COVID so don't give me shit for just questioning that and I could be wrong I could be wrong but again that's poor choice let me and I think that's the thing that's the thing with with people on our side of the argument if you like is that we don't profess to know everything and we are open to most of the people I spoke to are open to the fact that they might be wrong on the other side of the argument they cannot see that they could possibly be wrong they are they they are just blinded by the media and that is what they see as the truth and you know I'm not sure I think I probably want to be on the side of the people that are willing to look at both sides of the story before making up my mind yeah I was getting accused of I was getting accused of starting COVID starting viruses at one point because I was wasn't wearing the mask and I get it like some places you need to and you need to abide by certain rooms but again that I think that was the biggest the biggest thing about everything is that is that they convinced people that they could be carrying a deadly disease and yet have no symptoms whatsoever that that they could pass on to other people and you're like that doesn't make sense yeah that that just doesn't make sense I mean I'm not a doctor I'm not a scientist yeah but common sense that makes no sense doesn't yeah and understand that people were so drugged with fear that they're gonna get angry and frustrated but again we still worry because we can lose our livelihood we're only speaking against a certain thing and going maybe against the grain but again like you say we could be wrong I can't remember who said it but it was a quote that I saw a few weeks back which I it made me smile and it said whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it's time to step back and think again yeah you can understand that and you got a lot of loving support on twitter Matt but going forward for the future like where do you see what you see you doing flying to the moon fucking being a scientist like I'm gonna land on the moon and in my cardboard look at my cardboard spaceship and I have no idea where life is going to take me all like do you know all I really want is for my government to leave me the hell alone stop imposing stupid rules on me and I'd like to see the world return to having proper democracies where the people actually get a say in the government not sure we've ever had that but it would be nice if we lived in a world where your vote actually counted for something and and where having a different party leading the country meant that you could go in a different direction as opposed to what I feel at the moment doesn't really matter in this country who's who's in charge because at the moment I don't think either of them really make the decisions if you are prime minister Matt what changes would you make core blimey the god team for that I understand where would I start where would I start I would I would make sure that freedom of speech was the most important thing in the world and could never be cancelled because that's what's trying to happen at the moment I would make sure that you would never lose your ability to be able to protest against the government which is what they're trying to do at the moment so they're two pretty important things I think and I would make it abundantly clear or try and make a law that would force anybody who became an MP to disclose who's funding them where they're taking money from I think that's important and I think the most important thing in fact there's two organisations maybe three there's three organisations that I would shut down the first one would be the world economic forum the second one would be the world health organisation and the third one would be the United Nations last question for anybody that's watching it's maybe doing their own research and maybe trying to understand the world a bit more on question everything but maybe too scared to come forward and speak out with their own opinions and own beliefs what advice would you give for them I think the best advice I can give to people is to listen to your heart listen to your gut you know your gut instinct is there for a reason and I think if you can block out all the noise all the outside noise and listen to what your heart's telling you and go with that then you won't go far wrong in life for that and that's the way it should be speaking the way you're feeling and that's again I'm all for that but for coming on I didn't tell them your story, thank you for that, God bless